Tina Brown Talks of Royalty and Charity
by Bridget Kinsella, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 6/29/2007 7:37:00 AM
Yesterday, during the San Francisco leg of the tour to promote The Diana Chronicles, set to debut this week at #1 on the New York Times list, Tina Brown happily served as the featured speaker at a luncheon to raise money for the National Kidney Foundation of Northern Californian.
“It’s a great cause. Diana would have approved of today,” Brown concluded after taking questions from the audience of 120. At the time of Diana’s death, Brown said she thought the Princess was trying to figure out how best to leverage her celebrity to aid causes she believed in, as she did with the disarming of land mines and heightening the awareness of AIDS.
The two women met for the first time shortly after Brown took over the editorial reigns at the Tattler and Diana married Prince Charles in a fairy tale wedding. The former Vanity Fair, New Yorker and Talk editor said she wanted to understand not only Diana’s dream to marry a prince but also her rise in celebrity, all in the context of society, the aristocracy and the media.
“She had herself a real future planned as an activist,” Brown said.
When asked if she planned to write another book, Brown said she’d “love to,” but needed a subject. “So if anyone has any ideas…” she joked with the crowd.
The National Kidney Foundation of Northern California partners with local indie Book Passage and raises close to $750,000 annually from its author luncheon series throughout the year and its two fall events featuring several authors in San Francisco and Sacramento.
