I get a lot of reader email, and I love getting to hear from the people who read STA. Sometimes that mail makes me laugh at a boss’ total stupidity or get mad about a backstabbing coworker, but only once has an STA reader email made me cry.
Yesterday, I wrote a post praising Elle magazine advice columist E. Jean for offering an internship to a homeless but incredibly smart and qualified woman who wrote in asking for career advice. It turns out that the letter-writer didn’t know her letter had been published or that she’d been offered an internship - until she read about it here on Save the Assistants.
“B.” is a regular STA reader/commenter and has submitted some great post ideas in the past. Her blog, The Girls’ Guide to Homelessness, is an engaging and eye-opening read. I’m so proud of her and her new gig (she starts her internship on September 1) and hope she’s able to take advantage of this great new opportunity. Mazel tov, “B.”, and your new boss sounds like one awesome woman. I’m honored to have had even the smallest part in helping this happen.
It started as just another letter in the pile that Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean gets every week. Like a lot of us lately, the letter-writer was coping with unemployment and asked E. Jean for help:
I’m currently homeless and living in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I’m educated, I have never done drugs, and I am not mentally ill. I have a strong employment history and am a career executive assistant. The instability sucks, but I’m rocking it as best as I can.
The rest of the letter recounted the story of the homeless young woman applying for a job and bombing the interview. Here’s what E. Jean had to say, after two paragraphs of useful and inspirational job search advice:
Alec Baldwin, whom I’m probably required to love forever for his portrayal of head honcho Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock, has not had a serious longterm relationship since the end of his infamous marriage to Kim Basinger. That said, he’s rarely without a beautiful woman on his arm, and this time the woman is a pretty darn surprising one. Last week, Baldwin arrived at the premiere of his new movie Lymelife with Johanna Cox. If that name rings a bell, Joanna’s claim to fame is winning the Elle magazine reality show Stylista. She apparently works as a junior editor at the magazine, which was her prize from the show. She’s 29, and he’s 51. I don’t know if it was just a date or if it’s the beginning of something major, but my brain might have just exploded from the amount of assistant/boss stuff going on in this post.
Anna Wintour, the patron saint of bad celebrity bosses, may be stepping down from her post as Editor in Chief of fashion bible Vogue. The known assistant and intern torturer won’t comment on whether she’s departing from her cushy gig. However, Gawker has some evidence as to why ‘Nuclear’ Wintour might be on the way out:
Men’s Vogue recently got downgraded from 12 issues a year to 2. Apparently, Wintour didn’t even try to stick up for the magazine.
Main rival Elle is one of the only magazines, fashion or otherwise, that’s on the upswing in terms of revenue, ad pages, and a successful TV partnership (first Project Runway and now Stylista).
Her contract is up
Although she seems nonplussed by all the bad press she’s gotten, it’s possible that being widely hated has finally gotten to be too much for her.
One other noteworthy item: Wintour’s daughter, Bee Shaffer, is about to graduate from Columbia and enter the job force. What better way to retire than to groom your perfect replacement?
Anne Slowey, fashion news editor of Elle magazine and star of the upcoming CW reality show Stylista, has an interview with the L.A. Times about the show’s impending debut. The show is about aspiring fashion mag editors competing for the chance to work as Slowey’s assistant, and the clips of the pilot make it look like she’s really working her inner Wintour. Here are some choice (and ridiculous) quotes:
What do assistants — or “junior editors” — at Elle do?
Well! This will be interesting to figure out when it comes time for the person to begin the job! People keep saying they’re working for me — I haven’t been told they are. . . . So they’ll probably do a rotation — like a first-year med student!
Usually that position makes like $20,000 a year or something, right?
I think it’s more than that! I should know. I think my assistant makes closer to $30,000. I feel like when we started it was $18,000, $20,000.
The CW has released short clips from their upcoming reality show Stylista (the one where aspiring fashion assistants compete for the chance to be an indentured servant to Anne Slowey), and it looks like Slowey is more than OK with abusing assistants to make good TV. She seems to be deliberately channeling the Devil in Prada herself, with the big glasses, all-white office, and generally bitchy demeanor. In this clip, which seems to come from the premiere episode, the wannabe assistants have to put together what I’m guessing is a tray containing Slowey’s breakfast.
First clip is here, to be continued after the jump.
Yesterday Tyra Banks announced a new reality show where aspiring fashion magazine editors competed for a job. We speculated that the show would be based around Elle, and we were right. Word on the street for awhile has been that editor Anne Slowey (who you may remember from the first season of Project Runway, where she was skinny and had white-blond hair and was kind of uptight) was jealous of colleague Nina Garcia’s fame as a PR judge and wanted a reality show of her own. Well, now she has one, even though she has to share it with Tyra. (And we all know how much Tyra likes to share.)
[Slowey is the fur-less one on the left.]
Considering how Anne Slowey treats her interns, this ought to be a hell of a show.
Tyra Banks may be annoying and kinda twitchy, but I have to give her props for creating a viable TV brand with America’s Next Top Model. Now, she’s teaming up with coproducer Ken Mok for a new show that will have aspiring fashion assistants competing for a job. The show, which will appear on the CW network in late spring or early summer, will feature aspiring fashion magazine editors creating pages for a mock publication and participating in group and team challenges. The show’s winner will get “a job in the fashion industry,” although it’s not clear exactly what that job will be.
Apparently, the show is looking for a real magazine to partner with. Maybe those rumors we’ve heard about an Elle magazine assistant reality show are going to pan out?
Interns at Teen Vogue get their own TV show. Interns at Elle? According to this Gawker post… instead of kisses, they get kicks. Here’s an excerpt from a letter Elle interns got chastizing their behavior (to be fair, some of this is probably warranted, albeit badly delivered):
Hi Guys,
There are a few really important things that I’d like to go over with all of you.
1. DON’T BE LATE
Interning at ELLE is an opportunity that a lot of people would kill for, and while it isn’t paid, it is a chance for you to learn a lot about magazines and your role is actually crucial to the work that we do. When you interview and accept this job, part of that includes coming in 3 days a week and being ON TIME at 9am. This past week many of you have been very late and that has put us in a terrible situation. We are shooting almost every single day until Christmas and we have important things that need to be done right away in the morning.
2. DON’T LEAVE EARLY
I came back from my shoot today in the afternoon and there were no interns to check in anything and we had a TON of things that came in for 2 different run-thru. I know this seems like a tedious task but it is probably the MOST important thing in the accessories dept. If you have a job, or school, Alexis needs to know well in advance your schedule. If you had previously committed to a certain schedule for the semester, please try not to change it in the middle.
Alec Baldwin, whom I’m probably required to love forever for his portrayal of head honcho Jack Donaghy on 
Anna Wintour, the patron saint of bad celebrity bosses, may be stepping down from her post as Editor in Chief of fashion bible Vogue. The known 
Anne Slowey, fashion news editor of Elle magazine and star of the upcoming CW reality show Stylista, has an 