You know that you want to be Nicole Kidman's "unidentified companion" for the two hours you hang out interviewing her! Precious Williams has made her living as a celebrity interviewer for the past eight years. She is a contributing editor at Elle (UK) for whom she interviews celebrities - most recently Jenna Jameson and Portia di Rossi. She has also published celebrity profiles in the New York Post, New York magazine, Details, Glamour, and more: she gives us some tips on how to do it.

Don't let the celebrity seduce you
Don't let your interviewee's fame intimidate you and please don't try to become his or her best friend. It really doesn't matter whether JLo or Brad or whoever you are interviewing likes you or not. What matters is that your editor and your readers like what you've written.

Exclusives, not excuses
A celebrity interview should never read like a press release. However much the celeb publicist has tried to pressure you into promising a 'positive' piece the bottom line is that you need to come up with an interesting angle and a piece that's packed with color and details. We want to know what your celebrity was eating, drinking and smoking during the interview, whether they looked like they got any sleep the night before, whether they appeared to be lying when answering your questions.

Save the best for last
Sure, you have a burning, intensely personal question that you're just itching to ask but, if you begin a celebrity interview with something like "so, is it true that you're still battling your cocaine addiction?", it's very likely that your interviewee will walk out - or worse, attack you. At best, the celeb's publicist, who unfortunately may be sitting in on the interview, will cut short the interview. Save the most pressing questions for the last ten minutes or so of the interview.

But how do you land the assignment?
You probably don't expect to have your first celebrity interview published by Vanity Fair or People. But it's difficult to EVER have a celeb interview published by any well-known magazine or paper until you¹ve got at least a couple of relevant clips under your belt. So, how and where do you start?

Ha ha! Trick ending to this post. You'll have to take Precious's course, aptly titled "How to Become a Celebrity Interviewer" to find out. Sign up today!