Scary boss in 'Prada' dead-on, some say

NEW YORK — A famous designer throws a fit and hurls a pair of scissors at his assistant. The ladies room at a top fashion glossy is routinely filled with weeping underlings who've been dressed down. One boss enforces a starvation regime: You can't go out for lunch, but you can't eat at your desk, either.

These could be scenes from "The Devil Wears Prada," the new film starring Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, a capricious and fear-inspiring fashion editor. But they're actual anecdotes from the fashion world. Insiders agree that the depiction of scary-boss excess in the film, and even more in the book, is dead-on.

But there are scary, capricious bosses in every field. Which raises another set of questions: Just why do they get away with it? And should they?

Some analysts say that in certain fields, particularly creative ones, a difficult, mercurial personality can actually be a status symbol.

It can even be "a badge of honor" to be a domineering boss in fashion or entertainment, says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a senior associate dean at Yale's School of Management. "They stir up the pot. They are agitators for change." Of Priestly's young, fear-struck assistant in "Prada," he says: "Did she think she was going to work for a librarian?"

Priestly, the fictional editor of Runway magazine, thinks nothing of ordering her assistant to procure an unpublished "Harry Potter" manuscript for her two daughters — or to conjure up a private plane to get her home in the midst of a hurricane. She calls her size-6 assistant "fat" and ends all conversations with a flick of the wrist and a curt: "That's all."

Whether or not Priestly is based on Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour — author Lauren Weisberger, who once worked for Wintour, denies it — the book's portrayal of the fashion world in general rings true with insiders.

"If you happen to be working for the wrong editor, you could find yourself doing their kid's homework, or being yelled at, or crying in the bathroom," says Liz Lange, a leading maternity designer who put in her time as an assistant at an array of New York fashion glossies. "People can tend to lose touch with reality."

Yet Lange, who has 40 employees, doesn't think such behavior is necessary to get the job done.

"Not to say I'm perfect, but I don't think you need to be mean to get the next collection out, or the next issue," she says.

Nor does Stanford professor Robert Sutton, an organizational psychologist. He's developed a whole philosophy, presented in an upcoming book, on bosses who are, well, jerks: They're a drain on society. They shouldn't be hired in the first place, and if they won't change their ways, they should be fired.

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