Get Out! GAY Magazine – Issue 464

BY NATHAN JAMES
CELEBRITY JOURNALIST
EILEEN SHAPIRO’S
NEW TELL-ALL IS WHAT
WE’RE ‘WAITING’ FOR
If you’re a habitué of the nightclub
scene in and around New York City,
you’ve probably rubbed elbows with
Eileen Shapiro, the doyenne of nightlife
reporting in the Big Apple. Eileen has
covered her starlit beat for decades,
interviewing luminaries from every
corner of the entertainment industry
while becoming a rock star among
celebrity journalists along the way. Her
work as a publicist with World Star PR,
a top media-relations group, has further
enhanced her bona fides.
Eileen’s knowledge of pop culture and
the glitterati is encyclopedic, and her
engaging prose has earned her a byline
in over 40 entertainment, music, and
LGBTQ+ magazines and websites spanning the globe (including Get
Out). Her ongoing support of LGBTQ+ artists and causes is also wellknown,
far beyond the five boroughs. Over the epic course of all that
reportage and publicizing, Eileen has accumulated plenty of fascinating
tales about her experiences with the famous and infamous, the outgoing
and the outrageous, ranging from iconic R&B/pop diva Diana Ross to the
one and only Adam Ant.
As the title of Eileen’s new book, Waiting For Adam: Interviews
And Obsessions, suggests, it’s a compendium of her talks with and
observations about the notables she’s met and written of throughout her
distinguished career. The tome is not her first literary work, as Eileen’s
bibliography began in 1977 with The Star Trek Medical Reference Manual,
which is still a sci-fi fan classic today. Get Out! had the opportunity
to speak with Eileen about her work, the book, and how her journey
through the nightlife world got started. The interview is slightly edited
for clarity.