How does Jen Calonita know so many Hollywood secrets? Well, in her five years as a TEEN PEOPLE entertainment editor, Jen interviewed everyone from Chad Michael Murray to Scarlett Johansson to Orlando Bloom. Her insider knowledge shows in her first novel, Secrets of My Hollywood Life; it’s about a teen TV actress who escapes the pressures of stardom by going undercover as a "normal" high school girl. We caught up with Jen to chat about her delicious summer novel.

TEEN PEOPLE: What was your inspiration for Secrets?
Jen Calonita: I owe the whole book to a photo shoot with Hilary Duff [for TEEN PEOPLE's November 2004 issue]. We took her to Henri Bendel in Manhattan, and went from department to department photographing her. She had an entourage – her bodyguard, a publicist, the store's PR person – and our group kept getting bigger and bigger. Some girls Hilary’s age started following us, and even though it didn’t seem to bother her, I thought, what if one day she just got tired of this? What if she said, "I want to be able to shop in private. I don't want somebody following me and taking pictures of me eating a hamburger." What would she do?

TEEN PEOPLE: There's a similar scene in Secrets where Kaitlin’s publicist doesn’t think that her first choice store, a sci-fi shop, is cool enough, so they do the shoot somewhere else. Did you ever see anything like that happen?
Jen Calonita: Publicists look out for their clients’ best interests, but sometimes I saw it taken a little too far. Maybe a star wanted to wear something that looked great, but their publicist didn’t think it was appropriate. Or a star wanted to talk about something, but their publicist would jump in and say, "Now remember, I told you that you can’t talk about this," or 'We talked about this with three other magazines, so we feel like it’s so over.' Sometimes it would be a parent’s divorce, or a bad breakup, and that’s really what the star wanted to talk about, but they had to keep their mouth shut because the publicist didn't think it was the right idea.

TEEN PEOPLE: Is there a trick to interviewing celebrities?
Jen Calonita: Always save the breakup/eating disorder/are you a Scientologist questions for the end. That way, if the star wigs out (which many do), you'll have asked the bulk of your questions beforehand and can end the conversation ASAP. But it's all part of the experience. Sometimes on a shoot, instead of being an editor, I've been more of a personal assistant. A star will say, "I'd really like a smoothie,' or "I need an aspirin," and I'm running around downtown Manhattan trying to find the smoothie of their choice or their specific brand of aspirin. I don't care how nice a celebrity is; they're still a celebrity and they’re used to certain things. So when a young star says, ‘Um, can you go get me aspirin,' they don’t realize I have to walk 10 blocks in heels and find them aspirin in the Meatpacking District, which has no drugstores. They just know that in their world, people get them things. And it doesn’t necessarily make them bad people; they're just used to a certain kind of life.

TEEN PEOPLE: In Secrets, Kaitlin has her diva moments, but she also has everyday concerns: Does he like me, am I going to fit in?
Jen Calonita: I've found that celebrities have the same problems and the same worries that everyone has. I can't say who, but I met a lot of young stars who were catty, or were talking about each other, or were worried that we featured their rival three times in the previous month and them only once. Hollywood reminded me of high school.

TEEN PEOPLE: Speaking of high school, do you have any advice for young writers?
Jen Calonita: You don’t have to be somebody who works with celebrities to come up with a cool book idea. If something’s going on in your life with your friends, or school, or your family, you can make great drama out of that. The words will come much more freely if you stick to a topic you know well. Also, I try to write every day. And if I have ideas for a new book, or for something I’d like to see happen to Kaitlin in future books, I jot down notes. I think about the characters a lot.

TEEN PEOPLE: So we're definitely going to see Kaitlin again?
Jen Calonita: We are. The sequel to the book is out in May 2007; Kaitlin will spend time on a film set during her hiatus from her TV show. I don’t know what will happen beyond that, but I’d love to see her little world continue. There are a lot of Kaitlin stories to tell.

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