Rene Syler Is (Almost) Ready for Her Close-Up

D Magazine, Jan 01, 2003 by Pierce, Ellise

Rene Syler is having an awful hair day.

"Damn, damn, damn! The front's not right! Damn it.

Standing in front of the makeup mirror, she takes a sip of coffee out of a Styrofoam cup and teases the back of her hair. "Years of doing it myself," she says.

It's the first day of Syler's new job as one of the anchors of The Early Show on CBS. Not that it matters, but she is the first black woman to host a network morning show. And she wants her hair to be right. Sunrise is still a long way off, but Syler has been up for hours, She woke up at 3:45 a.m. in her room at the Plaza Hotel across the street, took a quick shower, slipped into her clothes from the day before, and crossed the thick, empty lanes of West 57th Street to Trump Tower. The security guard waved her in (after not recognizing her the day before, he wasn't going to make that mistake again), and from there she made her way down the flight of steep, short steps to the basement level, where uncooperative hairdosand, CBS hopes, a failing morning show - can be spun into magic.

On this particular morning, however, Syler's hair simply will not behave. The show's hairstylist, Kim Serratore, a lanky blonde in a pair of brown Seven corduroys, put too much oil on Syler's naturally curly hair, which made it flat. And despite nearly two hours of blow-drying, Velcro curling, and flatironing, Syler's short bob still won't budge.

Syler sits back down in the chair in front of the makeup mirror, and Serratore teases the back with a skinny red comb and sprays. "Just shellac it," Syler says, defeated.

Patrece Williams, The Early Show's buoyant makeup artist, who works part-time as a comic, puts a mixture of two different shades of makeup onto Syler's face. Then she applies eyeliner with a tiny brush. As Williams tweezes eyebrows. Syler skims the headlines of The New York Times and goes over the pink and green sheets of show changes that are stuffed into a manila folder on her lap.

At 5:22 a.m., Syler walks down the long halfway to her office, formerly a beige box, now a vibrant, botanical green. A week ago, she and a friend painted the walls, using sponges. "Other people read or get a massage to relax. I decorate," she says. "I made that lamp myself. I bought the base at a consignment store, got the lampshade at Pottery Barn, and put the beads on with a glue gun."

Newspapers and miscellaneous welcome gifts blanket her desktop - flowers and a handwritten letter from her coanchor, Harry Smith, a Starbucks bear, and New York coffee mug. There are also six hard-boiled eggs in a plastic container and a piece of pound cake, wrapped in cellophane. Over the course of the morning, she'll nibble away the egg whites and throw the yolks in the trash. She'll also try the pound cake, but then hurl it in the wastebasket, too - not because she doesn't like it, but because she does.

There is a rolling rack to the right of her desk, bloated with new skirts, jackets, blouses, and pants, most with tags still attached. "This is so different from anything I've done," she says, slipping out of her black top, then searching through cardboard boxes sent from home for a black camisole. "I'd wake up in the morningwhat do I feel like today? Now I've got people telling me what to wear."

After finding the camisole - "Target!" she exclaims - Syler changes into her first day's outfit: an Anne Klein, Pucciinspired print blouse in fuchsia, black, and white; black pants; and pointy black boots from Banana Republic. She tears the price tags off with her teeth. "Nobody shops better than me," she says. "These pants? Thirty-nine dollars. I'm not cheap. I just like a good bargain."

At 6:21 a.m., she goes upstairs to The Early Show studio, on street level. Syler takes her seat in a tall swivel chair at the far end of the opening "news desk" - a V-shaped table made of frosted-green glass and steel that looks like it was ordered from Ikea.

"Oooh, I need a cup of coffee," Syler says to no one in particular. "Hannah Banana," she says to Hannah Storm, another co-anchor seated next to her, going over copy. Syler yawns and clears her throat loudly. Storm chews a thick wad of gum. Julie Chen, yet another anchor, tries to find someone to get the stain out of her purple jacket. Syler clears her throat again.

Williams applies more gloss to Syler's lips. "Doggone it!" she shouts, frustrated.

Hot water with lemon for Julie, please!

"I need a cough drop and some coffee," Syler says. "Patrece, did you darken my mole?"

"Remove that mole," Smith says.

"Harry, Mal-vo? Male-vo? Mal-VO?" Storm says.

Syler shakes hands with Chen. "Good luck," she mouths.

"--shot down on the streets, Puerto Rican girls just dyyying to meet you," Smith sings.

"Ali, where's Kim?" Syler says. "I feel like I have the Frankenstein look today. Big, square head."

Six minutes to air!

"Are we ready"!" Syler says, clapping her hands. "Harty? Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim! Help me with my square head."

"It's SpongeRene SquareHead," Storm says, not looking up from her scripts.

"Is it a square head? Is it a rectangle? Is it a parallelogram?" Smith says, from his seat on the other end.