Soooooo . . . what do we think about the forthcoming CW/Tyra Banks production Stylista? I just watched a clip for it and am on the fence. I mean obviously I will be watching it faithfully when it starts airing this fall, if only to bitch about its melodramatic treatment of the hollow, vapid world that is fashion, specifically the Elle Magazine fashion department. But in watching the three-minute trailer, I can't help but have some Major Metropolitan Misgivings. First and foremost, could they bite The Devil Wears Prada premise any more? We all know that TDWP was art imitating life (if the Lauren Weisberger tell-all-turned-movie can be considered "art" in any way, shape or form). And in imitating life, there was ample, broad-stroke hyperbole. But now we're coming full-circle. All the dramatic embellishments that made TDWP enjoyable -- faggy, bitchy fashion people reveling in their shallowness, holier than thou editrixes (sic?) putting peons through the paces with demeaning tasks that had nothing to do with their actual jobs -- are being co-opted for this "reality" show, and it rings incredibly false. It's a Hills-ification of reality -- actual people playing pre-assigned roles. I'm aware this is nothing new -- hello, The Real World -- but never has it been so unapologetically fake.

I can't explain why this irks me so much. It's such a blatant parody of the archetypal magazine internship experience that I should just accept it as such and move on. And yet ... I just want to smack everyone involved -- Tyra, Elle fashion director Anne Slowey, the eleven contestants who will stop at nothing to be Slowey's bitch, supermodel Maggie Rizer for deigning to appear as a guest on such a trainwreck of a show. Perhaps I have rage issues that need addressing.