(Photo: Cannes 2007, Mireille Ampilhac / Wikipedia Commons)

Furstenberg said about when you believe your own publicity, you're finished, or something to that effect. I just keep trying to do the best job I can, and I keep doing things the way I always have, while evolving and learning. I don't travel with an entourage, I still do my own hair and makeup, I don't have a stylist. I like doing it myself, and I like inspiring other women to create their own glamour too, so I try not to buy into the whole celebrity thing, which is this drama of surrounding yourself with people fussing over you. I can't bear that. I like my alone time, I love getting myself ready for events, I love going grocery shopping by myself, I like sitting at a restaurant alone with a book. It took me years to finally be convinced to hire an assistant to help me with day to day things, and even then I was against it until it was put to me that I could get more work accomplished if I had some help, so when I saw it that way, I was ok with it.

    I'm glad I have a good reputation for being down to earth, but of course, now and then, like anyone, I might be having a bad day, or I feel pushed, or treated like a "thing" and I get a little bit cross when that happens, for instance, I hate being pushed around to take pics with strangers when I'm not working and I just want to have a little fun, or when someone interrupts my dinner or taps me on the shoulder when I'm mid-sentence and wants a picture...it's things like that that happen when someone will probably tell the story later about how mean I was to them, but there are stars I'm a huge fan of and I would never be rude just to get a facebook or twitpic, you know? If I really wanted a picture with someone, I would wait until an appropriate time, if there was one, and if there wasn't, there wasn't. The problem is that sometimes people get caught up and forget basic manners. We are living in the era where people say "pics or it didn't happen!" But all kinds of cool things happen without pictures, like genuine connections with other people. Madonna started a conversation with me recently and yes, I would have LOVED a picture with her, but we...