Jill Zarin calls from the Nashville Airport on a sunny Monday morning and the conversation begins with my confession.
Me: "Jill, I have an amazing job. In the last 24, I've interviewed Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and now you. Guess what? Most of my friends after hearing that list have screamed, 'Oh my God! Jill Zarin! I love her.'"
Jill just laughs and says, "With me, I think everyone knows you're going to get ANYTHING but pat answers!"
Of course! The former star of "The Real Housewives of New York" has a cell phone with Katy Perry's "Fireworks" as her ring tone.
"I'm loaded with drama," Jill says in a merry voice. "I don't know what I'd do without the drama in my life."
Just this week, she was a guest on a very controversial "Watch What Happens Live" with Andy Cohen.
In a column tomorrow, we'll cover her career and possible return to reality TV (!) but today is beauty day with Jill Zarin.
JILL ZARIN'S BEAUTY SECRETS
When I ask most stars for beauty secrets, they rattle them off. Not Jill. She actually stops and addresses the topic.
"First, thank you for the compliment!" she says. "It's nice when someone asks for your beauty secrets."
Then she launches into what we want to know from someone who always has gorgeous skin and beautiful hair.
"I take Omega XL, a fish oil from Australia and New Zealand. I take seven a day," Zarin says. "Originally, I started taking this for pain from a tennis injury and to get rid of inflammation.
"The side effect is that my skin became unbelievable! It's like a miracle," she says.
Jill is also upfront about having work done by Dr. Patricia Wexler, a celebrated dermatologist and doc in New York.
"She's just a great doctor," Zarin says. "The texture and quality of my skin is thanks to the Omega XL. But the other part of my skin is thanks to Pat. She does my injections to keep the gravity up."
How old was she when she started having work done?
"I started at 40," she confesses. "You have to start right away, I believe, even at 40. Even if you don't really need it. You want to prevent things from happening.
"When you start to have lines, fill them," she insists. "At some point, all the fillers and Botox in the world won't work for you if you let things go too far.
"I didn't want to be someone saying, 'I should have done this earlier,'" she says.
She did fillers as a way to avoid the big face-lift dilemma.
"I didn't want to have to do a face lift. It was very painful for my mother to have them," she says. "I said, 'I could never do this.'"
She liked Wexler from the start and offers this advice when finding a plastic surgeon.
"I knew Pat did a lot of celebs. But what I liked is she's not out there promoting herself. The doctors out there with commercials make me nervous. If you need the business, I don't want to go to you.
"If I can call up and see you tomorrow, I don't want to go to you," she advises.
The rest of her skincare regime is simple.
"I think as long as you moisturize, you're going to look good. It could be $1.99 moisturizer from Costco or the $100 stuff. I think they all work.
"You just want to keep your skin moist," she says.
"Remember that soap takes the moisture and body oil off your body when you're cleaning," she says. "You have to put the moisture back in."
TOMORROW: JILL TALKS ABOUT HOUSEWIFE CONTROVERSIES AND GIVES US HER DIET SECRETS.
