17.11.05
What a week so far! The servers have been playing up since Monday and we’re behind schedule. And tonight is press night.
But Dunkirk spirit has kicked in and everyone is prepared for a tough slog. We’ve all come in early (9am).
Conference today is a quick one. Well, relatively quick.
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Once the gossiping starts, there’s no telling when it will end.
Good job production editor Roger Bilsland is on hand to chivvy us along. Spoilsport.
We’ve
decided to put Roseanne Barr on the cover this week. She’s looking trim
after going on a diet to shift the few stone that even gastric band
surgery couldn’t. The only trouble is, the pictures haven’t arrived
from the States.
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With a lesser picture editor than Debs Davis I’d
be very worried. But she’s never let us down. The photos eventually
turn up and art director Caroline Bellenberg and I start the cover.
The
rest of the day is taken up with editing proofs, picking pictures and
getting pages sent down to repro. We’re all out by 8pm, which isn’t bad
going.
18.11.05
I’m a bit late in this morning. I usually am on a Friday, due to two
things – a personal trainer appointment at 7am (the only reason I can
bear it is because my trainer, Dan, is a really funny guy) and because
I stop at every newsagent on the way to work to see how Reveal is
selling. There are seven newsagents between Covent Garden and the
offices in Soho who, I’m sure, think I’m a shoplifter.
Conference on Friday is usually relaxed, as most of the pages have
gone. All I have to do still for this week’s issue is write my ed’s
letter.
Once the cover chromalin comes back up for approval
Caroline Bellenberg and I rudely interrupt whichever meeting chief
operating officer Jess Burley is in at the time and hope she likes it.
Thankfully she does, and I head off for a hastily arranged lunch with my friend Victoria Bush, who’s an actress in Bad Girls.
After
a quick lunch it’s forward planning time. A few more pages get signed
off before 5.30pm when it’s time for Friday drinks. This week we’re
celebrating art editor Owen Connolly’s birthday. I mentally prepare
myself for a long evening – Reveal gatherings are never brief or sober.
21.11.05
I’m in early to prepare for conference and sign the pile of invoices I didn’t get round to on Friday.
Tales from Owen’s birthday bash are swapped.
Conference is
surprisingly short today – we’ve already got next week’s main cover
story in the bag. Our columnist and diet guru Gillian McKeith has
helped former Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus lose nine stone, so
we’ve done a big feature. We’ve also shot an ad to accompany the issue,
which looks great.
I head off for lunch with celebrity PR Neil
Howarth. As soon as I sit down I know it’s going to be a good one. A
oneand- a-half-hour session of non-stop gossip follows – what that man
doesn’t know about soapland isn’t worth knowing!
And we’ve even managed to agree on a few features, which is great.
Back
to the office for my meeting with ACP-Natmag chief operating officer
Jessica Burley and ACP-Natmag editor-inchief Louise Court, where we
discuss future plans, strategy and the coming week’s issue of Reveal.
Deputy
editor Paula Jones has been out to a lunch too and is keen to swap
gossip. Shocking… all I can say is that it features a famous Hollywood
actress and a boyband member – and it’s very litigious.
More pages are passed and I make a few more phone calls to sort out the Christmas cover.
Normally
I’d be out of the door at 6pm, but tonight is the BSME awards dinner.
So I change into my DJ and sign some more invoices while I’m waiting
for the car to collect us.
22.11.05
I wake up really early with a bit of a headache. I’m glad I left the
do last night when I did. I knew it was time to go when I caught myself
playing ‘which Sugababe would you be?’
with two (male) publishers from IPC.
Today whizzes past.
At
11am we all huddle round the TV as one of our Reveal real-life stories
is on ITV1’s This Morning about Julia Latchem-Smith who turned her
abuser father in after taping him confessing to his crime – it’s a
powerful piece of TV.
At lunchtime I head off with my friends
Gary Irwin, Sue McNeill and Heather Whinney from Prima to the M&S
and Debenhams press launches.
On the way, Heather confides that
she once made Glitter Fritters on a kids TV show with Gary Glitter.
M&S is great, but when we traipse along to Debenhams we find we’re
a day early. Doh!
I have my weekly meeting with Louise Court,
which includes much gossip from last night, and then a surprise social
visit from Dennis Duhaney, Vanessa Feltz’s boyfriend and my old
personal trainer. Dennis is one of my heroes. He once helped (or
rather, made) me lose over four stone.
23.11.05
Jess calls me to say there is major problem with the Gillian Mckeith
ad for next week’s issue. The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre
haven’t approved it because there is a mirror hanging over the
fireplace, which isn’t allowed. It’s a little known, obscure rule. But
one that could shaft us.
Thankfully, though, the ad agency have had the foresight to shoot it from several angles, so the problem is quickly resolved.
There
is much talk today about the story that’s in the tabloids about Louis
Walsh leaving X Factor (we think it’s a stunt). Clyde McGarrigle, our
TV editor, is going onto the ITV News Channel to talk about it, and
showbiz editor Sally Eyden has already given an interview for IRN, so
it’s a buzzy morning.
I spend the rest of the day passing more
pages, wheeling and dealing and hunting out chocolate on the Reveal
team’s desks. I find some Jaffa cakes on the picture desk and a white
chocolate digestive in subs. Lovely!
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