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She grew up wanting to be the next Sue Simmons; she gets fun dish out of Dan Rather; and she’s named a hallway at work after her most wanted guest: Heather Locklear.
Wendy Williams, who is fast becoming daytime TV’s favorite guilty pleasure doesn’t feel remotely guilty about it.
Williams’ show does have an undeniable buzz among young hip urban/suburbanites; and pop culture mavens who were early devotees to Bravo and sleeper TV shows ranging from “Chelsea Lately” to “The Daily Show.”
She’s the cool aunt who’ll shoot you knowing looks at the holiday table, won’t rat you out to your parents and will slip you a hundred or two if you need it.
Her growing influence isn’t lost on industry heavy hitters — although her ironic wit may be.
Last week, when she “worried” that Oprah and Gayle King’s friendship might be impacted by Gayle’s move from OWN to CBS, Williams received an e-mail from a Winfrey spokesperson who said that Oprah wanted to assure Williams that all was fine with Gayle.
An amused Williams didn’t really buy the staffer’s subsequent denial that Oprah had nothing to do with the e-mail, especially since she herself is vigilant about seeing everything that goes out of the building with her name on it.
She also wonders if Oprah and company might need to be worrying more about more pressing matters than what Wendy says about her.
Then there’s Barbara Walters.
When Williams recently appeared on “The View,” Walters icily asked Williams why she had also chosen to have a “hot topics” segment” — as if Williams had appropriated Walters’ patent on the cotton gin.
The show is often more fun when Williams is talking about A-list celebrities that are on the competition instead of actually talking to them.
It does seem more tactful for her to predict that sexy rocker Marc Anthony could end up looking like Don Knotts when he’s not present.
While everyone else on daytime seems to be locked in a steel-cage death match for Oprah’s orphaned viewers, Williams has succeeded by not trying to emulate Oprah at all.
“I’m not afraid to say that I’m judging,” observes Williams, who feels that a kind delivery is also key to getting her most provocative questions answered.
When she smiles, leans in and politely says something to the effect of “We’re all such big fans of yours and we’d like to get to know you better,” it’s code for “You’re bombing out here.”
Recently renewed through 2014, her show is more of a small, boutique hit than a runaway smash. Dr. Phil may have three times as many viewers, but he isn’t likely to tell you what “down with the swirl” means or that nobody uses the expression “diva” anymore.
The success of the show has, however, taken its toll on some of her friendships: people who felt they should be joining her on the red carpet; friends who wanted jobs without any qualifications whatsoever (as if she were doing local access cable in her basement) and others who were quick to plant items about her.
Williams, whose almost lethal, party girl past has been the subject of two best-selling books is now more likely to be found at home watching her idol Judge Judy; cooking dinner for her husband and 11-year old son; and getting her nightly dose of reality TV instead of partying and clubbing.
She’s quick to credit her ability to relate to an audience who still might not be out of their pajamas at 10 a.m. and her 5’11” frame: “People notice you walk in the room and you own it, until you don’t. ”
Williams is also emphatic about the value of hard work and “good moisturizing.”
If it took you 10 minutes to “get” Dame Edna, it might take you at least five to “get” Wendy. Look beyond the outsized personality, the signature “How You Doin’ ” catch-phrase and heels and wigs that stretch her to 6’5”, and you’ll see a 47-year-old woman who is decidedly in on the joke — and one of the most astute observers of relationships and pop culture around.
She usually does her own nails—stopping in at the manicurist once in a while to catch up with the girls in her New Jersey neighborhood “who drink white wine and want to escape” by watching her show.
As for the future, she’d like to find the time to teach a journalism class and would love to have both Judge Judy and Heather Locklear on the show. She particularly relates to Locklear since they’re around the same age and were pregnant at the same time. (Williams suffered a miscarriage).
However, Williams fully understands that both women are over the age of 40 and might have better things — and moisturizing — to do.