Tyra Banks announced yesterday that her self-titled talk show would be ending this season. That announcement was reportedly news to the show’s crew, whom she neglected to inform separately. Many of the show’s crew were from L.A., where the show had originally been based before Tyra worked out a deal to get more money for herself if the show was in New York. [In case you're wondering, she did not offer additional pay or moving expenses for the crew who opted to move cross-country with the show.] Now, several former employees have dished to the New York Daily News about Tyra’s reign of terror:
“There had been high turnover of employees for years,” a past crew member says, insisting that many people quit after just a few months because it was “pretty difficult to work for Tyra.”
“She and the higher-ups on the production staff could be extremely brutal,” the source says. “She really is a diva.”
“When the show moved from L.A. to New York, several staffers weren’t even directly told about the change – they heard through the grapevine that it was going to move locations. Even so, a lot of those people gave up their lives on the West Coast so they could continue working for the show. Now they’re out of luck.”
I thought in spirit of today’s post I’d pull some old Tyra-related stories, including the one about the truth behind her “apartment makeovers” and this one about a former assistant suing her. Enjoy!
It’s been an interesting few weeks for ex-assistant lawsuits, hasn’t it? First Patricia Heaton, and now newly-minted Emmy winner Tyra Banks. TMZ, who apparently has a staffer permanently camped out at the Los Angeles County courthouse, has obtained a copy of a lawsuit against Tyra by one of her former assistants, Richard Thomas:
Thomas is suing for back wages plus a little extra. The complaint says Thomas wants the money for “services rendered as assistant and advisor.”
Exactly what kind of “advising” was he doing? Did he just tell her which of the two wigs she was choosing between looked prettier on her? And doesn’t $5K seem like kind of a small lawsuit? This does not seem to be as juicy as the Patricia Heaton lawsuit, but you never know.
Fox411 reports that Tyra Banks is on a diet, and she’s taking it so seriously that friends aren’t allowed to eat non-approved foods in her presence lest they tempt her to do the same.
Now, the Fox story doesn’t go this far, but I think it’s completely plausible to guess that her assistants and coworkers also can’t eat in her presence, unless it’s some weird “the rules don’t apply while working” diet (which is totally unlikely, considering how many projects Tyra is working on at any given time – if she didn’t diet while working, her diet would be irrelevant).
Lest you think our lady TyTy is starving her friends and coworkers, she is eating. The food she banned is only stuff that she also isn’t allowed to eat. According to the article, she’s permitted fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and lots of water. Mmmm, celery sticks for everyone!
This week’s New York Times magazine cover story is about the world of Tyra Banks. As a model, TV host, and businesswoman, the magazine profiles her as the possible next Martha or Oprah, a woman who is also a brand. While it’s not the easiest article to get through (the online edition is ten pages long), particularly if you find Ty-Ty’s personality to be a bit grating, it’s worth pointing out that the article is full of assistants.
First, a photo of Tyra that accompanies the article is of her being prepped for a shoot by several assistants (one is applying her lipstick, one seems to be holding a comb, and I have no idea what the third one is doing). Later, Tyra talks about how she got rid of her BlackBerry and now writes everything down in a notebook, where each of her assistants (the number is never stated) has his or her own tab.
However, one of the most interesting parts of the interview is the presence of Bradford Sisk. He’s the VP of Tyra’s production company, Bankable, and got his start as her assistant. I find it pretty cool whenever a celebrity helps his or her assistant to get work–Kimora Lee Simmons, for example, has rewarded a former PA with a high level publicity job at Baby Phat. Maybe Tyra recognized something special in Bradford and used her power to get him a job worthy of his talents. Or maybe he just proved to be so adept at dealing with her bullshit that she can’t afford not to keep him around. Either way, there’s a lot of assistanty stuff going on in the world of Miss Tyra, and this is even before her new reality show starts.
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?
From Gawker comes an exclusive, and hilarious, look at a taping of an episode of The Tyra Banks Show. Turns out that production assistants on the show have many important tasks to perform–like returning items from a ‘bedroom makeover’ back to Bed Bath & Beyond the second the cameras stop rolling.
Enjoy this excerpt below, or read the whole sordid thing.
Finally around 5 the show starts, nothing spectacular but I noticed that on the show there was a segment where Tyra redecorates a couples apartment. She has the apartment staged in her studio. Tyra also claims to have shopped for herself. When they finally start the horrible decorating, I notice it is everything I saw the PA’s returning from Bed Bath and Beyond with. Sorry but I do not want my apartment decorated by BBB. The show was about Expensive and Cheap clothes, make up, furniture and party planning. During the show Tyra keeps letting us know how cheap she is. By the looks of that show – she is too cheap.
