David Cassidy on the Web
I think I'm going to blush...
Thursday 03 March 2011
By Allison Pearson
Telegraph.co.uk
A writer's life is a funny old business. You spend seven years in your cave crafting a novel and end up looking slightly less stylish than Fungus the Bogeyman's demented maiden aunt. Sweeping the cat hairs from your trackie bottoms and swapping glasses for contact lenses, you must now embark on an American publicity tour and come across as the vivacious, bestselling offspring of Iris Murdoch and Jeffrey Archer.
I was most nervous about the Today Show; the breakfast programme is watched by half the country. In preparation, I submitted to full New York TV hair and make-up. Not so much a makeover, more a one-woman industrial sandblasting. Perched awkwardly on a bar stool, I told Kathie Lee and Hoda, presenters well-known for their high jinks, how I came to write I Think I Love You, the story of a woman who was once obsessed with David Cassidy. Not remotely based on my own experience, you understand.
At this point my hostesses squealed: "Surprise!" Through a door came David himself. There may be slightly less public places to come face to face with your teen idol, but who cares? It was the first time I'd blushed since 1975, but he was a gentleman. If you'd told the 13-year-old me that one day I'd be on TV with David Cassidy I'd have swooned. I managed to stay conscious, but the thrill was still there. However corny our first love, the young girl who felt it lives on inside us.
