WHAT MAY TURN OUT TO BE A HINGE in American history occurs one day in November 2004, when the future president of the United States asks his then-girlfriend to turn around so the nation can see how her ass looks in a pair of jeans.
The occasion is season two, episode 11, of The Apprentice. Two teams have been tasked with creating an ad campaign for Levi's, and one side has come up with a catalogue bereft of butt shots. Donald Trump is steamed. "Jeans are supposed to show off the body," he fumes back in the boardroom, after Melania has done a twirl for the camera. "In particular, they are supposed to show off the ass. How come you didn't show off that part of the body?"
The answer is Maria. Maria works for a real-estate investment trust and was once called a control freak by her teammate Sandy, a bridal-shop owner. The other two members of the group can only look on helplessly: Wes Moss, a blond and bland young man from Atlanta whom internet commentators have nicknamed No Defining Characteristics Wes, and Andy Dean Litinsky, a Harvard-educated debate champion who introduced himself to viewers by expressing his love of bow ties because “those things are P-I-M-P.” It was Maria who came up with the photo-shoot concept but then took too long and wasn’t satisfied enough with any of the derrière shots to use them.
But really, the fault lies with Wes. He’s the team leader. Trump fires him, and he fires Maria—the first double firing in the show’s history. He turns to Wes’s buddy and says, “Andy, you keep escaping because somebody else is more incompetent.”
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 24 - August 11, 2024 من New York magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 24 - August 11, 2024 من New York magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
The Water-Tower Penthouse
Gigi Loizzo and Angel Molina's apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx looks out on Yankee Stadium.
