THE worst job I ever had was beauty editor of Elle Magazine.
Never have I been around so many nasty French people and nastier fake French people. There were more accents – real and pretend – around that office than on Ellis Island in 1910.
But at Ellis Island, even the INS wasn’t mean enough to turn people away for bad taste!
So, I get a huge kick out of the new crop of TV shows that portray the wondrous world of fashion that awaits adventurous single women in NYC. Right. If you want to marry a gay man, worry about wool and starve – it may just be the adventure of a lifetime.
“Stylista,” which debuts tonight, is the latest fake but very entertaining, fashion-is-life “reality” show. This one is about a bunch of contestants who vie for a gig at Elle magazine. Let me be the first to tell you that the show is much more fun than actually working at Elle.
“Stylista” is a TV knock-off – stolen from “Devil Wears Prada,” “Project Runway,” “Ugly Betty,” and “The Apprentice.” The contestants are supposed to be aspiring fashion assistants – even though one owns a boutique, another is a freelance stylist and another is already an assistant at Calvin Klein.
The best thing about the show is the contestants, a compelling mix of the mentally unstable, the mean and incredibly shallow.
But there are some genuinely likeable people like the gorgeous, caring Ashlie and Danielle, who is overweight, wears “Ugly Betty” glasses and is so unlike the others that she’s pure joy to watch.
The worst thing? The “Elle” staffers who sit in judgement of the contestants.
Unlike the best reality show judges – The Donald who is a huge, brash, colorful New York character, Tim Gunn, an engaging caricature of a fussy fashion-type and even Heidi Klum, a perfectly sweet dominatrix – the Elle editors do not engage us.
Creative Director Joe Zee is fine – he’s all business and gives good advice.
Anne Slowey, on the other hand, is not made for TV. She looks like Madonna when the Material Madam dresses up for kiddie book signings at the Kabbalah Center – same hairstyle, same when-librarians-go-bad dresses, same pseudo-sounding English accent. (Nice to see some things havechanged at Elle. French accents must be out.)
On the first show the contestants have to bring Slowey breakfast on a tray. What? I thought they were supposed to be assistants – not room-service waiters.
Still, the show is a lot of fun. Like playing dress-up when you were a kid – and about as realistic.
“Stylista”
Tonight at 9 on The CW