INTERVIEW :: For nearly three decades, fans in over 130 countries watched a seemingly fearless Jeanne Beker elbow her way into the elite, catty, and glamorous world of high fashion as the host of the addictive Canadian TV show, Fashion Television, becoming a member of the club herself in the doing. It was a smash and grab production, done with aplomb.
I was one of those fans, a lonely gay teen in Bumfuck, Ontario in pre-internet times, seeking proof that where I was currently stuck didn’t have to be forever. As Jeanne interviewed everyone from Karl Lagerfeld to Ralph Lauren to Linda Evangelista, reporting back to us the weekly scoop about all the collections she’d just seen go down the runway, along with bon mots from the mouths of the stars of the fashion world, she couldn’t have known she was, at the same time, offering affirming evidence to me that I could go out into the world and be more than I was then.
“We created a monster with that show.” - Jeanne Beker
This is where my conversation began with Jeanne recently, when she guested on my SiriusXM talk show, The Shaun Proulx Show, kicking off the ton of media and touring she’ll do all fall to promote her latest memoir, Heart On My Sleeve. It’s a gentle, loving, appreciative, funny look at her well worn life and the lessons she’s learned, all seen through the lens of different pieces of clothing and accessories that adorn her closet still.
We talked about her FT years, and I asked her about her recent experience with breast cancer. During a break between segments, Jeanne took her headphones off, and said “Wow, Shaun.” And then paid me some lovely compliments, ending by saying, “I’m so proud of you.”
If you had told the lost kid I was, who watched FT religiously, that one day I would know Jeanne Beker, and she would say such kind things to me? Well. Back then I wouldn’t have been able to wrap my head around the idea.
But as Jeanne taught me all those years ago, just by being herself, getting her job done, big things are possible, for all of us, at any time, if you just believe and reach for them.
The Conversation :: Jeanne Beker - Part 2
In Which We Cause Jeanne To Cry, And To Remember The Time She Got Into A Bubble Bath With Police Guitarist Andy Summers, Whose Hair Caught On Fire.
Hear The Shaun Proulx Show every weekend on SiriusXM Canada Talks 167. Hire me to speak or host your next event. More info: shaunproulx.com
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