So last Thursday, FOX Business News' "happy hour broadcast" featured First Wives World.

Here's a shot taken from my iPhone while I was waiting to be interviewed by the hosts during their daily live "happy hour broadcast" from The Bull & Bear Restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Fox called on First Wives World to comment on the Eddie Murphy /Tracey Edmonds relationship scenario, which we've blogged about.

Story Angle: Two weeks after their non-legally binding "symbolic marriage" ceremony on a private island in the South Pacific, the couple announced they would not have a formal wedding and would "remain friends". No one knew what the heck that meant. All I knew was I've made a few commitments myself on some islands inspired by rum punch and palm trees that seemed a little ridiculous when I got back home to rush hour traffic.

Meanwhile, while I'm mulling my thoughts on this and waiting to go on the air, my partners called to tell me they could see me air "drinking" in the background. I was sipping a tall glass of water, but I made sure to tell them it was straight vodka.

It's not every day you get to see an eternal Italian sex symbol like
Gina Lollobrigida up close. Still gorgeous at 80 and wearing a sexy red gown, Gina was one of the standouts at 32nd Annual National Italian American Foundation Gala in Washington D.C. I attended this past weekend at The Hilton
Washington and Towers.

Superstar attorney Bill Scari of Pepper Hamilton LLP in Pennsylvania, whose partner Joe DelRaso is on the Executive Board Committee of NAIF, extended the
warm invitation for my partners Paul and Jonas and myself to attend the event with him and his lovely wife Jen.

Every year NAIF honors great Italian Americans and raises money for the Benefit of The Program and Scholarship Fund of the Foundation. The faces walking past our table on their way to the dais in addition to Gina, were outstanding and I couldn't snap my iPhone fast enough.

Martin Scorcese, Rudy Guiliani, Nancy Pelosi, Connie Stevens, William Novelli CEO of AARP, Dina Martin (Dean's daughter), Yogi Berra, Maria Bartiromo, Ellen Pompeo ("Grey's Anatomy"), Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Samuel Alito, Ambassador to Italy Giovanno Castellaneta, etc., etc.

There were dignitaries and businesspeople from Italy. There was opera, great Italian wine, great food and great warmth — all the wonderful things that Italians are so well known for.

Finally, an event to acknowledge that all Italians are not living like the Sopranos.
Made me feel proud to be an Italian American. Made me proud to see the "excellence" of Italian Americans being recognized. Made me reflect on and appreciate what my grandparents risked to come here and start a new life that has led to mine having so much opportunity. Made me really annoyed at myself for cutting my college Italian class.

Ciao!

Debbie

 

I love my title and I decided whenever I want to get you guys involved in something I will issue a CEG ALERT. LOL.

PINK magazine is one of my favorite womens business and lifestyle publications. At the suggestion of my dear old friend Sharon Haver (www.FocusOnStyle.com) who I recently interviewed for an upcoming First Wives World segment on fashion, PINK magazine writer Christine Van Dusen interviewed me yesterday for a story about "dressing for the job you want."

She is interested in including the thoughts of professional women and what they think about image and fashion and the role it does or doesn't play as you plot out your career.

I told her trying to get dressed for work gives me a brain tumor.

She asked me if I knew other women who would enjoy being interviewed on this topic and I suggested all of you in the First Wives World community!

Here's Christine's email: [email protected]. Go ahead and email her and tell her I sent you.

Your 15 minutes of fame may have arrived!

Best!

Debbie

It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting here in a night gown surrounded by papers making 1000 notes of things to do.

It was a big busy week, which included the excitement of representing First Wives World on the TV networks. I am now completely out of energy and outfits.

I just hung up with my 6-foot-5 ex-husband, who was calling my daughter and dialed me by accident. He just sent me into a laughing fit — I asked him to help get a mortgage for my gay male friend, and he admitted that it scares the heck out of him every time my friend calls and starts screaming that something is wrong.

I have an 1:30 appointment at the Apple Genius Bar to figure out how to get my niece's picture off all my emails, which is timely because I just erased all my address book by accident when I tried to sync with my Apple iPhone.

I have a 2:00 birthday party on an island — it's now pouring — for my friend Mo's twin one-year-old grandchildren, and I have nothing to wear.

I just got a surprise phone call from my sexy 80-year-old friend from Texas inviting me along to a party in New York this evening with The Ambassador to Morocco — again, I have nothing to wear!

I'm readying for my taping in the Empire State Building on Monday
with seven guests and two changes of clothes. I have all my information but...nothing to wear.

I've also run out of clothes for these TV interviews - they keep increasing!

I have to to go to the bank, have laundry to do, am out of everything, want to exercise and my hair's dirty. I did call my mother, but I haven't seen her, and I haven't spent two minutes with my daughter since Monday — except to give her money.

Somehow though, I managed to carouse after work this week with a sexy Executive Chef from Italy without a green card.

Ridiculous!

I feel it's time to pull up the shades a little and let you see what it's taking to create a resource and community of this potential magnitude from a woman's perspective.

Since I spend the majority of my time doing business ... thinking entrepreneurially and strategically to grow this community, I'm going to start sharing some of what goes on with me behind the scenes here as one of the founding partners. I haven't expressed much of that side of me to you guys and something tells me you might find some of it valuable.

My business card title "Chief Executive Girlfriend" always gets a rise. I came up with it so people would "get" me quick. I am serious but I am fun. I like to think I am a woman's woman and a guy's girl. Mostly though, I am one of you. I am a champion, and I do my best every day to lead the way on your behalf to affect some form of positive change in a warm way. It feels right.

As the CEG, you see me here interviewing guests from the Empire State Building and writing funny articles, and I love, love, love it. However, if you asked me what I most want to be best respected for, I'd have to honestly say being an innovative businesswoman — a dynamic out-of-the-box entrepreneur! Who do you think bartered the Empire State Building?

I take chances. Maybe I will inspire you to take a few of your own. I am constantly researching, reading, coming up with business ideas, making contacts, taking risks and executing. I have won and I have lost. However, in all my years of business, I have never seen a project roar like this one. I call it "All Green Lights"!

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#10: She's the first solo female anchor; we're the first solo-anchored females.

#9: Her ratings have plunged like a Saturday night neckline and she needs us.

#8: She doesn’t have distracting tattoos like Angelina Jolie.

#7: We all have days when we say, "Oh my God what did I do?"

#6: We'd all have taken the $15 million and figured it out later.

#5: She's been accused of being too chatty; for goodness sake, haven't we all?

#4: She manages to be on top of her game and still have a “waist.”

#3: She has to “beauty prep” like she's going to a wedding—every day.

#2: She said “screw it” and hooked a young stud...We're impressed!

The #1 Reason: She's made it a mission to “save OUR butts” through her campaign for colorectal cancer screenings and now we must save hers!

Debbie takes up Katie's cause.
Click Here to watch the video.

Seems I've caused a little commotion with my “Katie cause,” eh?

I couldn't be happier to be the one getting this dialogue going and I sincerely thank everyone who has shown interest either by watching and passing around the video, or commenting publicly on our site and dozens of other blogs.

I’m supporting Katie and will continue to try and help get her ratings up because she is more than just a news anchor to me; she’s a woman who's gone where no woman has gone before. I consider myself a trailblazer too and really get how hard it is.

Katie has been accused of being too chatty, well haven't we all? I myself, hold a heavyweight title in this department. Does that mean she's not smart? Does that mean I'm not smart?

Women use more words than men to say the same thing. Go look up the studies for yourself.

Katie's been accused of being too perky too. Guess what? Me too! I never show up without a smile, no matter what's going on.

Do we need to have someone on TV who looks like they're constipated in order to take them seriously? For goodness sake, she's not making the news up; it’s just her style of delivering it.

Do you recall just how many days Katie was on TV in the morning over the years and how many people she’s interviewed? A load. Do you think just maybe she actually knows what she's doing?!

She didn't start with 15 million dollars a year. She paid her dues. She earned it in a business that pays that kind of money to star talent.

The point is that the network hired a woman to do A JOB. Is she getting the job done or not? It seems that they're busting her chops because she's not doing it like it’s always been done.

HELLO. It's ALWAYS BEEN DONE BY MEN who use less words and aren't as nurturing by nature and who don't have to worry about hairdos, accessories, lighting and makeup on top of it all.

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Guess what? I was on FOX & Friends this morning during the show’s 8:30 a.m. EST half hour!

And I want to thank all my guests on yesterday's show. Everybody who worked to help pull it off and everyone who came to cheer me on! A few of the segments will air shortly right here on First Wives World, and in July we'll be posting new segments daily.Meanwhile, it's 6 a.m. as I write this and FOX & Friends, the morning show on the FOX cable network, is having me and one of yesterday's guests, Jackie "THE JOKEMAN" Martling, on to talk about our first blind date.

Jackie's funny as hell and famous from his years on theHoward Stern show. He now has his own gig on Sirius Satellite Radio. Our mutual friend, Lois Whitman, introduced us by e-mail and we e-mailedfunny stuff back and forth and planned to meet for coffee.

I invited him to stop by the show, which he did yesterday. Apparently more people than I realize must care about Jackie's social life, so FOX invited us on together today to see how our "date"went.

Check out video from my first show for First Wives World right here on FWW!

Now here's a great excuse to promote tomorrow's taping of my new weekly show at The Heartland Brewery & Rotisserie in The Empire State Building.

Aside from booking great guests who will share relevant information for women navigating life on their own, I'm creating a weekly real life destination for women to connect for business and pleasure.

You might find a better job, new clients, new friends or a hot guy. Who knows?! What I do know is "women who belly up to the bar make 14% more money than women who don't," according to The Reason Foundation.

I'll drink to that!

If you're in New York City tomorrow at 2:30 p.m., come on down to the Heartland at the corner of 34th St. and 5th Ave. to see what I'm up to!

xo
Debbie