Jeanne Unbottled

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto-based broadcaster and public-relations
consultant.

Jeanne Beker writes with the same verve and energy she displays on air
as the “voice, face and attitude” of Fashion Television. Her
remarkable career is an adventure of ambition, determination, talent,
and luck. She hurtled headlong, from an early age, into acting, mime,
radio, and television. She honed her skills until she gets a lock on her
“dream job,” covering the world’s most celebrated fashion
designers and models.

Even as a child, born to immigrant parents in Toronto, Beker was
fashion-conscious, dressing her dolls in the latest designs thanks to
her mother’s sewing talents and the supply of scrap materials from her
father’s slipper business. A chance event at a rock concert she
attended propelled Beker into show business. She trained as an actress
in New York and Toronto and as a mime in Paris under Etienne Ducroux, a
master.

Love brought her back to Canada. Marriage, radio in St. John’s,
Newfoundland, and divorce followed within a few years. Returning to
Toronto, she landed a job at CHUM Radio and, later, CITY-TV. She was one
of the original hosts of MuchMusic and paid her dues interviewing
members of every famous, and infamous, music group extant.

The birth of Fashion Television, now seen in 130 countries, gave Beker
her true niche. In this well-written, absorbing autobiography, she
writes intimately and honestly about her work, personal life, and the
many celebrities she encounters in both spheres. Jeanne Unbottled offers
readers a wonderful glimpse into the cult of celebrity, warts and all,
as well as an engaging chronicle of her own struggles and emotional
upheavals.