Ohio, Charlotte and Brooklyn
I grew up in Ohio. Lived for a long time in Charlotte… where I met a girl named Brooklyn.
Brooklyn was born in Ohio, grew up in Charlotte… where she met her fate.
Brooklyn and me at a fundraiser for a free clinic in Matthews, NC last November.
I like to tell people I discovered Brooklyn Decker. I didn’t. She was 16 and with her mom in a mall when a woman handed them a business card and said, “Have you ever considered modeling?” That’s how Brooklyn met her fate.
I just happened to be the first person to put her on TV. She was still 16 when my friend Pam from the Siskey YMCA called me and told me about this Butler High School teenager who was starting to model.
I wouldn’t have cared for that as a story if it weren’t for a series Andy Benton and I had just started shooting called “My Other Life.” The series celebrated normal, every day people with unusual hobbies. We did a story on a math nerd who taught 8th graders but would slip into a phone booth on Sunday and turn into a drop-dead gorgeous Carolina Panther Cheerleader. Not that she wasn’t pretty in class, but you know what I mean. We did another on a school teacher who also raced dragsters on Saturday nights. So the thought of a typical high school student who was appearing in Cosmopolitan or some such magazine seemed like a no brainer.
We had no idea she would end up as the cover girl for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit six years later. But there she is… wearing a gownless evening strap.
Over the years I’ve become friends with Brooklyn’s parents, Steve and Tessa. They’re the reason Brooklyn stays grounded. Brooklyn is married now, to tennis great Andy Roddick. I had a chance to meet him a few months ago. He’s sarcastic so I enjoyed him right off. He’s also a generous soul. Just like his wife.
If you want to see that original story Andy Benton and I did on Brooklyn Decker when she was 16, it’s posted on my Facebook profile page. It’s on Andy’s too. So if we’re FB friends, check it out. It’s pretty interesting to look back on her career right at it was starting to click.
Okay, time for my beauty rest… MR
Brooklyn was on the “Ellen” show today and she said her husband has a cardboard cutout of Ellen in their garage which she “accidentally” hits with her car occasionally. LOL!