Manager. Alina Eldred and her husband Matt Hefferan are living in Alexandria, VA and enjoying the newest member of the family: son Will born July 15, 2008. Harrison Finney and his wife Melinda had a son, Benjamin Edward Finney, on March 23, 2009. Abbie (4), and Harrison III (3), love their new brother! Brant Kay and his wife Virginia moved to Chapel Hill from Albuquerque. Please send him an email if you live in the Triangle area. Brant works for SAS, doing software development. Virginia studies organizational behavior at Universit y of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kennan Flagler Business School. Grace Prakalapakorn, M.D. has been working with the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital. This program travels the globe to train eye care professionals and treat patients in developing countries where this aid may not be available.
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Mrs. Virginia McLean Ward 5326 Powhatan Avenue Norfolk, Virginia 23508 mcleanvirginia@hotmail.com
On September 15, 2008, Bethany
Maixner Cerella and her husband Tony welcomed the arrival of twins: Tony, Jr. and Sophie. After a tour of dut y that prevented him from witnessing their birth, Tony thankfully came home from Iraq in the spring of 2009. Bethany teaches yoga, paints, and enjoys being a mother. Jordan Jacobs is currently a plastic surgery resident at NYU and
Jared Shapiro ’95 Co-Writes Hollywood Tell-All by Stuart P. Sperling ’95 Just one week into 2009, Jared Shapiro knew this year would be special. “I awakened one morning about 5 days into the New Year and saw Barbara Walters and the ladies of ‘The View’ holding up the book Red Carpet Suicide: A Survival Guide on Keeping up with the Hiltons,” says Jared. Red Carpet Suicide is infamous gossip blogger Perez Hilton’s first entry into the literary world. Hailed as the internet’s most famous personalit y by Forbes magazine, Hilton has also been dubbed Hollywood’s most hated by the TV show “The Insider.” So why am I writing about Perez, the book, and my friend and ’95 classmate Jared Shapiro? Well, it turns out the book was a two-year collaboration between Perez and Shapiro. “It was definitely a passion project,” says Jared, who has spent the better part of the last seven years writing about celebrities for Us Weekly, Star, and now as Executive Editor at Life & Style Weekly. “Having this opportunit y to write about all of the nonsense that the Lindsay Lohans and Paris Hiltons and Britney Spears of the world have gotten themselves into, for me, was kind of like therapy. There were all of these things Perez wanted to say, give opinions on, and discuss that he doesn’t have room for on his blog. It was a great way to give insight and our take on just what was going on in Hollywood.” Barbara Walters has not been the only one to hold the book up. While The View spent a whole segment talking about the book and later bestowed it upon every member of the audience, other outlets like Howard Stern, "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," Fox News, "The Early Show," Ryan Seacrest, "Chelsea Lately," and scores of others have all featured Perez and the book as part of a whirlwind publicit y tour for Red Carpet Suicide. “It was wild. Every day I found myself reading a new book review. Some were complimentary, some weren’t. Some book critics found it to be distasteful and shocking, yet couldn’t put it down. I think that’s the point with a book - you want to give the reader something that they’ll never forget. There are a few pages in that book that once you read it, I don’t think you’ll ever forget.” Red Carpet Suicide is Jared’s second book. In 2004 he penned Going Corporate: Moving Up Without Screwing Up with fellow NA grad Brad Embree ’95. USA Today reviewed that book as “tears streaming down the face funny.” So is there a third book on the horizon? “I hope so. But for now I’m still just enjoying the ride from this one.” Red Carpet Suicide is in bookstores nationwide.
Tina Arias ’96, Julie Finley ’96, Shirley Au ’96, Katie Wilcox ’96, and Ashley Williams Hardee ’96 at Shirley’s Wedding in Bodrum, Turkey. Shirley married Kemal Askar on September 5, 2009. They reside in New York City.
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