You have to admit, she does look rather mannish.”
For a brief moment in the early 90’s, The Modern Review was really good, almost a smarter, smugger Spy, if such a thing can be imagined. Then it started to turn in on itself, then it imploded in a brawlful of recriminations between its two egomaniacal founders Julie Burchill and Toby Young [who both happened to bed the magazine’s soap-operatically named would-be-usurper/editrix Charlotte Raven] and then–jump forward ten years so I don’t have to recount the whole annoying Vanity Fair Toby Young saga again, thank you–well, and then Monday at 9PM GMT, Mark Halliley’s documentary about the coke-fuelled rise and fall of MR airs on BBC4.
From his account of the making of in the MediaGuardian, the whole show is a bunch of self-absorbed liars and cokeheads in various stages of denial and/or sobriety who continue bitching about each other instead of doing something more productive with their once-promising talents. Which sounds about right. Enjoy.
[And this, from someone who counts Toby as a friend of two different friends.]
Julie and Toby in the hall of mirrors [mediaguardian.co.uk]