Stylista judge and Elle creative director Joe Zee may or may not be ruining the magazine, may or may not be polluting the magazinewith shirtless model boys, but most certainly is leveraging the magazine to cement his own brand.
Enter "From A to Zee," the most clever take on "From A to Z" since Centrum's "From A to Zinc." Zee's new web feature is a 26-page listing of his favorite things for fall; if popular, we see the feature returning in the winter, spring, and that season when everybody leaves New York.
But as with any "A to Z" list, where objects of desire must begin with the letter of the alphabet on whose page they appear, we're never impressed with what they can come up with for letters like B, G, or M. Give a second-grader some blocks with letters on 'em, and he'll be able to find a word that begins with C ("car") or H ("harlequin").
It's those tricky letters, like Q, X, Y, and Z, that must impress us.
Inevitably, X always turns into something that is "Xtreme" (as it does with Zee's list) or "X Marks the Spot," as it does in Departure magazine's "Dress Code: The A-to-Z Style Guide" this month. But how does Zee manage with for the rest of the challenging alphabet? CONTINUED »
The premiere of Elle's reality show Stylista has been moved up a week. It now hits the CW on Oct. 22 at 9pm. We updated our BlackBerry calendar before even typing this. [TVW]
According to a handful of Elle staffers we've spoke with in the past few weeks, the magazine's editor, Robbie Myers, is actually pretty well liked by many on the masthead. Sure, she has her flaws ("What's with the constant giggling?" snipes one; she's always in a "shitty mood," counters another) and we've been fed plenty of anecdotes to squeeze her in to some Jossip copy, but might Ms. Myers actually be running a fashion magazine and have the respect of her staff? Pity, then, that in New York's feature this week about the feud between soon-to-be-ex-Elle staffer Nina Garcia and fashion news director and Stylista face Anne Slowey, Myers didn't get to have her say. Though quizzed by the article's author (Gawker Media's Moe Tkacik) about Project Runway and Stylista, Myers wasn't asked about the supposed bad blood between her two minions. And that doesn't sit well with her: "That story is full of quotes about why I did what I did, how could they possibly know why I did anything or what motivated me to do anything in my job, unless they ask me? Even if someone else where to speculate about why I did something, the fact that nobody called me even to fact check it is egregious." (Myers has written us notes before, saying some of our coverage hurt her, too.) And there's the rub: Tkacik is, by profession, a blogger (from Jezebel to Gawker in some twisted job hijacking involving Radar), and we're trained not to ask those type of questions that might have you confuse us with journalists. But if her work is going to appear in New York, well, perhaps it should have met higher standards — and reported all sides of the story. By not doing so, well, this mini scandal stays alive.
It comes down to this: Nina Garcia and Anne Slowey played for separate teams under the same owner. Garcia, the former Elle fashion director who's now connected to the magazine in name only, was a protege of creative director Gilles Bensimon, who did not time to check his wristwatch for incoming Elle editor Robbie Myers, who arrived in 2000. Slowey, the fashion news editor and star of Elle's new fall reality show Stylista, is in the Myers camp, though perhaps only because she wasn't in the Bensimon camp.
Which isn't to say these two never got along — they did — but in the end, it explains why we've heard handfuls of stories, about both sides, trading gossip about each other. CONTINUED »
Jonathan Van Meter's New York magazine cover story this week about plastic surgery — really, is there more to be said about people in this city having work done? — had, like anesthesia gone wrong, one unexpected side effect: outing an anonymous source who plans to get plastic surgery for her 60th birthday. It didn't take much sleuthing to finger the woman as Elle publisher Carol Smith. Gracefully owning up to the detective work, Smith says her face lift will have to wait; she's moving apartments.
Know who's getting in the way of Jessica Simpson remaking herself as a country star? Elle. You might think the magazine's styling her in tight jeans, a plaid shirt, and a cowboy belt buckle — all, likely, insisted upon by daddy Joe — is part of her transformation away from dumb blonde "pop star." And it tried to be. But the Photoshop mess is getting in the way. Though her head may be properly placed on her body — Elle recently had this problem with Mariah Carey — there is something plainly wrong with the bend of her hips and the positioning of her legs, not to mention the torso from the miniatures shop. Ms. Simpson's blonde locks aren't the only artificial things on this magazine.
Nina Garcia, currently appearing on Project Runway's fifth season as Elle's "editor-at-large," is, as you already know, totally done with Robbie Myers' mag and has not-so-quietly moved on to Marie Claire. And though she doesn't officially start there until Sept. 2, she's already moved into her office — perhaps because the one Elle was keeping for her is lined with glass shards. (Marie Claire denies she's started working there, citing Garcia's contract with Elle; they insist she's only been in the office to coordinate fashion show travel.)
And while Garcia is definitely a commodity worth grabbing for Marie Claire — which is expected to scoop up Project Runway when it moves to Lifetime — it turns out the relationship might not be a match made in couture heaven. CONTINUED »
Once upon a time we ran some insider speculation that Joe Zee, Elle's always smiling creative director and judge on this fall's Stylista, was ruining the magazine. Today none of that matters, because there is a more interesting storyline: Zee hasn't spoken to Nina Garcia since she "left" the magazine for Marie Claire. Then again, who who from Elle is talking to Garcia? After the saucy way she left things with publisher Carol Smith, and the much-talked-about feuding between Garcia and editor-in-chief Robbie Myers, it's not like there's constant Twittering between the two parties. [MB]
With Elle's reality show Stylista in the can, The CW screened the first episode on Saturday for critics at the Television Critics Association's event in L.A. If reports are to be believed, it's quite scathing! As we could tell back in May, the show's real appeal comes from fashion news director Anne Slowey, who's Miranda Priestly-d herself into an on-air diva.
Slowey claims to have carried 32 goldfish in 32 separate bowls to a woman's house, without killing them, as part of her duties on Day One at Vogue. She also claims that on Stylista, she's "just being myself." Heh. CONTINUED »
Madonna on Out. Jennifer Aniston on Redbook. Kelly Clarkson on Elle. All of these are shining examples of magazines Photoshopping their cover subjects to within a inch of reality. Pop superstars replaced with alien lifeforms. Body parts swapped in and out. Arm, torso, and ass fat replaced with white space.
Now, Elle is adding Mariah Carey to the esteemed list of cartoons. CONTINUED »
This latest, three-frickin'-minute-long promo for Elle's reality show Stylista is the most comprehensive overview of what this show is going to be about. Despite the insider gossipmongering, which labeled the show a "trainwreck", you have no choice but to be excited about this television program. CONTINUED »
Harvey Weinstein's brilliant, and inevitable, business model for Project Runway now includes a new cash infusion: dollars from the magazine. When he was first shopping the show around in the early 200s, most magazines passed on the opportunity to be attached, and Elle was the only taker. It's been a brand boon for the Hachette fashion book, but after the fifth season, they're gonna lose it. And whoever wants the opportunity to work with Runway, now on Lifetime, will have to pay for the privilege. Seven figures, anyone?
In a new interview in Elle's July issue, Mary-Kate Olsen refuses to be interviewed about Heath Ledger. "I'm not going to comment on that. I won't give you a word about that in the nicest way possible. Let's move on." [People]
The sniping inside Elle continues, and the fella with the biggest target on his head is creative director Joe Zee.
Fresh off bitter internal reviews of the the magazine's reality show Stylista comes more criticism of Zee, who, with editor Robbie Myers, threw a viewing party for the twosome's Ugly Betty season finale cameos.
"Your story about the hype of the '1 second' cameo for Joe Zee on Ugly Betty was very accurate," says a spy. "No one could believe he would throw a party for such a thing. He is such a lens fly - will do or go anywhere to get on TV."
But it's not just Zee's vanity that's vexing staffers. It's what it's costing the magazine. A source says all of Zee's personal vamping and obsession with being on TV – and, apparently, in the magazine: he's spotted with Rihanna in her issue's table of contents – means "he has taken his eye off the ball at his day job." Translation? CONTINUED »
After all the chatter, Elle editor Robbie Myers and creative director Joe Zee made brief – we're talking approx. one full second each – appearances on last week's season finale of Ugly Betty, playing themselves when their magazine battled the show's Mode in a softball match. (Spoiler: Mode won, but they had Naomi Campbell on their side.)
We won't sweat the duo for throwing a viewing party in their own honor, which they did at the Tribeca Grand. (We'd be writing our moms, too, if we appeared on Betty!) And it's clear that they made the most of their bit parts: "Myers switched her line to Williams after striking out to 'Bite this' from 'Bite me' because the latter sounded too crude, while Zee ad-libbed his own zinger [aimed at Williams' character]: 'I'm not going to be distracted by how fat you look in white.'" Brill!
One Elle staffer reacted to their appearance in this way: "It was great for the magazine from [a branding perspective], but they came across as complete assholes … which I guess is how Joe likes to be perceived anyhow."
Editorial Director
