By Christina Garibaldi and Tim Kash
Yesterday, Tim Kash had the pleasure of talking with Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson about her long-awaited self-titled debut LP. Hudson spoke candidly about the challenges of creating the album, which she described as a personal and intimate disc filled with power ballads and hip-hop tracks. But at the start of the interview, when Tim brought up the song “Pocketbook,” he ended up confusing Hudson, not to mention the other women in the room. In the song, Hudson sings, “Don’t make me hit you with my pocketbook,” to a man who’s trying to pick her up. So naturally Tim asked Hudson whether she’d actually done such a thing, saying that it would really hurt to be hit with a laptop. Hold up — a laptop? Clearly Tim is not up on his fashion, but let’s give him a chance to defend himself.

OK, hold on a second. This isn’t fair. Pocketbook, notebook — it’s an easy mistake to make. When I heard the song “Pocketbook,” I genuinely had an image of JHud picking up a silver Mac or perhaps a big diary book and throwing it at some guy’s head. I mean, let’s be honest: She looks capable. Thinking about it now, yes, it does seem a little too violent to throw a laptop at somebody, but really, how am I meant to know that JHud (and a lot of other women, apparently) calls her handbag a pocketbook? It’s an easy mistake to make, right? The word “handbag” makes sense. It does exactly what it says — it’s a bag you carry in your hand. But a pocketbook makes you think of a book that fits in your pocket or at least a big notepad of sorts, no?

I’ve seen “Sex and the City,” so I do know more than I should about Christian Louboutin shoes and Balenciaga handbags. So let’s just chalk this one up as an understandable mistake and a new word added to my vocab.