Glamour, Interrupted: How I Became the Best-Dressed Patient in Hollywood
(A memoir about Cojocaru's polycystic kidney disease, fail...)
A memoir about Cojocaru's polycystic kidney disease, failed first transplant, dialysis, second transplant, and return to public life. The book combines medical autobiography with commentary on Hollywood fashion and celebrity culture.
Steven Cojocaru is a Canadian journalist, writer, and television fashion critic known for his work on People, The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, The Insider, and Access Hollywood. He also wrote two memoirs, including an account of his experience with polycystic kidney disease and kidney transplantation.
Background
Steven Cojocaru was born on July 4, 1962, in Montreal, Quebec, into a Romanian Jewish family. He grew up in Côte-Saint-Luc, a Montreal suburb, and graduated from Wagar High School in 1979. Wagar was an English-language secondary school serving Montreal's West Island communities during the period in which Cojocaru completed his studies.
Cojocaru later moved from Montreal's magazine and cultural milieu to Hollywood, where celebrity journalism, red-carpet reporting, and televised fashion commentary were becoming increasingly prominent forms of entertainment media. His public persona combined fashion criticism, celebrity interviews, humor, and highly recognizable personal presentation.
Education
Cojocaru graduated from Wagar High School in 1979 and later earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Concordia University in Montreal. Wagar High School was part of Montreal's English-language public-school system, while Concordia, established in 1974 through the merger of Sir George Williams University and Loyola College, developed as a public, coeducational, and non-denominational university with strong programs in communications and the liberal arts.
His communications education preceded a career that moved between magazine writing, newspaper syndication, fashion editing, television correspondence, and memoir writing. The combination of journalism and broadcast work placed him within the expansion of celebrity-focused television and red-carpet reporting in the 1990s and 2000s.
Cojocaru began his journalism career as a correspondent for the Canadian fashion magazine Flare from 1989 to 1991. After moving to Hollywood in 1992, he wrote syndicated fashion columns and contributed to celebrity and style coverage. He joined People magazine as a stringer in 1994 and became its West Coast style editor and columnist, including work associated with the columns “Hot Shots” and “Behind the Seams.”
His television career developed through appearances and correspondence for Access Hollywood and NBC's The Today Show. He became a recurring fashion correspondent on Today and appeared on the program during a period when morning television increasingly incorporated celebrity style and red-carpet commentary. He also provided fashion and entertainment coverage for other television programs, including The Insider.
In 2003, Cojocaru joined Entertainment Tonight as a fashion correspondent, celebrity interviewer, and pop-culture commentator while continuing his association with People and Today. His Entertainment Tonight work continued into 2011. In 2003 and 2004, he also worked with American Idol contestants on wardrobe selections connected with the program's sponsorship by Old Navy.
Cojocaru's medical experience became a major subject of his later public writing. He was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and underwent a first kidney transplant donated by a close friend; the kidney was later removed after a polyomavirus infection. After a period of dialysis, he received a second transplant from his mother, Amelia, in 2005. He described this experience in Glamour, Interrupted, a memoir that connected his illness and recovery with his life in television and celebrity culture.
Achievements
Became People magazine's West Coast style editor and one of the first widely recognized television fashion correspondents associated with mainstream American morning and entertainment programming.
Publicly chronicled polycystic kidney disease, failed transplantation, dialysis, and successful retransplantation, bringing the experience of celebrity illness and organ transplantation to a broad popular audience.
(An autobiographical and humorous account of Cojocaru's li...)
2003
Views
Cojocaru's public writing and interviews present humor, candor, and self-reinvention as ways of confronting illness, celebrity culture, and personal crisis. Glamour, Interrupted treats the contrast between Hollywood glamour and serious medical vulnerability as a source of both comedy and reflection.
Personality
Contemporary descriptions of Cojocaru emphasize his quick wit, flamboyant presentation, sharp fashion commentary, and humorous approach to celebrity culture. In interviews about his kidney disease, he also described himself as feisty and candid about vulnerability, illness, and recovery.
Quotes from others about the person
Entertainment Tonight executive producer Linda Bell Blue described Cojocaru as an asset because celebrities trusted him and wanted to be around him. His television work was also characterized by journalists as combining fashion expertise, humor, and an unusually vivid on-air persona.
Interests
Fashion, celebrity culture, red-carpet events, and television entertainment.
Connections
Cojocaru's parents were Ben Cojocaru and Amelia Cojocaru. Amelia donated a kidney to him in 2005 after his first transplant, donated by a close friend, failed following a polyomavirus infection.
Cojocaru has publicly discussed his experience as an openly gay television personality and his later recovery from alcoholism. His memoir Glamour, Interrupted also describes the medical and personal circumstances surrounding his kidney disease and transplantation.
Father:
Ben Cojocaru
Mother:
Amelia Cojocaru
Donated a kidney to Steven Cojocaru in 2005 after his first transplant failed.
Los Angeles Times, “Red-carpetbagger”
Describes Cojocaru's work as People magazine's West Coast style editor, his television appearances, move to Hollywood, and red-carpet fashion commentary.
