This week I finally asked Kate the question directly. She replied, in denial, “I wasn’t scary at all, was I?” “I was a task-rabbit. I was a task rabbit. I did everything: coffee, lunches, dry cleanings, shopping, party planning for kids, logistics, book, ran down to fetch people to meetings. She made herself seem much lower than she really was: “I smoked in cool editors’ offices while Anna wasn’t in the office to figure out how I could be more like her. I was second for a year. Leslie was the first assistant and Lauren was the second.” (As is shown in both the book and movie, there is an actual hierarchy of assistants.) Leslie? Leslie Fremar was a person of great interest. I remembered her as a beautiful brunette who was stern and stern. Amy Astley in 2003Photographed By Abbey Drucker Teen Vogue, February/March 2002I immediately emailed fellow former Voguette Amy Taran Astley who was beauty director at the time I was there and is now editor-in chief of Architectural Digest. “I swear by my extensive Manolo collection from the 1990s that I never thought you could be Emily,” said she. I was relieved–momentarily–until she continued: “You might have developed some outfits that had cocktail-party vibes. You could have gone from low maintenance to high maintenance in the blink of an lash extension. You and Emily share a posh, brunette accent and are both sharp and clever. Okay, there’s a little bit of Plum in Emily.”
