"My goals were always really endorsements, products, business, what can we get going, what can we start, what can we figure out? That's what we've always stuck to," Kardashian says in the back seat of a black Escalade en route to an appearance at Macy's Herald Square to promote her perfume.
She's flawlessly coiffed as ever, clad in a poufy black miniskirt ensemble and accompanied by a publicist and a bodyguard. Her constant companion: her BlackBerry. She's a multitasker who has perfected the art of typing, reading and holding down a conversation simultaneously.
Midtrip, a cop stops the Escalade and tries to block the car from turning left on 34th Street in rush-hour traffic, but Kardashian's security guard informs the officer that he has her in the back seat.
The cop cranes his neck to look into the vehicle. "Can I see her? Can I see her?" he says. He lets the car make that banned turn.
Kardashian doesn't seem to notice. For the most part, fame and the constant scrutiny it brings are not a big deal to her.
"I've learned to deal with it and to accept it and be comfortable with it," she says.
In interviews, Kardashian sounds like a savvy businesswoman as opposed to a burnished starlet with glitzy tight clothes and a famous posterior. She has gone from Paris Hilton's sidekick, with teased hair and a sex tape, to an entertainment industry powerhouse who has appeared naked on the cover of W, routinely hits A-list red carpets and now has two shows on TV.
Kardashian and her older sister, Kourtney, are appearing in their latest reality offering, E!'s "Kourtney & Kim Take New York," which documents the sisters' opening of the Manhattan outpost of their Dash clothing boutique. It's a spin-off of the family's ongoing reality series, "Keeping Up with the Kardashians."
"When we started the (original) show, my long-term goals were always on my mind. I know a show doesn't last forever. If you create a solid brand, that could last forever," Kardashian says.
Game face is always on
Does she think the series, which has shown her getting Botox and a wax, and showcased her breakups with athletes Reggie Bush and Miles Austin, provide an accurate depiction of the real Kim, 30, and her not-quite-as-famous sisters Kourtney, 31, and Khloe, 26?
"Absolutely," Kardashian says. "We don't censor ourselves."
In person, Kardashian is as pretty and frothy as cotton candy. She's surprisingly teeny, with cascades of black hair, huge brown eyes accentuated with dark, dramatic lashes, and glossy lips that are perpetually glazed. What's under that sumptuous surface is anyone's guess, because Kardashian, when she's promoting something — which, it appears, is almost always — puts on her game face, and that harmonious veneer never cracks.
Her mother and manager, Kris Jenner, marvels at Kardashian's work ethic.
"She gives 150 percent to every single project she commits to, and that's remarkable. She's focused. Part of that focus comes from believing in what you're doing."
Kardashian never strays off message or forgets what product she's selling. And that's why she was the top reality star on USA Today's Celebrity Heat Index for 2010, as well as the year's highest-paid reality star, according to The Daily Beast, earning $6 million for endorsing Quick Trim and about $75,000 an appearance at clubs and openings. Her secret? Forging an authentic connection between her image and whatever she sells.
"Kim Kardashian has managed to commodify our obsession with her. She's attractive, lives a glamorous life and seems like a nice person," says Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California and the author of "Starstruck: The Business of Celebrity." "I haven't seen her star fall. It's getting brighter. She's created a tangible relationship between her, the products she promotes and the cultural zeitgeist, so we keep paying attention."
Kardashian says she gives people what they want.
"I really feel like our brand, my brand especially, is for my fans because I read all the comments. It's been a cool process to see them asking me for something and me being able to provide it. That's kind of how I base what products I want to do, is what my fans are really asking me for," Kardashian says during another chat, perched on a bench on the spacious deck of her Smythe Hotel suite in Tribeca, where "Kim & Kourtney" was filmed and where the sisters lived for six weeks.
Her outfit this time is carefully put together to exude urban sex appeal: black top, studiously ripped jeans, lace-up Christian Louboutin stiletto boots.
For Kardashian, doing the series made sense.
"This was like, for me, the perfect time to come to New York because I'm single, because I just felt like I kind of wanted a fresh start. It just seems like every time I need something in my life, it happens." Kardashian later started dating New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries.
She adds that "in my own personal life, I'm introverted and love to be by myself. I'm just a lot more quiet and private than people would probably assume. Doing the (new) show was a really great opportunity for me to show who I really am."
Being herself, or some version thereof, has paid off. Kardashian is the queen of social media, using Twitter to confab with her followers and promote products, such as her new Belle Noel jewelry line, while also sharing details from her life: "Have u ever felt so sick u can't get up and go to work? That's how I feel today, but I have an important shoot!," reads one January post. On her blog, fans can read about what she's wearing and how to apply makeup to look just like her.
And haters be damned.
"You obviously want people to like you. You obviously want people to accept you. At first, it was really difficult, it was really hard just to hear negative comments," Kardashian says. "'Oh, you're famous for being famous, you don't work, what is your job.' It would be so much easier for me to list what I don't do as opposed to what I do actually do."
Few career missteps so far
The sisters' one high-profile snafu so far? The Kardashian Kard, a prepaid debit card that got slammed in November for excessive fees, including a $59.95 to $99.95 activation charge.
"We were misinformed on a few things. I don't want to get into it," Jenner says; the sisters ended their Kard deal. "If we didn't have a stumble now and again, it wouldn't be life. You live and you learn and you go forward and try not to make that mistake again."
Not that Kardashian has any shortage of revenue streams. She picks footwear that gets sent to members on Shoedazzle.com. Her Kim Kardashian by bebe collection includes everything from hoop earrings to a velvet corset dress. Kardashian Konfidential, the book she co-wrote with her sisters, reveals the sisters' beauty and style tips. You can smell like her, courtesy of a $65 eponymous fragrance sold at Macy's. And the Kardashians have a deal to sell their K-Dash clothing collection on QVC.
"I think I'm booked up until May," she says.
Jenner warned her daughters years ago to never read "the blogs or the stuff out there, don't read the crap. It will bring you down. We just ignore it and move on and do the best we can."
Kardashian is so polished in interviews that it's virtually impossible to get a read on, or feel for, her, even after spending time with her. The reality star always has her public persona on and addresses everyone — from her driver to her sisters — in the same smooth, mellifluous voice.
Kardashian swears she's boring. She says she doesn't really drink or party. "I have to get sleep," she says. "Sleep is so important to me."
Except when she's working. Kardashian, on a chilly November night, is getting ready with her sisters to launch their ill-fated Kard with a bash at a club in midtown. An hour before show time, Kardashian dashes down the hallway of the Smythe Hotel, fully made up and clad only in a short white robe. She's en route to have her hair and makeup touched up by her beauty team, sharing a room with Kourtney, who's perusing her talking points. Minutes earlier, her nephew Mason had toddled through the hall, accompanied by a doting but wary Scott Disick (Kourtney's boyfriend, Mason's dad). "Come on, son," he says, picking the boy up and giving him a kiss.
It's frigid out, but fans are lined up outside the hotel, hoping to see the sisters.
Is it like this every night for them? "Yeah. So, I mean, it's fun to meet them. You walk outside and stop and take pictures. You figure if someone's waiting there and it's cold, I feel bad," Kim says. "We do what we can to make them happy."
Giving fans what they want. Klear. Klever. Very Kardashian.
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