Does It Pay to Betray?
By Kristen Bellstrom
OFFICE politics are always brutal, but take an
office full of writers—and aspiring writers relegated
to answering phones and making copies—
and things have a tendency to go beyond the usual
break-room bitch sessions. If the ever-expanding list
of tell-alls and roman à clefs is any indication,
most magazines are staffed by more disgruntled
employees than the post office. So you might want
to think twice before sending your new assistant for
that double decaf soy mochaccino. On the other
hand, trashing the boss in print is a risky proposition.
Are these books triumphant revenge or career
suicide?NYRM took a look at the highs and lows of the genre and asked, “Where are they now?”
Slab Rat (2000) Who: Ted Heller, son of novelist Joseph and one-time employee of Spy, Details, Premiere and Vanity Fair. What: A tale of Machiavellian maneuvering at Condé Nast-clone Versailles, publisher of fictitious glossies like It, She, Boy and Ego. Highlights: Standard brown-nosing and ladder-climbing turn deadly at It, a magazine that boasts cover lines like “WHO ARE YOU KIDMAN?” for Nicole Kidman and “HANKS FOR EVERYTHING” for Tom Hanks. We don’t usually endorse murder, but— He Said: “I don’t remember saying, ‘I’m going to base this fictional person on that real person,’” Heller told the Guardian. “But I can see why people would say ‘That’s Anna Wintour’ or ‘That’s Tina Brown.’” His Former Boss Said: Heller’s book got the silent treatment. “It’s just not really politic to comment just now,” an anonymous Condé Naster told the Observer. The Critics Said: The New York Times heckled Heller on details, saying no selfrespecting fashionista would be caught dead in a scrunchy. Fashion faux pas didn’t seem to bother Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post, who put “Slab Rat” on his year-end favorites list. And Now? In 2002, Heller reversed the fact-as-fiction structure of his first book with “Funnymen,” a story about a fictional 1950s comedy duo, written in the form of an oral history. Apparently Heller is not completely burnt out on magazines; he is currently photo editor and senior writer at Nickelodeon magazine.
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2002) Who: British journalist Toby Young. What: A dirt-dishing tell-all about Young’s disastrous three-year stint as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, during which time he published all of 3,000 words before being fired in 1997. Highlights: Young brings a stripper to the magazine offices on “Take Our Daughters to Work Day” and opens an interview with Nathan Lane by asking, “Are you gay?” He Said: “It is not like Condé Nast is the Pentagon and I disclosed secrets and endangered lives,” Young told the St. Petersburg Times. His Former Boss Said: At Young’s farewell dinner, Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, reportedly said Young “lingered [at the magazine] like gum on your shoe.” The Critics Said: “He wore out his welcome on the job and does the same on the page,” wrote Janet Maslin in The New York Times. And Now? The book was adapted into a play, which had a brief run in London, where Young now lives. Young still contributes to the Guardian and the Observer and says he is at work on a novel.
The Devil Wears Prada (2003) Who: Lauren Weisberger, former assistant to Vogue editor Anna Wintour. What: A novel narrated by Andrea Sachs, assistant to Miranda Priestly, editor of the fictional magazine Runway. Sound familiar? Highlights: Marie Antoinette had nothing on Miranda Priestly. Forget cake, Priestly’s assistants are not allowed to eat in her presence or hang their coats next to hers. They can’t leave their desks when she is out of the office, even for the bathroom, for fear that they might miss her call. She Said: “It really is fiction!” Weisberger told USA Today. “I did not write this for revenge.” Her Former Boss Said: Wintour has remained diplomatic. “I look forward to reading the book,” she told the St. Petersburg Times. The Critics Said: Made USA Today’s list of the “10 Worst Books of 2003.” And Now? Weisberger sold the film rights soon after receiving a six-figure advance from her publisher. Simon & Schuster has reportedly purchased the rights to her next book, a novel about a gossip columnist, for $1 million. Whether or not she will ever write for a magazine again remains to be seen, but we doubt you’ll be seeing her byline in Vogue.
The Fabulist (2003)
Who: Stephen Glass, discredited former
journalist who fabricated twenty-seven of the
stories he wrote for The New Republic in the
mid-‘90s.
What: The novel follows a young reporter
who has been caught falsifying his stories. In
case you missed the subtle parallels, the protagonist
is named “Stephen Glass.”
Highlights: We tried to find one,
Stephen, we really did.
He Said: “While inspired by actual events
in my life [the book] is a work of fiction—a
fabrication and, this time, an admitted one,”
wrote Glass in the author’s note.
His Boss Said: Former TNR editor
Chuck Lane, currently a reporter for The
Washington Post, told the Associated Press that
the book depicts Glass’ former colleagues in “a
very, very negative way, and quite inaccurately
and meanly … there’s still a lot about Steve
that doesn’t add up to me.”
The Critics Said: Reviewers mostly
ignored the book. The Buffalo News took it
on, calling it “a superficial confessional of
self-pity, with all the depth of an episode of
Dr. Phil.”
And Now? After being fired from TNR,
Glass validated countless lawyer jokes by
earning a law degree from Georgetown
University. In 2003, he made what may be a
one-time return to journalism, publishing an
article on Canadian drug laws in Rolling Stone.
He is now living in New York and proving
himself the ultimate masochist (or attention
whore) by making the rounds of journalism
school ethics classes.
