On the screen, Nora greets visitors in a blush-tone office conceived to soothe the most jittery clients. Ms. Wasser’s own office is a low-key medley of greens, she said, a color that is also dominant in the living room of her 1920s Mediterranean villa tucked between Sunset Boulevard and the Hollywood Hills.
It is, of course, the color of money.
The lofted space above her, furnished with bookcases, a desk and computer, has been her makeshift office since lockdown. A cabinet is arrayed with vintage photographs, including one of Mia Farrow dragging on a cigarette, and another of Ms. Farrow with the Beatles on their India tour, all wreathed in bright flowers. “I won’t opine on the whole Allen vs. Farrow thing,” Ms. Wasser said, referring to the former couple’s troubles, recently documented on HBO. “I just really love those images — they’re so cool.”
From her perch Ms. Wasser can serenely observe the rites of coupling and uncoupling in her wedge of the world. “We do fairy-tale really well here in Southern California,” she said.
She is operating, she knows, in a celebrity culture that can be romantic to a fault. “We’re seeing people preparing for what we’ve always known is supposed to be the best day of your life. The problem is, once it’s all done, you’re married. It was a great day and a great party, and now you turn to look next to you at this guy who has not got the greatest breath in the world in the morning when you wake up next to him, and that’s the rest of your life.”
Selling the Dream
The pomp surrounding Hollywood nuptials is partly an outgrowth of viewers’ absorption with reality TV and shows like “The Bachelor,” or flamboyant covers on “People” magazine, Ms. Wasser said. Sure, weddings and the attendant festivities can be motivated by greed. “You can hook onto the stories of people selling their wedding photos, videos and the like,” she said.
