When Your Boss Is a Star: Olympia Dukakis

Bonnie Kramen became Olympia Dukakis’s personal assistant nearly 24 years ago, making Kramen one of the first in the business. "I proposed I help her as a [celebrity assistant] before there was even a term for it,” she says.

"I met Olympia in 1986, 10 months before Moonstruck, back before she was a household name," Kramen continues. "She didn't realize how big a deal Moonstruck was going to be.”

The movie, by director Norman Jewison, starred Cher, Danny Aiello, and Nicholas Cage, whom Dukakis then called “Gage” by accident. For her role in the film, Dukakis won the Oscar for best supporting actress.

The actress was soon run off her feet, both looking after Oscar-related business and helping her cousin, Democrat Michael Dukakis, then Governor of Massachusetts, run for president.

"Then came Steel Magnolias," says Kramen. The film was a runaway success, grossing more than $85 million at the box office.

"I wrote her and told her she needed me, that her life was too busy to do it on her own," says Kramen. Dukakis took her up on the offer, and Kramen’s schedule soon became just as frenetic. "This was before email, fax machines, and cell phones, so I'd go home to 30 messages on my answering machine," she recalls.

Since launching her career, Kramen has started her own business, New York Celebrity Assistants, a personal referral service. She has used the service for anything from finding a plant specialist to take care of the small forest in Dukakis's West Village apartment to finding a trumpet teacher to prepare Dukakis for a role. She has also written a book, Be The Ultimate Assistant.

Kramen's daily life involves grocery shopping, paying bills, and reviewing contracts, while Dukakis prepares for some upcoming theater work.

"It's never boring," she says, "but the workload goes in waves. I could be there from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for a big project, but normally it's an eight-hour day.

"It's about her needs. I see my job as this: I do all the things that Olympia doesn't have to do. She does what she has to do and she does it well, and that's acting.

"I can't learn the lines for her and go for costume fittings for her, but I can set up the car to take her to the fitting," she adds.

Having Kramen around has allowed Dukakis to avoid joining the Internet age. "Olympia isn't computer literate, so I am for her. Olympia does not touch a computer and has no interest doing that," Kramen says. "She doesn't have Blackberry."

	THE SALARY: "I started at $50,000 a year and it's gone up from there," says Kramen. "Let’s say I'm very happy. I get five weeks of vacation a year and have a retirement plan."
	THE PERKS: "My son has gone to the Super Bowl because of my work. I can get great seats to any show because I have access to everyone," Kramen explains. "My contacts can open doors for [my son]."
	LESSONS LEARNED: "You do have sacrifices as a celebrity personal assistant. Very few assistants have more than one child," Kramen points out. "I have one child and I missed a lot of baseball games because of my work and travel."