Star stuck: celebrity assistants make being famous and fabulous look easy. (by James Eugene Butler)
Screaming fans, private planes and expensive cars -- it’s the fabulous life of celebrities and with awards season in full swing, multitalented and tasked celebrity assistants are even more focused on making those fabulous lives flow a little easier. But being a celebrity assistant isn’t all lunch runs and nail clipping.
“We place professional educated people, not go-fors,” says Dionne M. Muhammad, president and CEO of Celebrity Personal Assistants, Inc. (CPAI). An assistant’s day varies with the celebrity’s constant activity. Muhammad says one assistant for a rock group hit the ground running and never stopped. “From week one,” she says, “she went to the Grammy’s then to Texas to handle real estate and finally to the East Coast because the band visited family.”
So, who are these people who are at celebs beck and call? Beyonce’s assistant is her cousin. Usher’s assistant is a childhood friend. But not all assistants have a personal connection. That’s where companies like Balan Inc. and CPAI come in. Started in 1999, Muhammad’s company, with offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York, owns the official concierge service of the NFL Players Association, has a fractional ownership in an airplane company, and in March, the company is holding a conference in Atlanta to train aspiring professional assistants.
Carline Balan, Michelle St. Jules and Stephanie St. Vil’s company, boasts clients like Jay-Z and Def Jam President, Kevin Liles and like CPAI offers concierge services such as private plan charters and personal shopping and lifestyle management, including home care, interior decorating and event planning. It is obvious this is not a career for everyone. Muhammad says “being above average, having a great memory, organization and communication skills” is what makes a good assistant. And according to what Balan told one hip-hop mag, they don’t know the meaning of I can’t. If you say to me, “Carline, I want a feather on an apple and it has to be iced out,” she says. “I’m sure I can get that.”
