Platinum Pen EXCLUSIVE: Interview With Amy Paffrath, the Freshest Face of E! Talent

[Exclusive photo courtesy of Amy Paffrath, taken by Lisa Villasenor. Dress by Dye 4 Gething. Makeup by Casey Jo Cheek]

Several months ago, she was the main (albeit nameless) character of a chart-topping music video. Fast forward a few months later, Amy Christine Paffrath still has a lead role, but this time, her name is written all over it. As the friendly face and bubbly voice of E! News Now, and daily disher on Yo! on E!, Paffrath delivers the hottest celebrity 411 to viewers on a several-times-a-day basis—a dream come true for the Missouri-born beauty.

Despite donning a killer bod, an adorable face, and as aforementioned, a fresh gig at the immensely popular E! Network, the newfound entertainment host still keeps it as down-to-earth and cool as ever (as cliché as that may sound). Heck, I’d hit the clubs with her!

The Platinum Pen had the wonderful opportunity to interview Ms. Paffrath, who openly and happily dished about her confidence, her proud love for Hanson (yup, the MMM Bop-pers), how she landed her E! gig, boys (sorry fellas, this one’s taken!), living in the nine-double-oh-six-nine (also known as West Hollywood/WeHo for those of you non-Angelenos),and pretty much whatever else I pushed her way. And although you may not know her just yet, following this interview, you will definitely want to make her part of your entourage.

Oh yeah, and she totally digs her butt.


I started off by asking Paffrath those generic LA/Hollywood questions. Her answers are listed below.

Favorite Bar in LA – Lola’s has THE BEST martinis

Favorite Club in LA – Changes all the time! I really like Goa at the moment, but Social and Blvd 3 can be really fun, too.

Favorite boutique in LA – I love the Fashion District. There is an amazing shoe store called Picasso’s shoes and they sell literally every type of shoe you could dream up! I also really like Mannequin on Melrose, they have fun funky stuff.

Favorite radio station in LA – KROQ

Favorite restaurant in LA – Too many! La Fritte in the Valley is a new fave.

Favorite website in general (besides The Platinum Pen, of course ;-) ) – EOnline!

Favorite album of all time – OMG, Hanson, "Middle of Nowhere." I LOVE it, it makes me happy all the time. I also love Hot Fuss by the Killers

Team LC or Team Heidi – They are both ridiculous, so I say Audrina [laughs]

Harvey Levin or Mario Lavendeira (Perez Hilton) – Perez

Favorite designer (doesn’t have to be LA-based) – Debbie Gething

Favorite body part (had to ask!) - Butt [wide grin]

The Platinum Pen: Now, speaking of Hollywood and LA and living the life, you just bought yourself a pretty lil thang, didn’tcha, in honor of your new gig at E! (which, big CONGRATS, btw!). Why don’t you tell the Platinum Pen about your gift to yourself? Didja name it?

Amy Paffrath: Thank you! I did, I had to congratulate myself since two years ago, I said "I wanna be a host at E!" and I can’t believe it actually happened! It was definitely time for a new one, so I bought a car! It is beautiful. It all started because my make up artist was looking for a new car and she had done all this research. She showed me one that she was considering and it was a VW Eso. I absolutely fell in love. I HAD to have it. At the time, I was just freelancing and I made a promise to myself that if I was offered the job, I would treat myself. Two weeks later, I’m cruising in my shiny new convertible. As of now it is still unnamed, I’m getting to know her first ;)

The Platinum Pen: That's awesome. As we know, in LA, it's very important to feel cozy in your "whip"—pardon my lingo. [laughs] Anyway, something kind of interesting. I noticed you had a role in the movie “Hauntsville.” Turns out an old friend I’ve known forever, Monique La Barr, had a role in the film as well. Did the two of you work together? Small world.

A.P.: Very small world! No, we weren’t in any scenes together. My character was seen in flashbacks. I can't say much about the character without giving away the plot, but I did meet her at the table read and she is very sweet! I still haven’t seen the finished film, let me know if Monique has!

The Platinum Pen: I'll have to get back to you on that, but let me know when the film comes out, as I would love to watch you guys on the big screen! Now as mentioned above, you just landed an exciting gig as one of the hosts of E! News Now. How did this come to be?

A.P.: I first auditioned for the show back in November. It was the same day I got my California license so I’m all glam in my picture. Anyhow, I read for Annie Roberts and the audition went great! I got a callback and that went great as well. Then, I heard NOTHING until February. I went in and auditioned a third time and after that they asked if I’d work two days as a test. So I came in and did my two days and apparently I passed the test because they asked me back to do two more, then two more after that. Then one day while I was at E! my manager called to tell me I’d been offered the position! I was so excited but I didn’t say anything at first because no one at E! said anything about it! I had a week off while my contract was negotiated and now I’m here for good!

The Platinum Pen: That's so great. I have to admit, I'm a total fan of your videos. I watch them all the time. You certainly possess a great sense of charisma. But assigning you an official title sounds like it was quite a process for E!. Like when people were in the process of auditioning for one of the two host positions available after Ashlan Gorse and Valery Ortiz left the department, I watched those videos on E!’s website, and good heavens! Some of the girls they brought in were hot disasters! Because this is Hollywood and all, cockiness is A-OK. So tell us the truth: Did you know from the get-go you had the gig in the bag?

A.P.: [laughs] I am definitely confident in my skills so I thought I’d be a natural choice. But after the three great auditions I was thinking, what they hell are they looking for? After I came in for the test, my optimism came back because I had such a great instant rapport with the staff. They were all giving me such great feedback and HUGE compliments. It was nice. I kept going back and forth like, "It’s gonna happen, maybe not, NO it IS gonna happen!" And then it did!

The Platinum Pen: Well I cannot congratulate you enough. What a wonderful accomplishment. I'm sure this will open an array of doors for you. What would you say is the easiest part of your job as a host of E! News Now? And what would you say is the most difficult part?

A.P.: Well since this is truly my area of expertise [grins] I find it all relatively painless. I’d say the easiest part for me is just being me in front of the camera. Letting personality shine though has always been easy for me. The hardest part is reading copy on the prompter and remembering to breathe and to lower my register. It’s the newsy voice we have, when you read sometimes your voice naturally wants to go up, but in news, we want it be low so that it is perfectly clear what we are trying to say. Sometimes you forget to take a breath or to speak from your diaphragm, so it can be a lot to think about at once, but I love it!

The Platinum Pen: My next question is so cliché, but I feel like I have to ask: What is your *ultimate* goal in this business?

A.P.: Wow. Honestly it has changed a little bit since I moved here. When I first moved to LA my dream was to be a host on E! and I’m so happy that I’m doing that. But I’ve also been really interested in acting, and I have done some really great projects. I’ve always said my ultimate goal is to be the female Ryan Seacrest. He’s juggling more jobs right now than most people have in a lifetime. I just want to be able to keep working, whether it be in films or as a host.

The Platinum Pen: Those are excellent goals to have, and I sincerely hope you achieve them. Now to move on from the career-related questions, but sticking with the theme of cliché questions, are you dating anyone? Who? Anyone juicy?

A.P.: I am. It is kind of juicy actually! His name is Drew Seeley and he is an actor/singer. He is the singing voice of Zac Efron in the first High School Musical and he has a movie with Selena Gomez coming out. Pardon my shameless plug. He is incredibly talented and so supportive of everything I do. I want to go on for hours about him because he’s just an amazing person and so fun to be around, but this article is about me!

The Platinum Pen: Aww...that's so cute. Really, it is. And depressing at the same time. Well not for you, but for me. But why are we talking about me? Okay, sorry to sidetrack. And wow, quite interesting that he was the singing voice of Zefron! I don't think most people know that. Thanks for the insider's scoop! So would it be redundant for me to ask who is the most famous person you’ve kissed? [laughs]

A.P.: You slick little girl you! Drew Seeley of course!

The Platinum Pen: Okay, okay, I get the point. Moving on, you had a really cool role as the main character in the music video for the chart-topping Paramore hit, “Misery Business.” You looked like you were having a lot of fun in the video. Have you done other music videos and do you have any in the works?

A.P.: "Misery Business" was an absolute blast and total surprise. I had no idea who Paramore was when we shot it. It was like 7 months later when it blew up. Such a surreal experience having my face on a jumbo-tron in Times Square! I have done 2 other videos, one was for the Malibu based band Whitestarr fronted by Cisco Adler. That was my very first acting role in LA. It was a great time and awesome opportunity. It’s a little bit racier than Misery Business, I play Cisco’s love interest, his “Sunshine Girl.” You might not recognize me, I’m blond! I don’t have any others lined up but I’d love to do more in the future, they are great!

The Platinum Pen: Speaking of which, what is your favorite music video of all time?

A.P.: Hmm, this question made me rack my brain! I really like Madonna and Justin’s "4 Minutes" video, it’s really cool!

The Platinum Pen: You grew up in Missouri, but you seem like you’ve adapted quite nicely to L.A. When you first moved out here, what was the most shocking thing to you? Like what was the most difficult thing to get adjusted to?

A.P.: I moved to LA in January 2006 so when I first got here is was rainy and cold! I was like what is this, I did not move 2500 miles for rain! I guess I just thought it was sunshine and rainbows all the time. Initially it was sort of shocking to me how many people live here and don’t really work. It was sort of shocking to hear all these young girls say they are actresses, yet they don’t take classes they don’t study; they are out all night partying hoping to be discovered at the club. Any man who tells you he is a producer while handing you a cocktail is not going to advance your career! The most difficult thing to adjust to was definitely the amount of time I spend in my car. It’s crazy. I didn’t realize LA was so spread out and it literally encompasses a 50 mile radius, so to say "I live in LA" could mean you live anywhere from downtown LA to the beach to the valley, it’s just HUGE!

The Platinum Pen: Wow, all of that is so true. Glad we see things similarly. Anyway, thank you for the interview, Amy! You rock. And you’re super cute! Keep up the good work on-cam and we look forward to checking out your future developments. We should grab coffee or lunch sometime and chat some more. Keep us Platinum Pen readers posted, ya hear?

For more info on Amy Christine Paffrath and to catch her on-screen, click on the following:


http://www.eonline.com/videos

http://amychristinepaffrath.com/

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=14932463