It Girls Explained

It Girls
Director:Robin Melanie Leacock
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Country:United States

It Girls is a feature documentary film directed by Robin Melanie Leacock that aired on the Women's Entertainment channel on April 2 and 7 2002. It features wealthy socialites including Casey Johnson,[1] Elisabeth Kieselstein-Cord and Nicky Hilton, as well as appearances by Diane Von Furstenberg, Marisa Berenson and other women.[2] It was filmed in Manhattan during New York Fashion Week. The film's premise is that anyone can be an it girl. In the documentary, von Furstenberg says "It's really about being a forever girl!"

Critical response

Roger Friedman, writing for Fox News, said that this was a "numbingly mesmerizing documentary" in which "You have rarely seen such a collection of vacuous and tiresome people". He complains that "the 'It Girls' of 2002... are an inarticulate and alarming lot of long legged blondes without a thought in their heads".[3]

Mary Robbins, in the New York Times, wrote that the film suffered from poor timing, because the bad economic conditions at the time had "made expensive parties, and girls who were famous for nothing, less and less appealing."[4]

A reviewer for the Baltimore Sun wrote: "As if high school social castes weren't traumatic enough. This "documentary" allegedly attempts to explore the new It Girl, but really reminds us that the hierarchy we like to think we left behind in high school is alive and kicking in the adult world." and "Even with its occasional snarky snippets, the show can be hard to endure for those of us among the proletariat. But after a while, the documentary begins to resemble a drama, and the Hilton girls and their beautiful friends become mere characters in a nouveau Restoration comedy -- School for Scandal meets Page Six."[5]

Notes and References

  1. Casey at Bat . Kimberly Cutter . August 2003 . W Magazine. reprinted at http://www.wmagazine.com/w/blogs/editorsblog/2010/01/07/vintage-casey-johnson-in-w-une.htm
  2. Web site: 'It Girls' To Look at Interesting Women . Zahn . Paula . Cooper . Anderson . 2 April 2002 . American Morning . CNN.COM . 8 January 2010 .  (Transcript of broadcast interview with the director and two of the performers in the documentary).
  3. Web site: Oprah: No Shocks or Klan Members . Roger . Friedman . 1 April 2002 . Fox News . 8 January 2010.
  4. Web site: Where Have All The It Girls Gone? . Mary . Robbins . 7 April 2002 . New York Times (page 99 of the New York edition) . New York Times Company . 8 January 2010.
  5. News: In a high-society game of glamour -- they're It . . The Baltimore Sun . 7 April 2002 . 9 January 2010.