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American Morning
From New York Nannies to Best-Selling Novelists
Aired March 18, 2002 - 09:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: From New York nannies to best- selling novelists, quite a trip for two young women who, while they were watching the kids, were also taking copious notes on their Park Avenue parents. Now, they have turned the tables on some of their former employers. Their new book -- and we remind you, this is a novel -- is called "The Nanny Diaries." And the first-time authors, Nicola Krauss and Emma McLaughlin, join us now.
Thanks for being with us.
You two worked as nannies in well-off family homes. What is life like for a nanny in New York?
EMMA MCLAUGHLIN, "THE NANNY DIARIES": Well, if we could step back one moment, just to correct a misperception. We actually weren't taking notes. We were incredibly busy as nannies.
COOPER: Or taking mental notes.
MCLAUGHLIN: Not even. I think actually we were nannying when we were at NYU, a good six years ago, and it actually never even crossed our minds, I think it wasn't even a glimmer the landscape that this would somehow, these experiences would inspire the novel in the way that they did. We actually didn't really get around to focusing on doing a novel or even the idea didn't come up until about two years ago.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: What surprised you the most about the lives of the people whose homes you worked in?
MCLAUGHLIN: I would say the most surprising was really the least dramatic, and that was there were times where the parents really, absent themselves, almost completely, not only from the home, but sometimes from the state or country, and we would find ourselves of being in the positions as the character of Nan does in the novel of really being only ones there to give the hugs, getting paid to be the only ones there to give the hugs to the kids, and I think at times that was.
COOPER: A strange position to be in.
MCLAUGHLIN: It is. It's a challenging position to be in.
NICOLA KRAUSS, "THE NANNY DIARIES": Oftentimes, we worked in families that were working families, and then we were brought in to enable the family to function, to enable the amazing juggling act, that is being a working mother, but in the case of Mrs. X, the character Mrs. X, she's not a working mother, nor is she a stay-at- home mother. She is a category unto herself.
COOPER: Mrs. X in the novel is sort of the epitome of a bad parent. She cares more about her nails, it seems, than her child.
MCLAUGHLIN: I don't think she considers herself a bad parent.
COOPER: They never do, do they?
MCLAUGHLIN: Right. Right.
COOPER: Were there people like that? How much of this is real life? How much of this novel is real life?
MCLAUGHLIN: I don't think it's a percentage. I mean, it's definitely deeply rooted in our experiences. It isn't an exaggeration from them. And at the same time, it truly is a novel.
KRAUSS: Yes, I mean, there's two of us and only one nanny, so we're right from there.
COOPER: What was the worst part about being a nanny, the hardest part?
KRAUSS: Such a range of hard things. I think cooking was always really challenging, as it is for the character of Nan in the book, with the X family. She sort of gets hired to make hot dogs and macaroni and cheese for her 4-year -old. The next thing you know, she's being instructed to steam kilrabi (ph) make cookie sanchock (ph), and souffles.
MCLAUGHLIN: Yes, which the 4-year-old is kind of ambivalent about it, as you can imagine a 4-year-old would be.
COOPER: And in the book when, Christmastime comes around, nannies are pretty low on the totem pole.
KRAUSS: Nannies are low on the totem pole. It's so sad. I mean, there are nannies running Mrs. X's errands to get bonuses for the rest of the staff, and then come her moment.
MCLAUGHLIN: She's having a surrogate Christmas.
COOPER: And one of your got earmuffs for your Christmas gifts.
MCLAUGHLIN: The notorious clothing. We got a range of things definitely.
KRAUSS: Nothing to be very excited about.
COOPER: Also you have the top 10 rules about nannying, and two of them I just love. Number six was, "Try to see your employers as a small woodland creature, ala Bambi, wandering through the apartment, and treat her accordingly. Should we find her aimlessly circling the study, lovingly shepherd her back to her room." And the number three is, "No matter what they tempt you with, do not go on vacation with them. Put the Arc De Triumph over it, put the Caribbean under it, stick a palm tree in it, it is still 24-7 slave labor, no breaks, no control, and no boundaries." True?
MCLAUGHLIN: Yes, it's real. Read the book. I think you will see the whole gamut. But one thing we just wanted to point out while we have you is that the great feedback we are getting about the book is you don't have to have a nanny, or be a nanny, or know a nanny or have had a nanny to really enjoy this. We're amazed, as you said, by the runaway success of it that so many people across so many lines, not even from New York, people are relating to this book as the story of a first job, a really challenging first job as a 21-year-old with no professional notches under the belt, and just, again, you name it, people are really remembering.
COOPER: All right, I let you do the plug.
MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. That's the plug.
COOPER: Thank God, that's over.
MCLAUGHLIN: Now you can talk about other things.
COOPER: You have now become big celebrities.
MCLAUGHLIN: Oh, my. I wouldn't go that far.
COOPER: You have a best-seller book. Miramax played, like, half a million dollars for the movie rights to the book.
MCLAUGHLIN: Yes. Miramax is working hard on it. We're looking to send out a message. We've been forbidden up until today in any press to reveal who we in Miramax would like to be nannies.
Kate Hudson. Kate Hudson, if you're out there, we want you. Anyone who can get to Kate Hudson, you are our ideal.
COOPER: Now, that you guys are kind of rolling in the dough, if you had kids, would you hire a nanny?
KRAUSS: We're working women now, and I think we always intend to be working women, but there's a whole spectrum of child care out there that is available. But I think that definitely, we look forward to possibly having some sort of system that will enable us to care for ourselves as a family.
COOPER: I mean, the book is very funny, but it also is sad. I mean, in a sense, a lot of the kids are on their own. I mean, and, as you said, the paid nanny is the only person around.
MCLAUGHLIN: It's not just a ramp. It's been billed as a poignant satire, and I think we hope we tried to imbue a lot of heart in it. So, yes.
COOPER: All right, well, Nicola Krauss, Emma Mclaughlin, thanks a lot for joining this morning.
MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you.
KRAUSS: Thank you.
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