Cojocaru, Steven

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Cojocaru, Steven

PERSONAL: Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Journalist. Flare, Canada, correspondent, 1989–91; People (magazine), 1994–, began as a stringer, became West Coast style editor and columnist; Today, fashion correspondent; Entertainment Tonight, fashion correspondent. Contributor to and appearances on television shows, including VHI's Behind the Music.

WRITINGS:

Red Carpet Diaries: Confessions of a Glamour Boy, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Author of the columns "Hot Shots," and "Behind the Seams" (for People).

SIDELIGHTS: Steven Cojocaru has been a fashion correspondent since the 1980s when he covered parties for the Canadian fashion magazine Flare. He moved to Hollywood in the early 1990s, where he wrote a syndicated fashion column titled "Hot Shots," which ran in more than one hundred newspapers across the country. In 1994, Cojocaru joined People magazine as a stringer, and by 2000, he was their West Coast style editor and author of the column "Behind the Seams." Cojocaru has contributed to many television shows and specials, and he has written of his experiences in and rising to the limelight in his memoir, Red Carpet Diaries: Confessions of a Glamour Boy. A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that "from the inside scoop on Hollywood to enough zingers to placate the most starstruck reader, his book is dressed to thrill."

Cojocaru was born in Montreal to parents who emigrated from Romania. He credits his seamstress mother, in part, with his interest in fashion. He writes of fifth-grade taunts by classmates when he showed up for school in bell bottoms, disco shirts, and wooden clogs, and how, by the time he reached high school, he was accepted into the circle of the most popular girls because of his fashion sense.

The flamboyant Cojocaru describes his favorite outfits that consist of leather pants, white fur coats, "white, gauzy, balloon drawstring pants," and oversize sunglasses. Bookreporter.com reviewer Shannon Bloomstran wrote that "if you cannot recall ever seeing Steven, you should picture a cross between Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Mick Jagger with Valerie Bertinelli's hair." Bloomstran noted that Cojocaru spends considerable time writing about his own hair.

An interviewer for MSN Entertainment said that Cojocaru "is obsessed with his hair—he calls a flat iron hairstyling tool one of his best friends—he says he didn't get an MTV VJ job because he showed up in a leather vest and no shirt."

As a fashion reporter for People, Cojocaru has worked both coasts and attended all the glamorous events, from the Academy Awards to the Golden Globes. Maclean's contributor Amy Cameron wrote that "every week, loyal stargazers and fashionistas flip to the back pages of the magazine [People] or tune into NBC's Today show to hear his latest diatribe on Melanie's large lips or J. Lo's unseemly panty line."

Library Journal's Rosellen Brewer commented that Cojocaru "dishes about the stars he's encountered." He names those he has found to be friendly, including Halle Berry and Meryl Streep, and those he has not, including Calista Flockhart and Helen Hunt. Berry shows up again in a tie with Nicole Kidman as Cojocaru's favorite red-carpet goddess.

Cojocaru recalls his meetings and gossip sessions with a number of stars, including the women of Friends. Amanda Cuda wrote in a review for Curled Up with a Good Book online that Red Carpet Diaries "is hardly an intellectual workout, but in times like this, a little well-written fluff is highly appreciated."