The view of a boss run amok

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Is Sally Koslow’s ‘Little Pink Slips’ another novelistic treatment of a terrible boss, a la ‘Blind Submission’ or ‘The Devil Wears Prada’? The novel doesn’t officially arrive in bookstores until today, but there’s been plenty of buzz about the storyline: a razor-thin roman a clef inspired by Rosie O’Donnell’s plunge into the magazine biz a few years ago. Koslow was editor-in-chief of McCall’s before O’Donnell arrived in 2000, ready to revamp the magazine -- complete with a name-change to Rosie -- and to take on O, The Oprah Magazine. The venture failed in 2003, and Rosie folded.

According to Publishers Weekly it’s hard not to be reminded of O’Donnell by the character of Bebe Blake, a mouthy celebrity who runs amok at the venerable women’s magazine Lady. Bebe has a wildly successful TV show and expects that Lady, renamed Bebe, will be a powerful rival to (wait for it) O.

Is Blake O’Donnell? Readers can decide for themselves. But in the meantime, here’s a snarky description of the character, from the vantage point of an embattled editor named Magnolia Gold: ‘Bebe was wearing tight jeans -- Juicy Couture, Magnolia guessed, although she wasn’t sure they were made in Bebe’s size -- a V-neck Grateful Dead T-shirt that showed deep decolletage, and boots that looked compromised trying to support her. . . . ‘

— Nick Owchar 4/19/07