The Intern

Breaking into magazines is not at all easy and before you can even think about clinching a cushy career as an editor many many hours as an intern must be put in. Ah the intern, a lowly underpaid and over worked wannabe journalist who has recently become the source of fascination for reality shows such as Running in Heels and The Fashionista Diaries. While I was feng shuing my home and organising my film collection a few months back I came across a film that was made back in 2000 that featured the shallow world of glossy magazines. The Intern is the story of Jocelyn Bennett played by Dominique Swain who is fresh out of college and lands a role as an intern at uber cool fashion magazine, Skirt which is based in New York. She finds herself surrounded by the most self centred, crazy and egotist people on earth and performing the most minor of duties. However there is a jewel in the crown in the shape of art director, Paul Rochester played by Ben Pullen. When a spy begins to hand over Skirt's fashion spreads and story ideas to rival Vogue, Jocelyn sets out to nail them.

The Intern is a total send up of the fashion magazine world with fantastic sub zero one liners and bitchy antics. Screenwriters Carolyn Doyle and Jill Kopelman, both former magazine interns themselves display their knowledge of the intricacies of magazine life. More excitingly, The Intern features cameos by a whole range of top notch fashionistas such as Diane von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger, Elizabeth Saltzman, Kenneth Cole, Andre Leon Talley, Kevyn Aucoin and Gwyneth Paltrow. I think this film is a total undiscovered gem and I get the impression that this is what Ugly Betty would have been like if it had been released a few years earlier. The Intern and Ugly Betty both share the same humour and campiness plus neither of them take themselves too seriously. If you are fascinated by the workings of magazines then you will find this film a lot of fun to watch.

Picture taken from dominiqueswain.org.