This new reality series follows a diverse group of struggling junior assistants as they toil for three glamorous, highly successful celebrity stylists. The series follows the young junior assistants on the job - music videos, movie premieres, photo shoots - and in their personal lives as they find romance, plot against each other, and try to make it big in a cut-throat industry. At the end of each season, one junior assistant will be signed to a stylist contract with the Margaret Maldonado agency. The Stylist turns the reality competition format upside-down, with no staged challenges or eliminations. The jobs are real, the stakes are real and for these young people, the prospect of success or failure is very real. Organic performance evaluations will always allow the viewer a sense of who’s ahead and who’s in trouble. And because the junior assistants are always faced with the knowledge that only one of them will get signed, they are always looking into the faces of their competition.
A couple of things.
1. What the fuck is an organic performance evaluation? Is it made of soy? Does it require compost?
2. The show is produced by Bunim-Murray, the people responsible for The Real World and - even better - The Real World/Road Rules Challenge. Will Coral be on this show to make fun of the assistants? Because I would watch that.
3. Why did they choose this title? Are they aware of the existence of Stylista?
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.
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