When you have enough money and status a lot of people will flock around you to bask in your glow, and probably score a few freebies, but sometimes Hollywood celebrities lose the pretenses and actually pay people to be their “friend.”
In a piece for XOJane.com an anonymous paid assistant and head confidant of a celebrity dishes on exactly what thats like. She describes scrubbing her employer’s car while the rest of the celeb’s entourage gawked, driving 200 miles to get the celeb’s dog because she missed him, producing every detail of the celeb’s nights out, and being asked to conspire over who to fire.
“My first indication that things weren’t right was when I realized that I was being put through a series of psychological tests my first few weeks on the job,” she explains. “It was like a maze to see whether I was quick on my feet, could keep a secret and most importantly, could withstand humiliation when she was having a terrible, no good, very bad day.”
Being a celeb’s assistant/friend involves the right mix of honesty and placating, and the knowledge that no matter how friendly you get with your boss, they aren’t genuinely excited if you get a better gig, and they are not amused if your boyfriend, friend or spouse gets annoying at the VIP parties you get invited to. You are expected to keep all of their secrets, and not react emotionally to their shifting moods. In the piece she seems especially forlorn about the reality that after all the hard work she’s down for her celebrity personally, when they part ways, she will not be considered of or thought about ever again by her celebrity employer. She’s witnessed other former celebrity assistants deal with a type of mourning over being so involved the in the celeb’s personal lives, and then cut loose. “The boss relationship and the friend relationship gets so blended, it’s enough to make you forget what the word friendship even means,” she says. “Paid friends are just that. Our boss does not actually want us to thrive on our own. Our boss wants us to thrive — for sure — but it’s for them, and only them. Once the door closes, it is shut.”
