Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“The problem with Joanna Coles is that she’s not fun, she’s not interesting,” joked co-host Hilary Rosen while introducing the very fun and very interesting Joanna Coles at a launch for her book: Love Rules: How to Find a Relationship in a Digital World at Del Mar at the Wharf in Washington, DC with other hosts Maria Trabocchi, Tammy Haddad, Stephanie Ruhle, Fatima Goss Graves, Valerie Jarrett and Anita McBride.
Hilary Rosen
“I think the very second I met her,” Rosen added, “I wanted to be her best friend. More important than me being her best friend, I really wanted her to like me because Joanna is the kind of person that envelopes you fully, wholly and completely and tells you something every day that you didn’t know and that you need to know. So, we are thrilled to have her in Washington DC, a city she has relentlessly visited for advocacy [as] editor of Cosmo. Now that she’s at Hearst doing all sorts of creative content, she has really pushed the envelope on the kinds of stories that all of their magazines are telling and all of the partnerships that they have created. It’s really so exciting that she’s at that level and in a position of power – as she says ‘Real corporate life’ – to do it and the fact that we can celebrate her tonight because she wrote this book on the fundamental issues of life, Love Rules.”
“There is a table over there. If you have not bought this book, you need to buy it,” Rosen insisted while introducing the great author and advocate and visionary Joanna Coles. “You can pretend you’re buying it for someone else, but you probably need to buy it for yourself. I’m thrilled to ask her to come and say hi and to give us a few words. You know, I just wonder what you think about this town. We’re so boring and conservative and we are below the Mason-Dixon line so we’re a bit southern and provincial in that way – but really all we’re talking about these days is sex and who’s had it. And so I want you to feel right at home for that and Michael Wolff (think Fire and Fury) can attest to who’s had sex and with whom.”
Joanna Coles
“I wrote this book because I was concerned that actually doing this and getting together with real people in real life was becoming sort of marginalized in favor of digital communication which actually turns out to be much less satisfying than we thought it was going to be,” said Coles. “We cannot live by device alone and I think we’re now in this slightly closed digital euphoric state where we realize that we need to get back to the business of relationships which is difficult and awkward and frequently humiliating. But nevertheless, actually in the long haul, is the single thing that will ensure – other than your genetics and DNA – a long and happy life; who you love and who loves you back. And I wanted to remind the younger generation of the value of that. But it’s really a book aimed at any age at any stage for people who are dating now, for people who are divorced and getting back out there, for widows and widowed, widowers because the landscape is really changed. And while I applaud dating apps and their ability to bring everybody together, it can also feel like we’re rather disposable and interchangeable and that of course, is not what actually gives value to human life.”
“But the goal of the book is to celebrate the stuff that makes life exciting and makes us feel alive which is falling in love, having real relationships, occasionally sex if we’re lucky and having a good time,” she added. “And I feel like in the chaos of our culture and the rapid embrace of digital which in theory makes things easier but in fact, doesn’t actually. We’ve talked about the connective tissue that makes us all human and holds us together and is the stuff that is really valuable. So, that is what I would like to celebrate tonight. Imagine how boring, and dull, and depressing, and listless you would feel if we were actually doing this on a Google Hangout. I like Google but it would not be as much fun as tasting this delicious wine that Maria has, or this wild cocktail actually which I can feel already which is warming me up in unexpected ways. It would be so much less interesting if we did this digitally and so much more fun doing it in person. So, here’s to real relationships!”
LOVE RULES “is a diet book for love,” Coles writes. “Food and love have so much in common. We have huge appetites for both. We can’t live without them. But not all food is created equal, and neither is all love. Just as there is junk food, there is junk love. And like junk food, junk love is fast, convenient, often attractively packaged, widely available and superficially tasty. But the calories are largely devoid of real nutrients, and leave you hungering for more even as you smart with a lingering sense of shame after a binge. And yet both junk food and junk love require enormous amounts of willpower to resist….In LOVE RULES, I hope to do for relationships what Michael Pollan did for food….You have to wade through rows of Little Debbie snack cakes and family packs bags of Cheetos in order to find the aisle of fresh-produce. The organic apples and almonds are there—you just have to know why they are important, and then where and how to find them.”
“While I’m not sure what Carrie Bradshaw would have made of today’s new world of dating, I do know this: armed with Love Rules, she would have figured it all out in one season.”
— Sarah Jessica Parker
Guests enjoyed lots of wine while on the rooftop of Del Mar, overlooking the spectacular view of the Wharf’s waterfront.
Michael Wolff, Tammy Haddad, Dominic Hawkins
The Champagne kicked in: “One more thing: What we need to do is we need to do a group tweet, Love Rules. This will freak everyone out. Michael Wolff get up here. Michael if you’re up there, the whole White House will watch. Come on. Let’s go. Kevin Cirilli take off the sunglasses and get in the shot. Come on. Okay and then all together we’re going to do a group tweet, right? Love Rules. Let’s get in there. Everyone face this way please. Here we go. Casey, Kev, who else wants in, Daniel get in there. Alice, get in there. I’ll get you fired from The Weekly Standard. Let’s go, let’s go. Let’s get Alice in there. Okay. On the count of three, Love Rules. Everyone ready? One, two, three...Love Rules! Okay, Tweet it out guys.”
