Film school is the journalism school of people who can't write. It's a place where kids with vague dreams of "making projects" go to chill out for a few years and learn that you should never call a "film" a "movie." Then they come out and get a shitty job for little money that pays them purely in proximity to power.
The only way to "make it" in the media now is to pay a huge bribe to secure a coveted "intern" slot at a failing media outlet, where you can begin sleeping your way to the top. The going rates?
A young literary agency lass is having trouble making, like, a flowchart of all the publishers! She's taken to the Craigslist personals section for the cure: "I think there's a handful of major conglomerates who own all the main publishers... Does a chart like this exist? I'm a cute girl, and if you help me out I'll send you some free galleys :)" Hey, Ms. Cutie? We just busted you. Consider it your first lesson in tough love, and please take to heart the advice Toby Young just gave me: "Don't get too comfortable. You could be fired in the next 48 hours." In this climate, we're all lucky just to have a job. So do yours.
Aspiring writer and NYU student Jessica Roy got her blogosphere start by throwing a lit-bomb at a surely insufferable party attended by various media scenesters. You might be thinking, "Who cares?" but the most hilarious part of her essay was not its contents, which were equally mocked and praised. It was the fact that grown men such as n+1 editor/novelist Keith Gessen (and others; you know who you are) actually tried to get New York's Daily Intel blog to stop it from being published. Talking about being trapped in a media goldfish bowl! (You're going to call in your one favor with a New York editor for something that petty? Does anyone have any balls?) Young Jess didn't like the New York scene, and moved to Paris (but not because of the silly party). However, now she doesn't like Paris—France suffers from a "startling lack of tofu."Now, it must be said that we met Roy at a party before she escaped New York, and found her perfectly pleasant. But HuffPosts like this aren't helping your cause, Jess! If New York City is not a "place for serious people," as previously alleged, then Paris is a hellhole where you can't get a decent vegetarian meal:
Fired Vanity Fair writer Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (movie version forthcoming) chronicled the Manhattan media hellmouth of the 1990s. It would be much more difficult to make it in print journalism today, he admits to WWD. In fact, he says, if he were trying to start a media-career in the aughts, he'd probably be, like, working as a "slave" for this website in particular—and "sleeping on [Brit It Boy] Euan Rellie's floor":
Nonsociety—it's more than a website, it's a way to "Live Differently." Oh, how we laughed at dating columnist Julia Allison's new "lifestreaming" website that repackages her (and her friends') lives—and is thought to be a run-up to some sort of reality show/dating web show/something. (We called it a professional Tumblr!) But when the Terrible Trio started lifestreaming their search for a giant, airy live-work space, our laughter abruptly stopped. Nothing creates envy in a New Yorker like real estate envy. How does a website that doesn't generate any revenue afford it? We did the unthinkable and asked Julia.After the initial pleasantries were exchanged (Julia: "I thought I was off your radar. It was quite peaceful." Sheila: "It was peaceful for me, too."), Julia denied that Bravo, the network said to be producing a reality show starring the Nonsociety girls, was financing the space. But were they looking for a space that is... filmable, let's say? "Let's put it this way," Julia said. " We need office space that is ... unique. Cameras are a part of our everyday lives, and we anticipate significant filming. I will also be living in the space. Mary may be. Meghan owns a place already so she'll simply be working there." But what about the money? "If you look at it logically, most businesses pay about 5-6k for office space for 5-6 people, which is what we have. Add that to what I already pay for my rent ($2,500/month — Ed) and you have a financially sound decision." So, is Nonsociety—meaning the website's investors—footing half the bill? "Yeah, but it's money we've made, not investors." But how does the website even generate revenue? It's sort of impossible. We'd go so far as to say there is no revenue yet. Well, whatever—genius! They are about to score a sweet live-work pad (tax write-off!) and we're not. Fine, JA—you win this round.
Remember James Kurisunkal, the Illinois college student behind Park Avenue Peerage? It's the other formerly anonymous socialite website, along with the now-defunct Socialite Rank. (He updated it from his dorm room and had never been to New York when he started it—but once New York magazine came sniffing around for a story, they gave him an internship.) "I suppose they spend a lot of time in the Hamptons in the summer," he told the New York Times about the socialites he wrote about from afar. Well, now he can find out for himself—we spy his byline over on Hamptons Style! Aww; we hear he's an associate editor there now. What's he writin'?
US News tells us what to do if we love our job (but hate our boss)—or if we hate both! It's fairly oldfangled: "Write a journal about it... Rereading the entries at a later, less emotional time helped her gain perspective." Whatever, that's for teen girls. The cutting thing to do would be to keep an anonymous blog about your boss on the Internet (once you're OK with eventually being fired for it.)
This Craigslist-ad placer and "bestselling" author has been on the Tyra Banks Show, is willing to pay you $12 an hour (after you pay your own taxes), and just in case you didn't know what an assistant to a "well known author" does: "Did you see Sex in the City? Did you remember the role played by Jennifer Hudson where she's Carrie's assistant? Well, that's what I'm looking for." Oh, and don't reply if you are too good for "occasional light housework." (Even Louise from St. Louis organized Carrie Bradshaw's apartment!) Um, what else?
In an attempt to be servicey (and atone for our sins), we posted the awesomest Craiglist apartment-seeking ad ever—it was a riot of nerdy kookiness. Musician Ed Shepp (our erstwhile advice columnist Tionna Smalls' buddy) was absolutely deluged with responses! To refresh your memory, he was looking for something cheap, "like seriously cheap, like under $700." (In case you think that's impossible, come to my place—I have achieved it.) Read on, because Ed has, too—"Thanks in great part to Gawker!" He's also included a computer rendering of what he hopes to turn his backyard into, complete with a menagerie of plastic lawn ornaments.
Yesterday, a reader asked us: just how the hell does one get a media job in this town? Good question! Even the recently-graduated Ivy Leaguers have it bad, notes the Observer today. ("You've got 21-year-old girls being hazed by their 25-year-old bosses, and the assistants have college students that they're totally hazing.") And that if you get a job. We rounded up the best comments into a list of servicey advice that's actually useful!
People ask me this all the time, and I'm perhaps the worst person to consult. After being fired from a doll store and a telemarketing company, I started some internships (at age 26), which eventually turned into the incredibly glamorous job of blogging by the pageview. So what's a young, smart person just arrived in New York to do? A jobless and confused reader needs our help! "I moved to NYC in January. Gawker is about media news and that happens to be the field I am getting myself into. But I have one important question, how in the world does that happen in this city?"
Novelist Dale Peck is working with Tim Kring, creator of TV show Heroes, on a sci-fi trilogy that was just sold to Crown (a division of Random House) for $3 million. That's a million per book! Reports the Observer: "The protagonist is a man named Chandler Forrest whose participation in LSD experiments administered by the CIA has given him superpowers." [NY Observer]
We brought Lori Gottlieb's Atlantic article, "Marry Him! The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough," to your attention already. It advised, among other things, to "Settle! That's right... Because if you want to have the infrastructure in place to have a family, settling is the way to go... Marriage isn't a passion-fest; it's more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane, and often boring nonprofit business." Oh, how we laughed, but now who's laughing all the way to the bank? Gottlieb, since "Spider Man" actor Toby McGuire's production company optioned the book and movie rights to her article. Settle that! [Variety via NY Observer]
