Going Off Script Giuliana Rancic did not only found success going off the script...she changed it By Marlen Hernandez
E! Network Fashion Police Network Giuliana Rancic made waves at last year’s Oscars red carpet for her controversial remarks about Zendaya’s dreadlocks - “The hair to me on her is making her a little more boho. Like I feel like she smells like patchouli oil. Or weed.” – but she’s been back in the news for more positive reasons. Her new memoir, Going Off Script: How I Survived a Crazy Childhood, Cancer, and Clooney’s 32 On-Screen Rejection, paints a fuller picture of her career than the one remark. In it, Rancic retells her story of working for the E! Network that goes beyond 14 years. Last September, in an interview with Giuliana when she hosted Macy’s Front Row Show in San Francisco, I asked her: “What do you want people to walk away with by reading your book?” Seemingly caught off guard, she replied: “I want them to feel that if I can make it, then they can make it.” I wondered what this thin Italian beauty meant by the modest remark “…if I can make it…”. Who was the woman behind the camera? Where did she come from? What happened in her life that led to her successful career? And what made her have such bogus humor that caused such a racial storm? I decided to read Going Off Script and find out.
biography telling stories about her early years as an annoying teenybopper who got into a lot of mischief and was apparently proud of her foolish behavior. Rancic’s character as an outlandishly bratty teenager clearly reflected her privileged upbringing and overindulging parents. Her temperament and rule-breaking tendencies dragged out well into her college years when she paid $300 for someone to write a final paper for her. It was cringeworthy to read silly stories about her cat-fights at school, her willingness to stay in abusive relationships, and all the swearing she was able to get away with at such a young age. Not to mention her inability to stop giving rude unsolicited advice to people she felt were beneath her. At nine years old, she also exercised the control she had over her parents by going so far as making them buy her a pacifier!
“I want them to feel that if I can make it, then they can make it.” -Giuliana Rancic
There was definitely drama in Rancic’s life story, especially stemming from an invasive traditional Italian family. The DePandi family migrated to the United States from Naples, Italy when Rancic was only six years old. She began her auto-
The entertainment derived from this life story, or more of a teenager diary, was not for me. I was desperate to stop reading and close the book forever, but that thought came as soon as Chapter Three. It would have been impossible to form an opinion about the book and Rancic without actually reading it in its entirety. I decided to endure the
next nine chapters. I never would have imagined her strong desire to become a news anchor until she expressed her admiration for Barbara Harrison, from the daily NBC4’s news, at the tender age of six. The always camera-ready girl graduated from Barbizon