Even though I had not seen Nanci for very many years now, (which is actually a tad odd because we live near enough to each other, and travel in similar circles,) we were very close at the beginning of my career, of which she was a big part.<\/p>\n
![\"Nanci](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/29514824-8413119-image-a-118_1591930069795.jpg\")
<\/a>Nanci Ryder.<\/p><\/div>\n
Before her major<\/em> show business success, she was the assistant to my talent manager, Stu Ehrlich. Because we were both New York girls, she was usually the one assigned to take me under her wing. And, even though she was older and way more mature than my na\u00efve self, we became really good friends. I always looked up to her. (I still chuckle over this one episode\u2014I stopped by to see her on the way to an audition, and when I left, she called Stuart and told him he had to talk to me because I had on the wrong label of pants! When he told me, I had no idea what he was even saying; even though I had modeled in New York from the time I was thirteen, I didn\u2019t know one designer from the next! Leave it to Nanci to be versed in fashion even back then!)<\/p>\n I had also just started seeing Mr. X at that time, but even then<\/em> he didn\u2019t like to go out, so Nanci and I often painted the town together. And in-between, she took me to pool parties and comedy clubs and the like. She even shared her guy friends with me, which we ladies all know is not done too much.<\/p>\n She came to all my parties, and we gabbed on the phone when we weren\u2019t together. She was the first one to run over to see my first precious pup, Bud, the second we got home from choosing him. She loved dogs, especially her own little fluffy white girl that she had back then.<\/p>\n As soon as I started doing my TV show, Nanci asked me if I would please use her hairdresser friend, Paul Jasperson, to do my hair for it, so we would find fame together<\/em>. (Which, I\u2019m proud to say, we did.) She was always looking out for people like that.<\/p>\n And when she moved on to be an assistant at an acting agency, she quickly got Mr. X to sign with them. She was always putting deals together before she was even a power player herself!<\/p>\n I\u2019ll never forget when she told me she wanted to start her own PR firm because she was handling Michael J. Fox at someone else\u2019s company, and Michael was more than happy to go it alone with her. She was a tad trepidatious, so she asked me if I thought she could do it. And, of course, I was all for it. That one brave move of hers set her up for the rest of her life. I\u2019ve always loved seeing the beginning of so illustrious a career!<\/p>\n As the years went on, Nanci and I drifted apart; nothing dramatic happened at all\u2014she just started being with her clients all the time, and I got into running the dance club scene with my new (and younger) posse. Nanci became a major grown-up, while I went the other direction. It happens.<\/p>\n