Former gossip columnist and A-list publicist Rob Shuter is turning his wild career experiences into a work of fiction.
The “Naughty But Nice” podcaster, who once repped top tier stars including Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Jon Bon Jovi and Alicia Keys, gearing up to release his first fiction book on April 21.
“It Started with a Whisper” follows four gossip reporters who host a morning show on a struggling cable network.
The book may be fiction, but it’s clearly inspired by Shuter’s real life, as he co-hosted a daily entertainment news program on VH1 called “The Gossip Table,” which ran for two years.
Through the book isn’t real, the concept mirrors Shuter’s former stint as the co-host of VH1’s “The Gossip Table,” which ran from 2013 to 2015.
“While I worked on ‘The Gossip Table,’ I kept a diary,” Shuter exclusively tells Page Six. “I was looking back over my diary, reminiscing about all the funny, crazy, cruel, happy, upsetting things that happened, and I figured out very quickly that this is a book, this is a potential TV show.”
Shuter, who also has a Substack, shares that, as much as he loved being a publicist, he doesn’t miss it.
“You’re a therapist, you’re a publicist, you’re a bag holder, you’re a best friend,” he explains. “Looking back on it, I have such fond memories; when I was living it, it was quite tough.”
One thing he did love doing was orchestrating the press around celebrity breakups, having worked on two giant splits — Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck in 2004 and Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey in 2005.
“You know it’s going to explode, that it’s going to make worldwide news, and so actually crafting this breakup statement can be quite tricky,” he says, noting that “asking for privacy is actually quite odd because you’re putting out a statement. I love the dichotomy of that; it did make me giggle.”
“I also loved the human aspect,” he adds, “during your darkest hour of real personal crisis, you’re on the phone with your publicist crafting a statement.”
Shuter swears that all of the tales about morning show in the book are true, “but they might not be based on the same show. I was a regular on ‘Wendy Williams,’ the ‘Today’ show, ‘and ‘GMA.’ I’ve aggregated it all together.
“I think people reading the book closely will recognize some of the people,” he teases.
