Celebrity biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli shoots for two this month

J.Randy Taraborrelli. Photo: Grand Central Publishing

J. Randy Taraborrelli is an enviable position. Today, he drops Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story 1958–2009, the re-release of his similarly titled 1991 bestseller. His new book, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, debuts mere weeks later on August 29. Not bad at all for a kid from Philly who admittedly stumbled into a career as a respected journalist and celebrity biographer.

Taraborrelli says that he didn’t prepare for his vaunted status in any way. He had no intention of being a celebrity biographer. He never even attended college. As a youngster, he worked diligently on a fan club for The Supremes – so diligently that Supreme Mary Wilson asked him to leave Philadelphia and move to Los Angeles. Taraborrelli’s only desire at the time was to work for The Supremes and, as he says, retire on their pension plan. Then The Supremes famously broke up. Short on plans, Taraborrelli knew one thing; he didn’t want to go back to Philadelphia. But, he says, “I knew I had to do something.”

Though he insists that he couldn’t write, Taraborrelli used his contacts to gain access to those who covered celebrities. He began working for gossipeuse Rona Barrett, scoring his first interviews with the likes of Lindsay Wagner, and Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul, a.k.a. Starsky and Hutch. Later, Taraborrelli moved over to SOUL magazine, interviewing stars like Robert Guillaume and David Ruffin. Eventually, Taraborrelli found a voice and a sensibility as a writer.

It was while working at SOUL magazine in 1981 that Taraborrelli completed a series of interviews with Diana Ross. Those interviews later became Diana: A Celebration of the Life and Career of Diana Ross, Taraborrelli’s first book for the publisher Doubleday. A long career as a celebrity biographer was born. Taraborrelli had his first New York Times bestseller in 1989 with another Diana-themed book, Call Her Miss Ross. Fifteen books later, many of them bestsellers, Taraborrelli has covered well-known pop culture icons as diverse as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, and Kennedy wives Jackie, Ethel,  and Joan. “I just want to make my mom proud,” Taraborrelli laughs.

Taraborrelli gains unprecedented access to his subjects. Still, covering celebrities provides its own challenges. Taraborrelli admittedly had what he calls “a hard time” with access to Diana Ross and to the Jackson family while writing respective biographies. Taraborrelli says now, “If I can’t have alignment with the subject, I’m not going to do it [the book].”

Taraborrelli’s experience with Carol Burnett was a good one, though. Initially, Burnett had originally blocked access to everyone in her life, leaving Taraborrelli to learn about Burnett from those left – key grips and “a fringe group of disgruntled employees.” Finally, Taraborrelli contacted Burnett and said, “This is so not what I want for you.” Burnett gave finally him access; the end result was Laughing Till It Hurts: The Complete Life and Career of Carol Burnett. The experience with Burnett taught him that the relationship between biographer and subject doesn’t necessarily have to be contentious. “You don’t have to be sneaky and surreptitious,” he says.

Taraborrelli’s reputation covering celebrities has made him, as his web site describes him, “a recognizable entertainment personality and in-demand guest on many television programs.” Especially after Michael Jackson’s 2005 molestation trial, and Jackson’s death on June 25 of this year, Taraborrelli has been the go-to guy for all things Jackson. When asked is it is strange for him, the observer, to be the observed, Taraborrelli says that he’s used to the scrutiny. He’s especially used to being attacked. He remembers appearing on Geraldo Rivera’s and Phil Donahue’s now-defunct talk shows and having people scream at him. In fact, disgruntled Detroit fans of their hometown girl Diana Ross forced the cancellation of Taraborrelli’s part of his Call Her Miss Ross book tour. He shrugs it off. “When you write about a person, you’re going to have a fringe group of people who are upset,” he says, viewing all of the hoopla as a counterbalance to the time he spends writing in solitude.

Anything or anyone intently observed invariably becomes affected by the observation. Theater folks call it breaking the fourth wall. Scientists call it the Hawthorne Effect. Qualitative researchers call it “going native.” Taraborrelli confesses that the temptation to go native is inevitable. After all, some of his friends are celebrities. Part of having really close friends who are famous means that he’s participated in the drama in their lives and has seen how they’ve been haunted by paparazzi. He’s experienced it from the inside. Says Taraborrelli, “No matter how famous you are, when you go to bed, and you’re lying in bed and it’s you, you’re doing the best that you can. And I try to remember that. Nobody’s bigger than life. We’re all just human beings trying to get through the day.”

Moreover, Taraborrelli has his own fans. Perhaps this is because, as Taraborrelli says, his books are maps of discrete times in his life when he wrote them. Anyone reading Taraborrelli’s books is “getting as much of me in my books as you do my subjects.”

Almost three decades in the game have smoothed Taraborrelli’s rough edges and mellowed him. More than ever, he strives to be fair and objective…and definitely not mean. He says that he understands the latest crop of celebrity journalists and bloggers who seem to lack a censoring mechanism. Taraborrelli says that it’s easy to let the chips fall where they may in your twenties and thirties, but Taraborrelli suggests that the recent situation concerning Perez Hilton and the punch heard ‘round the world illustrate an important point: “When you’re writing about real people, you’re going to get real reactions. So be careful.”

Taraborrelli discusses the difference between himself and the young Turks:

Some celebrity journalists treat people like cartoon characters. They [the celebrity journalists] need time and experience to grow up and be seasoned. Just because a person is an actor doesn’t mean that he’s fair game for sensational lies. I would like to see the young bloggers…realize that not only are they writing about human beings with feelings, but [that] they have to check themselves. When you realize that people are paying attention, that challenges you as a writer. That’s when you can have longevity.