n the most recent of her three best-selling memoirs, Secrets of the Monarch: What the Dead Can Teach Us About Living a Better Life, Allison DuBois, the female medium who inspired the hit paranormal detective television series, Medium, discusses the pitfalls of celebrity.
'I learned that journalists don't always print the truth about you, as many of my celebrity friends had warned me would happen, and you'll never get an apology for the reporter's lack of truth,' she writes.
Her anxiety about being misrepresented is understandable - conscious lies are published
every day, and to disturbing effect - but the expectation also works against her.
DuBois is on tour promoting her new book and the fourth series of the show, which features Patricia Arquette (who won an Emmy for her portrayal of DuBois) and Oscar winner Angelica Huston as the newest cast member.
At 36, DuBois has the physical presence of a late adolescent - slight and engagingly awkward in her hotel armchair. Her finely boned face is obscured by makeup and her hair is luridly dyed. Despite protestations to the contrary, it's as if she lacks confidence in her physical appearance; her large, deep eyes work hard to register all potential threats, and her voice - as flat as bitumen at first, and cornered - takes time to soften.
'You become guarded,' she concedes. 'Emotional shields go up. It's something I also have to do with cases I've worked or bringing the deceased through for the living. If I allow myself to get drawn into it, the reading's not as good, because I've made it about me. So I learned at a very young age how to emotionally pull back and fall apart later.'