Recently, I went to see The Devil Wears Prada 2, and I’m compelled to share what my impressions are having lived that life.

A couple of decades ago, I worked in the last gasp era of the heyday of magazine journalism, where we were just beginning to use digital tools to enhance the design and printing. This was before social media—we were all just getting cell phones!

I worked at five titles, twice at the same magazine, Marie Claire. My first run there was as a fashion assistant, where I really felt the burn of The Devil Wears Prada in real life. A lot of the fashion team had previously worked at Vogue. Here’s a piece about that experience.

The tech effect is real. No one in tech knows how to implement tools to help the business side of publishing effectively, and no one in editorial journalism knows how to ask for what we need. There are still huge problems on both sides of the divide. Ethics concerning advertisers and celebrities, misrepresenting yourself and flat out bending the truth, among them.

While no one will expect hard news from a fashion magazine (although we succeeded at Marie Claire, with our articles on burkas as oppression, FGM and using DNA kits to solve decades old cases of violence against women) well-written culture and lifestyle coverage is to be expected.

My second time around as a Marie Claire staffer, I was head of the research and fact-checking departments. In TDWP2, they didn’t fact-check well enough. There was no mention of fact-checking at all. That was the problem with the fast-fashion sweatshop piece that got them into trouble. TDWP2 script writers, where was the research department? Have budgets been cut back so far to forsake the truth?

I worked with a young editor who had come from Vogue features, and after the TDWP book was first published she swore that the Runway depicted was nothing like her experience. In the fashion department, however, it was very much on target. I always appreciate an epic fashion closet. I remember going to the Bowery, to restaurant supply wholesalers and selecting the stainless steel tables for the fashion closet at MC, a focal point. The closet is THE place to gather and gossip, although its not as much fun when you’re the topic.

Creatives need to ask for more. It’s great seeing Andy, played by Anne Hathaway, step into her destiny, after years of putting in the work. It’s also touching to see Andy and Nigel, played by Stanley Tucci, have each other’s best interest in mind. That’s true to life.

And I’d like it if someone could make mine. Stanley Tucci’s first wife is related to my upstate New York relatives, a second cousin through my great Aunt Josephine from Peekskill, whose maiden name is also Pasquino.

You may know that I’ve written a novel, Allegra, about the earliest version of social media, based on the Talking Statues of Rome, of which Pasquino is the leader. You can read the summary of that book here.

It will be amazing if someone could share the summary and query with Stanley, Anne or even Meryl. (Update: the Nanas are on it). The book will be published next March 2027 and the dramatic rights are currently available. With his Italian heritage, Stanley may well be a Pasquino advocate, also because of the family connection. Want to come on as a producer?

Magazine journalism is so high-low. Like fashion, it can be very glamourous, with a decidedly unglamourous underbelly, like when your stilettos get stuck in a subway grate. It’s one of the first places people brought their comfort animals to work with them.

TDWP2 keeps on chronicling the decline of print. As they say in the film, the magazine “book” is currently only a bit of the content. Now, it’s a takeover by digital media.

Social channels and interaction with readers/consumers online allow us to each publish our own magazine and point of view. Much like posting on Pasquino, we have the freedom of expression to say what we want online, like posting paper notices on the talking statues. Anyone can rip the posts off the statues, and anyone can delete and rip down 140 or more characters online.

It’s been centuries since the Renaissance, and still gossip reigns supreme. Privately owned publications have typically been at the mercy of the whims of their employers, and the billionaires who have the money to purchase these legacy brands, and use them to influence, to say what they want, to shape the conversation.

Stewardship needs to be taken very seriously. Journalism is the fourth estate and holds real power within honor systems that stand the test of time. Social media only amplifies it, as we have seen, blending into the fifth estate, fueled by freedom and tech to see who lives and who dies, who can monetize their blogs or hack the competition to bits.

Integrity is real and can be discerned by those with brains and intuition. Heart is everything, for a higher good, positivity with the best good intentions. None of this is going away, it’s all just changing formats and evolving.—MEZ