Reality Check

Sixteen-year-olds Charlie, Keiran, Brooke, and Hallie have just been signed up for their own reality television show. They can't even believe it. "You'll be The Hills meets The Secret Life of the American Teenager," the Armani-suited executive tells them, "and the hottest thing on our network." How could they say no?

But soon enough, cameras following them everywhere and interfering producers surreptitiously scripting their lives start to affect the four best friends' relationship. Brooke seems to want all the screen time. Keiran is abruptly written out of the show-and consequently the group's friendship-when she doesn't rate well. As soon as Charlie realizes what's going on, she figures out the perfect way to give the studio and her home audience a much-needed reality check.

Because friends don't let friends do reality shows.

As a former senior editor at Teen People, and a journalist for TV Guide, Glamour, and Marie Claire, Jen has interviewed everyone from Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens to Justin Timberlake and Reese Witherspoon. Jen lives in New York with her husband Mike, sons Tyler and Dylan, and their Chihuahua, Captain Jack Sparrow. She admits to being a reality show lover but trieds to keep her habit in check.



There's No Place Like Home, Jen's star-studded finale to her acclaimed Secrets of My Hollywood Life series, will publish in March 2011, and she's currently hard at work on a new series about duelling sisters, coming Fall 2011. Jen invites you to visit her online at: www.jencalonitaonline.com.