“The bulk of my life is boring and lame and painfully single, but I’ve had wild, exciting adventures”

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:40:00 +0000

Jack Gray, the author of the new personal-essay collection "Pigeon on a Crosswalk," lives two lives -- in one, he's a frazzled TV producer who gulps down fast food between producing segments for "Anderson Cooper 360" on CNN, and in the other, he's the author of a heralded new memoir-ish collection, "Pigeon on a Crosswalk." Or maybe it's this: In one life, he sits at home writing and watching TV, while in the other, he goes on vacation with Cooper and Kelly Ripa, or lounges in a hotel room with Kathy Griffin.

"Pigeon on a Crosswalk" encompasses all sides of an ultimately mild-mannered author who, somehow, has one million followers on Twitter; a behind-the-scenes producer who ends up on Andy Cohen's Bravo talk show. He spoke to Salon today.

You write a fair bit about your celebrity friends in the book -- from Thanksgiving dinner with Nia Vardalos to spending New Year's Eve producing Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin? Do they mind your having written about them?

Salon.com > jack gray

“The bulk of my life is boring and lame and painfully single, but I’ve had wild, exciting adventures”