BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer
JENNIFER AMATO Radio personality Wendy Williams signed copies of her new novel “Drama Is Her Middle Name” at Barnes & Noble on Route 1 in North Brunswick on Friday. NORTH BRUNSWICK – She puts the “s” in shock and the “g” in gossip and “Drama” is her middle name.
She is none other than “shock jock diva” Wendy Williams of WRKS 98.7 KISS-FM and 107.5 WBLS fame. The radio personality, most well-known for her celebrity gossip and persistence when interviewing the stars, appeared at Barnes & Noble on Route 1 on Friday to sign copies of her newest book, “Drama is Her Middle Name.”
Nearly 300 fans came to pick up a copy of her novel, which is filled with dirt, scandal and drama, according to a press release by Barnes & Noble, and leaves readers wondering where the fictional Ritz Harper ends and where the real life Williams begins.
Harper is New York’s hottest radio DJ, a homegrown suburban girl on the outside but a hustler on the inside, an all-purpose woman who has maneuvered her way into the spotlight after ruining the career of a well-respected newswoman. Harper’s “exclusive” story catapults her to the top of the charts and promotes her to her very own show.
However, Harper begins to ruin other careers as guests appear on her show. She becomes a listener favorite but soon finds herself the victim of a drive-by shooting. Questions abound as to whether or not she has gone too far and her exposs have backfired, or if her signature “bomb drop” has been dropped on her instead.
For her fans, this novel portrays everything they love about the real-life talk show host.
“I listen to her every day. She’s funny. I like her sense of humor,” Emmanuela Pasteur, 30, of East Orange said.
“She gets the dirt and she gets the truth from the celebrities, and asks the questions we want to know,” Aaron Dickerson, 37, of Piscataway said. “Most celebrities know what to expect and they know she is going to get at them. Celebrities respect her because she’s been in the business a long time.”
Christina Vaugh, 45, of Sayreville, said Williams was exactly how she expected her to be after meeting her.
“She’s just as she is on the radio. She’s just the same. She has that same, giddy laugh. She’s just the same person. It was nice to have met her,” she said.
“I just love the ‘How ya doing?’ and when she keeps playing over and over the ‘Hey!’ and the crickets. When they’re bored with you they play the crickets,” she added.
Williams grew up in Ocean Township and now lives in North Jersey. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from Northeastern University in Massachusetts before working at a radio station in the Virgin Islands, according to her Web site. After eight months she returned to the states and worked her way through several radio stations. She held prominent air shifts at KISS-FM, WQHT Hot 97, WUSL Power 99 in Philadelphia and finally WBLS, her current employer. In 2003 Superadio launched the nationally syndicated “The Wendy Williams Experience.”
She has also hosted a series of interview specials on VH1’s “Wendy Williams Is on Fire” and has two other books, “Wendy’s Got the Heat” and “The Wendy Williams Experience.”