Robert Rave’s “novel” Spin isn’t even on sale until tomorrow, but there are already talks of turning it into a feature film. The book, which Rave swears isn’t based on experiences working for his former boss Lizzie Grubman, seems to be on its way to becoming The Devil Wears Prada, 2.0. Unlike Prada, though, the book has a male protagonist, Taylor. He’s a perfect assistant lit cliche - young, wide-eyed, Midwestern, and with aspirations to make it big in New York City. Who could play the role? Some sources claim that High School Musical star Zac Efron is up for the part. This could be a smart move for the teen idol - after all, Prada helped its assistant portrayer Anne Hathaway become a star. It could also help him shed his squeaky clean image - Spin contains plenty of sex, drugs, and blackmail.
The thing I really care about, though, is who will play nightmare PR boss “Jennie.” Jennie is described in the book as being overtanned, coked-up, entitled, and abusive. Perhaps Maya Rudolph as Donatella Versace? Heather Locklear in Amanda Woodward mode? Or maybe this could be the perfect comeback role for Tara Reid…
STA extends a warm welcome to Lisa-Marie from Glasgow, who previously guest-blogged about Jennifer Hudson’s assistant role in the Sex and the City movie. Now, she’s weighing in on Jemma Mackenzie-Brown (pictured), who plays the PA to bratty rich girl Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) in ‘”High School Musical 3.”
“Why the hell does a high school student need a personal assistant?” Lilit demanded to know when she initially broke the news about British actress Jemma Mackenzie-Brown’s casting as Sharpay’s personal assistant in the new High School Musical movie. Well, lots of reasons. There’s prom, finals, graduation… life as a high school senior is a stressful one, and nobody knows that better than East High’s “fabulous” queen bee.
Yeah, you might have noticed the sarcasm there - but life’s about to get more stressful as Sharpay eyes up the big part in what’s going to be the last of the titular High School Musicals for these seniors. While being on hand to help Sharpay learn her lines is probably not the worst thankless task that has come to the attention of Save The Assistants, having to keep to a coordinating wardrobe schedule - that will never, EVER include orange - is a bit more onerous.
Assistant as fashion accessory? Perhaps, when even the “sweet” English accent seems part of the package. But there’s that other old cinematic cliche about English accents - is Tiara Goal what she seems? You’ll have to go see it to find out.
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If you haven’t heard of High School Musical, then…you’re lucky. I’d managed to stay as clear away from the whole tween franchise as I could until I couldn’t sleep on a flight and the only thing on was the second HSM movie–in Spanish. Anyway, HSM is back in full force. They have some reality show on where they audition people for a part in the movie or play or something, hosted by Nick Lachey, and the third HSM movie is coming out on the big screen instead of on TV. The main cast–Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and those other people–is all back, and there’s a new character as well. British actress Jemma McKenzie Brown joins the gang as a transfer student named Tiara who becomes the “personal assistant/Mini-Me” to the school’s resident Paris Hilton knockoff, Sharpay, who is played by Ashley Tisdale (pictured). [Side note: my Spanish isn't that hot, but basically Sharpay is the Veronica to Vanessa Hudgens' Betty, with hair colors reversed. And growing up, I always thought Veronica was badass and could do so much better than that boring Archie.]
Anyway, why the hell does a high school student need a personal assistant? It’s not like she has a job the assistant is supposed to help with. Clearly this is yet another example of the personal assistant as fashion accessory. First dogs, then babies, and now this.