MovieChat Forums > Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo (2011) Discussion > How can a woman in charge of Cleo not be...

How can a woman in charge of Cleo not be able to keep her own husband?

posted 13 years ago by Small_World
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I felt the two-part series was true to what Ita wrote in her Early Edition - Mr First Forty Years (See Amazon: http://amzn.to/hV8a98 ) which I read years and years ago. The series told us what she wanted us to know.

But reviewer Emily Dunn says that a "viewer well versed in media gossip would expect" sex scenes between other characters other than those shown. She also says the "portrayal of both Buttrose and Packer is so rose-tinted."

For her full review: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/paper-giants-the-b irth-of-cleo-monday-april-18-20110417-1dj61.html

Makes one think.

But I don't think it matters if the relationship is rose-tinted or not, what I found most interesting and truthful was a woman whose own personal life was falling apart (ie husband left her) while she is in charge of a magazine which claimed to be an authority on how to teach other women how to run their lives. i.e.When the editor of Cleo can't get her own life together, which magazine does she turn to?

This series will probably spawn other series or movies of main characters in charge of magazines or shows which purport to teach readers how to run their lives, while their own lives are falling apart.

A biop of Oprah anyone?

[–] ThatWasColdBlooded 13 years ago

I don't think they ever claimed to be authorities on how to teach women how to run their lives. In her first editor's letter Ita wrote:

I think it's difficult to be a woman these days. There are so many different pressures on us, so many people telling us what we should be like...I think if you're leading the sort of life that suits you, then that's it. And I can promise you that Cleo won't try to dictate how you should live. We like you as you are. But of course we expect to give you quite a few ideas and if you care to follow them, good luck.

[–] Small_World 13 years ago

tasteslike....

Yes, probably for legal reasons this letter had to be written to prevent liable cases against the magazine. But she does admit:

of course we expect to give you quite a few ideas and if you care to follow them, good luck.

Back in the late 80's I used to read Cleo for advice on life. And Cleo always published articles on how we should keep away from men who were dorks, creeps and not good for us. Then Lisa Wilkinson (the editor at the time) goes and attaches herself to Peter FitzSimons. She even published a picture of him.

Oh my God! At that age I thought he was a dork and a creep. Yes, I was that shallow to judge a guy by his looks. But that's what Cleo was teaching us. Whenever they published an article, they always had pictures of good looking men and good looking girls at the start of the article. I hardly ever saw an ugly male model. I don't think I bought another copy of Cleo after Lisa got together with Fitzsimons. The magazine lost all credibility in my eyes.

The point I'm trying to make is the ideal stories and pictures that magazines sometimes 'sell' are not the stories that the creators of the magazine are living themselves.

And I think that's the message of 'Paper Giants'. And it's an honest message. I hope the next episode they produce in this series explores this aspect of magazine publishing much more thoroughly.

Maybe they can bring in a character who is a kind of crazy, activist of some sort. She or he can be a freelance journalist wanting to get her story published in the magazine or she can be a fanatic non-reader.

Each viewer probably saw in this series different things: office romances, father-son relationships, the courage it takes to follow your guts, value of co-operation & support of peeers, etc. But to me what stood out the most was the paradox of a woman who runs a how-to magazine who doesn't know how-to herself.