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Hollywood has been an enormous part of my life, as I know it has been for countless fans all over the world.

I have to lead a very small life in terms of what people think 'Hollywood' is. It's a full life for me, but I'm not jetting across the world. But life is good.

For me, becoming a celebrity was like being in the eye of a hurricane. Suddenly, I was an international cover girl. Everybody was lapping up my Hemingwayness. They wanted to rub elbows with me or brush up against me.

The Hollywood lifestyle was just overwhelming. A party here, an interview there, magazine and modeling shoots daily, your face everywhere and girls throwing themselves at you. As great as it felt at the time, I still felt something missing, and that I needed to change.

I stuck around in Hollywood for too long. I was there a long time, and when I left, I was smart enough to realise that what I was leaving was not just the movie business. I wanted to get rid of the whole atmosphere.

Hollywood was not a place I dreamed of getting to. I never could take seriously the obsession people have about being a celebrity or getting to Hollywood - I was born next door.

I became super claustrophobic with Hollywood. I don't like Hollywood. I don't like what it represents. I think that Hollywood is great if you're an actor, actress, established. But for reality people or what people perceive as reality, it's tough. People are constantly discrediting everything you put on camera.

I started out pursuing an acting career out of college when I lived in Los Angeles. When I got an entry into broadcasting, I preferred it. I liked being me, rather than dressing up to be someone else. Now I'm 30 and doing a career of my own and have been in this career for eight years.

Hollywood infected my brain and I really valued the wrong things in life, but I changed dramatically.

Most of the stories I read are about my Hollywood pedigree.