According to the New York Post, a typical day in the life of Olympia Dukakis's personal assistant consists of rendering a second opinion on a movie contract, dropping off her dry cleaning, picking up her dog's gourmet dog food, and suggesting ideas for marketing Dukakis's new salad dressing. Salaries range from $30,000 to $100,000, plus perks. What sort of perks? Well, this isn't typical, but Carol Burnett gave her assistant a Land Rover for her birthday. Of course, not just celebrities need assistants. These days, just about any busy person could use one. Niches: executives, college presidents, wealthy widows, and your run-of-the-mill busy middle incomer. Sometimes, the job may be more like an office assistant: word-processing a report, coordinating a project, handling the bookkeeping, but Beth Berg makes a good living with none of that. She started "Dial a Wife." She'll plan the meal, wait for the plumber, take Sara (and her friends) to ballet, perhaps plant your herb garden, even do the initial househunting. Sounds like a traditional wife, but she gets paid $40 an hour. Berg's first ad simply said, "Buy time." Personal Assistants International: www.igginc.com/iggi/pai/pai.htm.
http://www.martynemko.com/articles/cool-careers-excerpt_id1504#per
