Play Dates (50 page)

You worked right out of this apartment, didn’t you?

MARSH:
I did most of my beading right in there, on the table in the breakfast nook. In the mornings the room is just flood-ed with light. Believe it or not, I still design and make each piece by myself. I don’t consign any of the work to a subcontractor or rent my name to another designer who creates the jewelry for me. It’s all still me, and I’m very proud of that. Because the pieces are now regarded as high-end, part of that territory is exclusivity—which in fact translates to building
fewer
pieces as my business grows. I find that if I budget my time well, I can manage
Avon

to meet all of my production demands and still work around Zoë’s social calendar.

’s Little Black Book

CELEBRITY:
And you still haven’t hired an
au pair
? You can
afford one now, you know.

MARSH:
Yes, I know. But Zoë and I are a good team, and we get along so well—most of the time—that I always fear introducing another person into the mix will end up being a detriment and not a benefit. However, I have hired a housekeeper to do the cleaning. I have always hated housework—

detest
it—with a passion, and not having to deal with laundry and vacuuming and scrubbing floors and changing beds and all that is the biggest blessing in the world. I think it’s even better than having a masseuse on call.

CELEBRITY:
Then you have that now?

MARSH:
The masseuse? [laughs]. I wish! I’m a spa slut. I do take time to unwind at Bliss or someplace like that a couple of times a month, usually when Zoë’s with her father, so I have a long stretch of time to myself.

CELEBRITY:
Speaking of Zoë’s father, how does he feel about
your stunning success with Claire Marsh Originals? I bet
he’s kicking himself for screwing up your marriage.

MARSH:
At the risk of sounding like my sister Mia, I no longer have an interest in checking out Scott’s butt to see if it’s bruised.

CELEBRITY:
You may be the only woman I can think of whose
husband left her for an
older
woman. How did you handle
that?

MARSH:
Badly.

CELEBRITY:
They do say that living well is the best revenge. And
you certainly have managed to do that.

MARSH:
Yes, I have, but that’s not exactly why I did it. I didn’t set out to get revenge on my adulterous husband. I’m not Clytemnestra.

CELEBRITY:
You tend to pepper your conversation with esoterica,
don’t you?

MARSH:
I’m well educated. I have absolutely no reason to apologize for that or to dumb down my vocabulary for people

who haven’t read Oscar Wilde or Greek mythology. You may not know this, but my father, Brendan Marsh, was poet laureate of New York for a time. He was also a professor of literature up at Columbia. So Mia and I grew up in a kind of rarefied atmosphere when it came to that sort of thing.

’s Little Black Book

CELEBRITY:
And yet you girls didn’t go right on to college your-selves.

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CLAIRE:
Our parents wanted us to feel free to explore our own avenues, to follow our blisses, as it were, without a timetable. It was so different for the two of us compared to the way kids are raised nowadays. Actually, who am I kidding? Mia and I were even weird among our peers. We were super-dorks for the longest time because our mom, Tulia, made us into her guinea pigs and sent us off to school in her one-off clothing designs. We were teased mercilessly.

CELEBRITY:
What was it you started to say about raising kids
today?

MARSH:
They’re like video games. They’re totally overprogrammed. There is such an insane emphasis on getting into Harvard from the time the umbilicus is sealed that there isn’t a minute for kids to have time to explore and wonder.

They’re not even allowed to make mistakes, which are a natural part of the learning process. What is it they say—

the ubiquitous “they”—about Edison taking ten thousand tries before he got the lightbulb right? If little Tommy Alva were growing up on the Upper West Side today, right in this neighborhood, or even worse, across the park on the East Side, we’d be conducting this interview by gaslight because he never would have been allowed to fail even once, let alone ten thousand times. Zoë, remember when you were in second grade and Mrs. Hennepin gave you an Unsatisfactory on one of your projects because she said it looked like a child did it? I mean, a child DID do it! What the heck was she thinking?! And that’s the prevailing mentality, and the private schools and the parents encourage it.

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I would transfer Zoë to a public school, but the ones in this area are not exactly stellar and Thackeray is actually a rela-

’s Little Black Book

tively progressive school with excellent academics, despite a few wacko teachers, like Mrs. Hennepin. At least they still have the funds for the arts classes, which I think are an absolute necessity. Even the best public schools in Manhattan have had to slice and dice, if not totally abandon, their arts curriculum. I’m on my soapbox here, but where would any culture be without its freedom of expres-

sion? Honestly, I think the worst thing that can happen to kids today is to have no background in music and art and no opportunity to express it in the schools, since opportunities at home are probably even more limited for most families. So that’s one reason why I keep Zoë in that inordinately expensive private school.

CELEBRITY:
But now you can afford it without your parents’

support.

MARSH:
True, but it’s still obscene. I think my tuition at Columbia was less than Zoë’s at Thackeray.

CELEBRITY:
You mentioned earlier about the overprogramming
of kids. How do you feel about all those after-school
activities?

MARSH:
It’s a double-edged sword. First of all, if the kid shows no interest in participating in an activity, the parents ought to be flogged for pushing him into it. That’s really a form of child abuse. If parents are trying to create a resumé for their child, that’s nuts. But if the parents and the kids use the after-school and weekend programs to broaden the child’s horizons in a way that isn’t offered in school or is something the kid is really into doing, then the activities can be wonderful, and great venues for them to learn things like cooperation and teamwork as well as karate or ballet or swimming. You want to raise well-rounded kids, not neurotic ones.

CELEBRITY:
Do you think you’re a good mom?

MARSH:
I’m not the right person to answer that. I think we need to ask the person my “mom-dom” most affects.

CELEBRITY:
Zoë, is your mother a good mom?

ZOË:
Yes.

CELEBRITY:
That’s it? Just “yes”?

ZOË:
Yes. Except I still have to clean up my room and I don’t like doing that. Especially since now we have a housekeeper to clean the apartment.

’s Little Black Book

CELEBRITY:
Maybe your mommy doesn’t want you to grow up to
act like a princess and not know how to do anything for
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yourself. If your mommy hadn’t learned how to do things
for herself, then where do you think you would be today?

ZOË:
[looking at her mother] Living in a cardboard refrigerator box in Central Park. [she giggles.]

CELEBRITY:
So, learning how to be independent can be a very
good thing, right?

ZOË:
Uh-hunh. I mean yes.

CELEBRITY:
Are you proud of your mommy? I know she’s proud
of you.

ZOË:
Well . . . after my daddy left us we didn’t used to always get along but when she started her jewelry-making business and she met Fireman Dennis, she got really happy and then we got along better. When Mommy is happy, that makes me happy too. When I grow up I want to be just like her.

CELEBRITY:
Well, thank you both for sharing your time and air-ing your views with
Celebrity.
And we’ll look forward to
the upcoming Oscar telecast for a veritable fashion show
of Claire Marsh Originals. Just one last question, Claire.

Do you worry about what Joan Rivers will say about your
pieces?

MARSH:
Not a bit. She’ll be wearing them herself.

PLAY DATES

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About the Author

ARROLL

Native New Yorker
LESLIE C

is

ARROLL

also a professional actress, dramatist, and journalist. She is the author of the novel Temporary Insanity as well as two con-

,

temporary romantic comedies. Leslie has worked more temp jobs than she cares to remember, in politics, advertising, public relations, and—far too frequently—law.

Visit Leslie’s web page at www.tlt.com/

authors/lesliecarroll.htm.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

LESLIE C

By Leslie Carroll

PLAY DATES

TEMPORARY INSANITY

Credits

Designed by Elizabeth M. Glover

Copyright


PLAY DATES. Copyright © 2005 by Leslie Carroll. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

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• Title Page
  
• Dedication Page
  
• Contents
  
  • Chapter One
    
  • Chapter Two
    
  • Chapter Three
    
  • Chapter Four
    
  • Chapter Five
    
  • Chapter Six
    
  • Chapter Seven
    
  • Chapter Eight
    
  • Chapter Nine
    
  • Chapter Ten
    
  • Chapter Eleven
    
  • Chapter Twelve
    
  • Chapter Thirteen
    
  • Chapter Fourteen
    
  • Chapter Fifteen
    
  • Chapter Sixteen
    
  • Chapter Seventeen
    
  • Chapter Eighteen
    
  • Chapter Nineteen
    
  • Chapter Twenty
    
  • Chapter Twenty-One
    
  • Chapter Twenty-Two
    
  • Chapter Twenty-Three
    
  • Chapter Twenty-Four
    
  • Chapter Twenty-Five
    
  • About the Author
    
  • By Leslie Carroll
    
  • Credits
    
  • Copyright Notice
    
  • About the Publisher