Do any of these women look great? Like they are wearing clothing which flatters the body or highlights its best attributes? Or do you see wrinkled crotches, undefined waists, shapeless legs and a garment that is ill-fitting from bust to toe? Just asking.

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The ep begins by introducing you to the three "new interns." Ashley, from DC, is an aggro bitch; Talita, from L.A., is a diva with long legs, long hair and a chihuahua named Chanel; Samantha is the wide-eyed noob from Wisconsin who's never seen the big city. Ashley claims they "decided to live together" so she "found an apartment online." (It's a pretty big SoHo one-bedroom. They have a bunkbed.) Far more interesting are the characters we meet at Marie Claire magazine: Joanna Coles, the quippy, brisk editor-in-chief; Zoe, the hard-working, long-suffering shopping editor; and, of course, Nina Garcia, of Project Runway fame. Where the interns were obviously chosen for their personalities and camera-friendly looks, the mag staff all seem sleep-deprived and stressed out, although they each swear, "I love my job." About 22 minutes into the episode, Coles sends Samantha to pick up a dress and we see her — you guessed it — running in heels.

The best part of the episode was toward the end: At a party to celebrate Nina Garcia's arrival at the magazine, there's word Lindsay Lohan has arrived but may not walk the red carpet because there's no poster of her cover displayed. Somehow, Joanna Coles magically convinces LL to pose for pictures and gets what she calls her "money shot." Meanwhile, Samantha from Wisconsin is hanging out at the party — she's supposed to be working — and she's not wearing any shoes, which infuriates the other interns. (Clip above.)

Between The Devil Wears Prada, Ugly Betty and Stylista, this show seems the most realistic, coming from someone who has worked in magazines. Which is not to say that it's not completely preposterous: The interns are clearly just for TV (Joanna Coles herself said they never intended to hire these women) and there's a lot of cheek-kissing and not a lot of actual working. That said, there's a sick pleasure in watching these "interns" — who think they're "perfect" for the job despite having zero fashion magazine experience — find out how painful running in heels can be.

Subject: "You Have to Watch This..." [Fashionista]

Eric Wilson of the New York Times says: Yes. "The allure is still there, as confounding as the inability to resist a pair of $1,600 Prada knee-high boots," he writes. But! Most of us can resist Prada boots. (Most of us do!) Still, Joe Zee, the creative director of Elle who plays a nastier version of himself on the ABC series Ugly Betty agrees: "This is one industry that remains very intriguing and mysterious," he says. "Magazines are about making beauty, and how that happens is fascinating to a whole group of people." People who aren't already sick of all the "OMG fashion is actually hard work" shows and movies which already exist, presumably.

But: Where Elle's Stylista was shot on a set, (the real offices were "too dowdy"), Running In Heels promises to be much more realistic. Writes Wilson:

Running in Heels, which is produced by Left/Right Productions, the team behind This American Life, the television version of Ira Glass's quirky public radio program, strives to be a more authentic representation of what happens at a fashion magazine than its predecessors… Nevertheless, following a similar conceit to its predecessors, the drama unfolds mostly through the actions of the three sacrificial interns, Ashley, Talita and Samantha, who were cast, it would seem, because of their sense of aggression, entitlement or insecurity, respectively.

Will viewers tune in for the Devil Wears Prada moments (one intern is left bleeding and hobbled by running errands in heels)? To see Project Runway's Nina Garcia at her real job? Or to find out what happens to the wide-eyed interns? Well, spoiler alert: None of them got hired. According to WWD, editor in chief Joanna Coles says the show was never meant to be a competition: "In this economy? No. We weren't raffling off a job." Perhaps the last word here should go to Glamour's editor in chief, Cindi Leive, who says: "Even a job in a glamorous industry involves sitting around in a lot of windowless conference rooms talking about budgets."

Messy Reality Behind Stylish Jobs [NY Times]
Tracking 'Running In Heels' [WWD]

According to the New York Observer, the eight episode fashion reality show will feature "special access" to Marie Claire editorial meetings, celebrity photo shoots, runway shows, and the private lives of editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, senior fashion editor Zanna Roberts, and shopping editor Zoe Glassner.

It also follows three lowly interns, Ashley Gosik, Samantha Dezur, and Talita Silva, who are described thusly in a Style network press release:

Ashley is a self-proclaimed over-achiever from Washington D.C. who is determined to prove that she can out perform the other interns. Talita, a “fashionista” from Los Angeles, considers herself very street smart but drops the ball on her first assignment. And Samantha is the small-town girl from Wisconsin, who has never set foot in NYC and is new to the fashion world, but wants real-world experience working for a major media outlet.

The first episode will focus on the interns moving into their New York apartment together and starting their first day of work as the rest of the staff plans a welcome party for newly-hired fashion director Nina Garcia.

As you'll recall, Nina Garcia was hired by Marie Claire last spring after being let go from Elle, at around the same time that Project Runway was being sold to Lifetime. Both Lifetime and Marie Claire are owned by Hearst, prompting rumors that Marie Claire would take over Elle's role on the show for season six, and Garcia would be able to continue "auf"ing designers with Heidi Klum and Michael Kors.

Of course, we have yet to see season six of Project Runway because the show is still at the center of a complex legal battle, but that hasn't stopped Marie Claire from following in Elle's footsteps. Running in Heels will premiere less than six months after Elle's reality show Stylista on the CW network. Also, Marie Claire announced this week that on January 15 it will be unveiling a new look for its website in the third redesign since 2007. According to Folio, traffic to MarieClaire.com already increased more than eight-fold since the last revamp. The new site is designed to be easier to navigate and features clips of Running In Heels in hopes of increasing the number of visitors (and advertisers) even more.

Marie Claire has good reason to follow Elle's example. Elle's participation in Project Runway increased the mag's newsstand sales and ad pages, going from the number 6 to the number 2 fashion magazine, after Vogue. Especially in light of yesterday's report in Women's Wear Daily that Marie Claire, along with several other major magazines, had double-digit declines in single copy sales for the first half of 2008, it makes sense for the magazine to follow the formula of one of the few fashion magazines that successfully translated its brand into other media.

Running in Heels Premiere To Include Over-Styled Editors, Three Frightened Interns, And A Newly Arrived Nina Garcia [The New York Observer]
Marie Claire To Roll Out Another Web Redesign [Folio]
Memo Pad [WWD]

The juicy stuff. The scandalous stuff. Who showed up late and bitchy for her cover shoot? Who had to have Evian for her lap dog? Which editor is generally hated for her negative attitude? Who is ultimately responsible for the epic amount of Photoshopping that goes on to create a cover "image"? What do the photographs of the women on the covers of these magazines look like before they are tampered with? (Well, we have an answer for that.) The chances that we'll see any of this stuff is as slim as the waists they whittle on the covers of Elle and Marie Claire.

Having worked in magazines for 10 years, I was privy to all kinds of tantalizing secrets: A friend at a rival teen mag witnessed breast augmentation scars while a certain pop star was changing at a photo shoot. A member of a boy band confessed he threw away his underwear after wearing it once. I walked into an interview with a popular recording artist, who had a major radio hit, to find the conference room at the record label completely filled with marijuana smoke. And I was small time! Imagine the stories the folks at Marie Claire could tell. Instead, Running In Heels will be an attempt to "uncover what it means to be a working woman in the cut-throat, exhilarating world of a top fashion and beauty magazine," which means we'll probably see, well, women running in heels. Which we saw when The Devil Wears Prada came out, two years ago.

Mags Go From Spreads to Screens [AdAge]
Marie Claire, Style Net to Create Reality Series [Folio]

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