Interview with Amber Lee Ettinger

Coffee Club Newsletter ©
Volume 18, No. 16 - March 25, 2008

Any similarity to persons actually living or events actually happening is coincidental.

TR: Good afternoon. Are you Amber Lee Ettinger?
AL: I am. Don't pretend you don't know me.
TR: I'm sorry, it's just a formality.
AL: Did you see I almost won the contest?
TR: What contest?
AL: YouTube, man!!! It was awesome!!!
TR: May I come in?
AL: Sure. Excuse the mess. It's always picked up except when I have company. We had a huge party here last night.
TR: Yes, I can see that. Do you have any left over beer?
AL: Unopened, you mean?
TR: I prefer it that way.
AL: I bet you want it nice and cold, too.
TR: Yes.
AL: You're too picky.
TR: Ok, never mind.
AL: I'm close to being very famous.
TR: That's why I'm here.
AL: Ashley told me about you.
TR: Ms Dupre?
AL: We used to be roommates.
TR: Where?
AL: Here in New York. She could have done the video with me.
TR: The Obama video?
AL: Yup. Too bad she was busy that afternoon.
TR: Did you make any money from it?
AL: Not from the video but I sold four hundred thousand posters in the last three months.
TR: Four hundred thousand?
AL: And I have offers coming in right and left now.
TR: Do you think you could use an assistant producer or something like that?
AL: No.
TR: Why didn't you win the YouTube contest?
AL: Well, I'm sure it wasn't my fault. Maybe they put us in the wrong category. I don't know.
TR: What do you think you'll do next?
AL: I'm going to pick up this mess.
TR: That's not what I meant.
AL: Oh, you mean professionally?
TR: Yes.
AL: I'm going to flip a coin. Heads, I do a movie with Britney Spears - Tails, I start my own designer label.
TR: You do fashion too?
AL: That's what I actually trained for. I went to the Fashion Institute.
TR: The Fashion Institute of Technology it says here.
AL: It's like MIT except with an "F."
TR: Do you think you're following in J. Lo's footsteps?
AL: No. She sings and I don't and besides, I'm much younger.
TR: But you were singing in the video.
AL: No. That was somebody else singing for me.
TR: Will that young lady get any royalties?
AL: She wasn't in the video - she just sang.
TR: So she won't be famous?
AL: She can do her own video if she wants.
TR: Then who's going to sing for you?
AL: ...Maybe Jennifer Lopez?
TR: Really?
AL: No.
TR: Do you think you'll be able to adjust to your enormous success?
AL: I'm not a celebrity yet.
TR: How do you know?
AL: I'm talking to you.
TR: Oh.
AL: I didn't mean to hurt your feelings but, I have to be real.
TR: Don't worry; I'm sort of used to it.
AL: Can you sing or dance or hold an umbrella real steady?
TR: No.
AL: Ok then, forget it. I see you don't have a perfect body either.
TR: Is that what got you the job as the Obama Girl?
AL: No.
TR: So, how did it happen?
AL: I was walking to Tommy Hilfiger's to see why they hadn't called me about the apprentice job I had applied for. One block before I got there, a dude started following me. When he finally caught up with me, he asked me if I wanted to register to vote.
TR: Then?
AL: I told him to get lost. I was in a hurry to get to Tommy's.
TR: And?
AL: Another guy came by and rescued me from the first dude. We started an argument about politics and voting and the next thing I know, he offers me this video job. I almost said no except something told me to go for it.
TR: What?
AL: He paid me a hundred dollars up front.
TR: So the whole thing was pure luck?
AL: No. I was in the right place at the right time.