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Every week, when we watch The City, we're flabbergasted at just how far fashion industry professionals and respected editors will go—how stupid they're willing to make themselves look, how far they're willing to professionally discredit themselves—just to be on television.
In this weekend's NY Times, it's all confirmed. Elle editor-in-chief Roberta Myers tells the Times that it's all for exposure:
“I thought it was a good idea for us to do ‘Project Runway.’ That was not necessarily the popular view around here. But my feeling was that we should be in as many mediums as we could be as a brand when appropriate,” she said. “We want exposure.”Perhaps this is what separates Elle from Vogue, which is notorious for being very protective of its image. Though Teen Vogue involved its Los Angeles office in the first few seasons of The Hills—allowing Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port to fake-intern there—Conde Nast quickly pulled the plug when it realized the show was taking a soap-opera turn:Ms. Myers said she is not concerned that some of the more unpleasant aspects of a workday at Elle will reflect poorly on the magazine. “I think we are very aware what makes interesting television,” she said.
“As we were going into the fourth season, the girls were getting older. They were going to bars. They were meeting guys,” said Amy Astley, the Teen Vogue editor in chief who ended the magazine’s relationship with “The Hills” after three seasons. “And Teen Vogue is very wholesome.”· Elle, Not Camera Shy, Embraces Reality TV [NYT]
· If you're pretty, you don't have to be competent or reliable to work at Elle [Racked]
· Whitney Port gets a reality check from Joe Zee and Anne Slowey [Racked]