Rebecca Harrington is a dedicated journalist. She is willing to read celebrity diet books and cookbooks, buy outrageous fitness DVDs, and try to follow the diet and exercise habits of some of her favorite celebrities. This is no small task, folks. She is willing to go where most of us are not. I know that I'm not. But I'm very happy that she has, and that she is willing to take us all along for the ride.
In I'll Have What She's Having: Adventures in Celebrity Dieting, Harrington lives for a week or so like Gwenyth Paltrow, Elizabeth Taylor, Karl Lagerfeld, Beyonce, Jackie Kennedy, Sophia Loren, Greta Garbo, and even Posh Spice, Victoria Beckham herself, following (as best she can) their diet and exercise advice.
This may sound simple, but being able to afford to live like actress and GOOP founder Gwenyth Paltrow takes a serious investment. Eating like Marilyn Monroe means starting the day with two raw eggs whipped into milk. Exercising like Madonna leaves her lying on the floor exhausted. And perhaps most frightening of all, eating like Greta Garbo means facing the celery loaf that she made per the recipe (blending celery, nuts, and milk and oozing that into a loaf to bake), that made her nauseous when she went to take it out of the oven, and which she had to finally remove from the oven several days later, when the stench of the dead loaf was taking over her apartment. And trying the Daniel Fast used by basketball star Carmelo Anthony, to see if ow she felthmaybe it was his special diet that was ruining his game, she made the ultimate sacrifice of giving up coffee.
From the Cabbage Soup Diet to the Master Cleanse, from hydro-spinning to deadlifting, from savory oatmeal to protein sachets, Harrington tried it all and used her mad journalism skills to report back all her thoughts and feelings, her disappointments and her successes. I'll Have What She's Having is a quick, easy read that brings pop culture back to the kitchen. This mini-memoir is so much fun, it would make perfect conversation fodder for your next dinner party. Just don't serve your guests Karl Lagerfeld's quail flambe. Seriously, just order pizza.