Tag Archives: writer

Nichellest Interview: Pauline Millard

This interview of Pauline Millard was originally posted on Gothamist in January of 2005.

The Basics.
Astrological Sign.
I was born on June 21st, which puts me on the cusp of Gemini and Cancer. However, I feel like I am more Gemini, since Geminis tend to be social and talkative and, quite honestly, a little flighty.
Day job/Bad habit.
Day to day I work on the online desk at The Associated Press. All news, all the time. I’ve been there almost five and a half years.
Bad Habit: When I am under stress I bite my nails, which is a shame because I have long fingers that look really nice when they are manicured. I could be a hand model!
Where did you grow up and where do you live now?
I grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut…just about an hour or so from New York City. The former Mets first baseman Mo Vaughn is also from Norwalk. His father, Leroy Vaughn, was the principal of my middle school. Currently I live in Gramercy, in Manhattan, with an overweight tabby cat named Pookie.
Two For YOU.
What’s more fun: singing or writing?
Off hand I will say singing is more fun, because there is still so much that I don’t know about it or where I want to go with it. This past weekend I sang some back up vocals on a sort of electronic/rock song. But I’ve also done opera and some big choral pieces at Carnegie Hall (twice). A few summers ago I even picked up a guitar and performed an Indigo Girls song at a coffee house in the East Village, mostly because I felt the need to be a cliche. Writing, by and large, is my job. It’s what pays my rent and stuffs my 401K. It comes pretty naturally. I don’t fear doing it the way I sometimes fear new music.
What makes your mouth water?
I have always had a thing for red headed men with brown eyes, the kind that get tan in the sun as opposed to burning. They’re pretty rare. And, I have also been obsessed with the musical, “A Chorus Line” since I was nine years old. I actually got to see it when it was originally at the Shubert Theater in New York City back in the 1980s. Oh happy day, it’s even coming back to Broadway in September 2006. Worlds are colliding!
Which New Year’s resolution will you break in less than a week?I always say that I will improve my knowledge of the Russian language, because there is a large chunk of mother’s side of my family who speaks it. It never happens. Gavnot! (That means ‘Shit!’)
Who would you stalk if you were guaranteed NOT to be caught?
John Mayer. But it would pain me to see him with other women.
What’s the best place in New York for semi-public sex?
I would guess at night in the non-scary parts of Central Park.
How many take-out menus do you have in your apartment?
None, actually. I live in a basement apartment so if I need food or other rations I make a point to go outside and be in the land of the living. Otherwise, it’s just my cat and I speaking in tongues and surrounded by bad Chinese food.
What’s your favorite dessert/high carb indulgence?
Since I was a wee Pauline I have had an inexplicable obsession with orange sherbet. So much so that I know a relationship is getting serious when a guy starts keeping it in his freezer for me.
Complete this sentence: “2005 will be known as the year of _____”.
It will be the year that I finally get an agent and make some sense out that novel I wrote last year. OK, that’s one part of writing that I fear. The publishing industry is all so subjective, kind of like the way you don’t know if you’re going to hit a tough note when it really matters most. Maybe that’s why I keep pursuing the singing: It keeps my mind off the writing.