“Bling” centers on hip-hop mogul Lamont Jackson (Def Jam boss L. A. Reid–or not), whose motto is “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.” In order to sell his Triple Large Entertainment label and succeed his aging mentor (Clive Davis–or not) at the major label Augusta Music, he must find a crossover artist, and he discovers Mimi Jean, a gorgeous young biracial singer (Mariah Carey–or not). And then there’s that witchy supermodel Vanessa de la Cruz (well, she isn’t Heidi Klum), hired to restyle Mimi into a ghetto-fabulous diva. Will Mimi sell herself out for worldly success? And will Miramax recoup its investment? We won’t spoil the suspense.
Kennedy, a writer for such magazines as In Style and Vibe, grew up in the New York suburbs, graduated from Sarah Lawrence and went to Oxford for a while. “I wasn’t living the thug life,” she says. But in high school she did meet hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons and became part of his clique. She either has a good memory, good notes–or just a good imagination. Kennedy says most of the book is fiction, and while all these roman a clef rumors may help sales, she believes “the talk diminishes my skills as a fiction writer.” So she doesn’t want us thinking this is real inside gossip? Like her heroine, she (and Miramax) should be careful what she wishes for.
