The Devil Wears Prada Wasn't Fiction?!?

Running in Heels, the new reality show about three interns at Marie Claire, is so horrifying, so cringe-inducing, so nightmarish, that i may never be able to read the magazine again. Seriously.

The first day the interns are given some "words of wisdom" by one of the assistant fashion editors, or directors, or consultants or something...; don't wear spaghetti straps or anything too tight, no chewing gum, and oh yeah, don't speak unless spoken to.



!!!!!!!!



Er.....isn't this supposed to be a magazine for women to help them feel beautiful and powerful and liberated and all that crap? And these girls can't even speak unless spoken to?! If i had been one of those girls i wouldn't have been capable of speaking for at least two hours out of pure shock. I have been reading fashion magazines for years, but i have never run across any advice like this. Somehow i just can't see Marie Claire having an article entitled "Silence is Golden: Why You Should Just Keep Quiet at Work." It's just beyond ludicrous that these people would have such huge egos that they would actually say this to someone with a straight face.

So then, after this enlightening conversation, one of the interns, Ashley, is reprimanded by the aforementioned you-hush-your-mouth assistant/editor/director/consultant blah blah blah because she repacked some clothes from a fashion shoot incorrectly. She was told that if she didn't know how to do something, i.e., pack clothes, then she should ask. Wouldn't that be a little hard to do what with the duct tape over her mouth to ensure she doesn't accidentally speak? Now, granted, this Ashley person is an insufferable prig, but still--how was she supposed to know that she should have removed the duct tape for long enough to ask the proper way to pack clothes?

Also, as it turns out, the famous Nina Garcia has come to Marie Claire to be the new fashion director, and everyone is falling all over themselves in order to impress her. She accepts all of this doting with a smug half-smile. One of the things the magazine is doing in a desperate bid to become Nina's bff, is throwing her a party during Fashion Week. Joanna Coles, the editor-in-chief, who seems like the most decent person in that hell-hole, is so so so stressed because what if enough celebrities don't show up?! What, oh what, shall we do?! But the thing she is most stressed about is that the gift bags for the starving, destitute celebrities have September's issue of Marie Claire and not October's, nor is there a huge poster up of the October issue. This is a major crisis because Lindsay Lohan is on the cover of October and she is supposed to be attending the party, but, as Joanna says, "she may be offended" if she does not see herself blown up 9000 times, not to mention the fact that people may even forget who she is if they don't take her home on the cover of her magazine! So Joanna has Ashley run out and buy every copy of October she can find and bring them back so they can switch it out in the gift bags. *Whew!* Crisis averted that time!

The whole thing is just so unbelievable that i just.......can't believe it. It is exactly like The Devil Wears Prada only without Meryl Streep. The importance these people place on themselves and their jobs is waaaaay over-inflated. I like fashion as much as the next girl, but honestly--where does this sense of importance come from? It's a fashion magazine--they're not curing cancer!

I give this a "Gah!" and a "Oh brother!"