STARS RISE ABOVE THEIR FIRST JOBS
Sept. 3 2007, Published 2:37 p.m. ET
In celebration of Labor Day, I took to the floor at the Illegal Tender premiere asking celebs for their first job experiences.
“My first job was actually working at a car wash and I did the cash register,” acclaimed director/producer , who was the youngest director ever nominated for an Oscar when he helmed Boyz in the Hood at the age of 24, tells me. “Somebody tried to rob the store one time. I didn’t give them the money. I was twelve years old.”
"Whine Up" singer , 19, worked at Dunkin' Donuts. “I served doughnuts; I ate doughnuts,” she recalls. “I was actually young getting a job, so it was cool. I loved blueberry doughnuts. It’s one of my favorites. sings Ahhhhh!”
Cheetah Girl , 23, used the barter system. “I actually used to sweep in a beauty salon,” she tells me. “That way, I could get my hair washed and blown. It was a Dominican spa right near where I lived, and I became friends with the girl that used to work there. She was the daughter of the owner, and she would blow my hair. I would be like ‘look, check it out, I will sweep the floor at the end of the night, as long as you will give me a nice fresh blowout for the week.’ That was our tradeoff – I would sweep the floors and I would get my hair blown out. Every day I would come to school with some fabulous hair-do.”
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"This Is Why I’m Hot" singer is glad he turned to hip-hop. “I worked in a hospital doing billing,” he tells me. “It was definitely boring. I sat in the office and made $6 or $7 an hour doing it. I couldn’t work for anybody after that, so I decided to become a musician and do hip-hop full time.”
Up-and-comer , 38, got all wet at his first job. “I was a bus boy in Rhode Island at a restaurant called Victoria House,” he tells me. “I was serving more water than anything. I was water here, water there, I was watered down. It was crazy.”