Even though her ex-boyfriend is a tool of the highest caliber, I get the impression that Anne Hathaway is kind of rad. I mean, compare her to other Hollywood starlets of about her age and fame level: Anne a) is named after Shakespeare’s wife, b) went to college, and c) and has never been photographed (at least that I know about) without underwear on. Plus, her most famous role to date was playing the fictionalized version of Anna Wintour’s ex-assistant Lauren Weisberger in the movie adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.
Something else I respect about her? She seems to genuinely love and support her older brother Michael. Anne has a well-established history of supporting gay rights groups and causes, and Michael’s homosexuality was one reason she became an activist. In one interview, Anne says that she strayed from the Catholic tradition she was raised in because the Church criticized gay people. Now, in the January issue of Vogue (she’s on the cover, which ought to disprove that “Anna Wintour had everyone from The Devil Wears Prada blacklisted” theory), Anne mentions that Michael is her personal assistant. That puts her among celebrities like Kelly Clarkson, Heather Mills, Kat Von D, and Perez Hilton, all of whom have a sibling as their PA. I’m willing to bet she and Michael are really tight, and I also bet they’re pretty fun to hang out with.
Sure, finance magazines can rate all the CEOs they want to based on performance, but the real people who have insight into what makes a good or bad CEO are the employees who have to work with him or her every day. Glassdoor.com polled workers at Fortune 500 companies and asked them to rate their bosses. They then calculated approval ratings and came up with their “naughty and nice” list.
The best, in order:
- Art Levinson of Genetech
- Steve Jobs of Apple
- Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman, Sachs
- Eric E. Schmidt of Google
And the worst:
- Steve Odland of Office Depot
- Anthony LeFetra of Rainbird
- Randy Falco of AOL
- Greg Brown of Motorola
With the world of print and online media in a freefall, a lot of aspiring journalists have decided to pursue alternate career paths. One example is Adam Brock, one of the stars of the MTV reality show The Paper, which followed the staff of a high school newspaper and was a surprise hit for the network. Adam spoke to the always-entertaining Jossip.com about his plans for the future - and in it, he revealed a very interesting fact about the state of assistantdom at MTV.
The shift in the economy was definitely a major factor in my decision. I’ve been seeing so many people laid off and so many people looking for work. I was actually just talking to one of [the producers of The Paper], who was at UCF to film a new show, Engaged and Underage, and she asked me if I could do her a favor and go out and help flier the campus. I was like, “Don’t you guys have PAs doing that?” But they didn’t. They couldn’t afford PAs. When large media corporations like MTV are running out of money, it makes me think about how I don’t want to be out of work by the age of 30.
Yikes. Good luck to you, Adam, and even more good luck to the overworked and likely underpaid MTV staffers who are now having to do assistant and intern level work just to remain employed.
Remember Alex Haines? He used to be the assistant to Amy Winehouse’s manager, and he and Amy had a brief fling last year. Well now, he has realized there’s money to be made from selling out Amy to the British tabloids. In an interview with The News of the World, Alex dishes plenty about Amy’s daily routine and personal life. Among other sordid revelations:
He says: “It was like having my own little porn star. Amy was so dirty—she wanted sex all the time. We did it four or five times a day and she’d even wake me up for it. She was addicted to sex like she was to drugs.”
“I was my job to look after her. But it was impossible,” he says. “I thought she wouldn’t survive the year with all the drugs and self-harming. Cutting herself was her favourite pastime.”
Also, one more interesting item - according to the article, Alex was Amy’s assistant, not her manager’s. That certainly goes against what I’ve heard before. The original article about their hookup appeared last year in The Sun, and they also spelled Alex’s last name “Haynes.” What gives? Sounds like these tabloids could stand to coordinate and get their stories to match up, just for the sake of sounding more legit.
Iowa City, Iowa (home of the University of Iowa) is considering banning happy hour. Yes, happy hour, the joy of cubicle slaves the world around. More specifically, they’re thinking about banning “price specials.” In the Quad City Times, it was reported that:
The happy-hour ban would require any bar or restaurant with a liquor license or beer or wine permits to have a written schedule of prices — filed with the city clerk — in effect for at least a week, which means drink prices couldn’t change by the day or hour.
Look, I get that Iowa City might be trying to crack down on underage drinking or binge drinking among college students, but why do so with a law that affects of-age workers who spend all day getting yelled at by their boss or filling out busywork and just want to have a frickin beer?
I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I started seeing ads for The Spirit, I had no idea what the movie was about or why the hell that one dude kind of looked like the Hamburglar. Luckily, Television Without Pity occasionally branches off to explain movies, and this was one of those times. In addition to learning the plots of the comics the movie is based on, I found out that there’s an assistant in the film.
Scarlett Johansson is in full-on bombshell mode as Silken Floss. In the comic strips, Floss was a physicist. However, maybe because the producers didn’t buy Johansson as a scientist, or maybe they decided in a crowded movie they didn’t have room for her storyline, but in the film she’s downgraded to playing the assistant to villain The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). So, wait, you can’t be hot and a genius? I’m withholding judgment since I haven’t seen the movie, but it smells like major downgrade to me.
From the New York Daily News:
Which pop star won’t even throw away her own used hankies? When she gets a case of the sniffles in the recording studio, the high-pitched princess forces an assistant to do it.
I totally think it’s Mariah. If she has an assistant to hold her straw for her, she can definitely get an assistant to throw out her used tissues.
A lot of celebrity assistants wind up assisting people other than their boss. For example, a lot of celebrity assistants get stuck being a nanny when the celebrity doesn’t want to take care of his or her own child. From today’s Page Six comes word that J.Lo’s assistant was dispatched to go on tour with Marc Anthony while J.Lo was home with the kids. Why? To make sure Marc didn’t cheat while he was on the road.
But wait, does J.Lo actually only have one assistant? And if so, what happened while she was away following Marc around on tour? Who acted as J.Lo’s royal food tester? Who lit all of her white Diptyque candles and rubbed her bunions? If Mariah Carey can have like nine assistants I refuse to believe that J.Lo only has one. It’s just not possible.
Hey all. I’m heading back to the Tarheel State for the holidays, but before I cut out for the next couple of days I wanted to let you know that STA - and I - got a nice mention in today’s New York Post. It’s in an article about being forced to lie on the job, something which plenty of assistants know all about.
A few weeks ago I reported that Kirsten Dunst’s seriously badass personal assistant, Elizabeth Donohue, had performed a citizen’s arrest on a guy who was stalking Dunst. The guy, Christopher Smith, is now in police custody. Dunst has just gotten a restraining order against him. The best part? Donohue is also included in the restraining order. Yahoo! reports:
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard E. Rico granted Dunst’s request to order 25-year-old Christopher R. Smith to stay away from the actress, her personal assistant and any place they work.
He may be stalking the famous actress, but her butt-kicking assistant is the one he should really be afraid of.