The City: If She Can Make It Here – The Difference Between Up and Down

Serena Mercay
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I realized while watching the premiere of The City that we really don’t know Whitney Port very well. We’ve seen her be the voice of reason for Lauren. We’ve seen her be the one who actually works on The Hills. But we’ve not seen her interact with her real friends or have a boyfriend. In addition to getting her bearings in NYC, she is also trying to partake of her scruffy, newish love interest while making nice with the hungry models that inhabit the city. And, apparently, it’s all about uptown and downtown.

The Uptown Crowd are art dealers’ kids, and various other kids of the wealthy, who find work to be unnecessary since their trust funds suit them just fine. The people from this crowd come with inherently yuppie-esque voices, dripping with whine and pretention. Olivia Palermo belongs to this group, and proudly so, calling herself a “Social” (aka socialite). I had no idea who the hell she was, so I googled her. I got kinda bored but this is what I dug up:

She’s the daughter of Douglas Palermo, a real-estate consultant of sorts, who tried to get out of paying $2.75 mil to creditors last year in a bankruptcy case; she likes the “aesthetic” of fashion (read: Clothes are like, awesome to look at.); she feuded with some other socialite named Tinsley Mortimer over a nudge at the Johnnie Walker Dressed to Kilt event last April; she previously denied rumors about being involved with The City, saying she wanted to be a “serious actress”…and then the urge to drown myself began to overtake me and I had to quit googling.

The Downtown Crowd are the hipsters, a little disheveled perhaps. Maybe a smidge overly fond of fedoras. But they seem to be the folks who are making it on their own. Jay and Erin both belong to this group.

Upon their first meeting, Olivia pretends not to know who Whitney is. “Where are you from?” “Have you worked in fashion before?” Come on! You signed a contract to make $12K/episode and you don’t know who Whitney is? Poppycock! Olivia mentions a dinner party she’s throwing…and doesn’t invite Whit.

Jay and Whit meet at Nero (where he seems to know everyone). Something I noted whilst viewing: He cocks his head a lot. Also, he always tells her she looks nice. This is either a slick player move or he’s gentlemanly. I have a feeling I know which. They share a cute exchange where he has her attempt an Aussie accent (pitiful) and then he does his best American. Often, when people do an American accent, they sound like geeky a-holes. This is either because A). We Americans really do sound like geeky a-holes OR B). Most of the world thinks we sound like geeky a-holes. Neither option is terribly flattering. Oh, and Whitney totally slept over at Jay’s. Action on the first episode!

Olivia and Whitney run into Samantha, an assistant buyer for Bergdorf Goodman. After an awkward handshake, Olivia blatantly leans over and says to someone else: “I hate a dead handshake. I like a firm handshake.” After the event at Fashion Week goes well, Olivia finally invites Whit to her rooftop dinner party and tells her to bring Jay.

Whitney tries to finagle Jay into escorting her to the shindig. He responds by squirming like a worm on a hook. His opinion of Olivia is that she’s not genuine (No way!). This is where he explains the differences between the scenes in New York and says he’d like to avoid the Uptown rich kids. He makes a point of saying he does what he wants “and that’s it.”

So, sweet Miss Port takes her “downtown” friend Erin to the party in Jay’s stead. Before they arrive, we get the pleasure of hearing Olivia and her cousin Nevan have a conversation about the complexities of place settings. They talk over each other as if the other person’s comments are entirely irrelevant. Each simply satisfied by the sound of his/her own voice. Olivia pretends she’s delighted to see Erin while making several deliberate inquiries about Jay’s absence. Poor Whitney is too nice to say: “He thinks you’re dull, pampered, and obnoxious.”

At the same time, across town, Jay is supposedly having a boys night out with Adam (his bestie). I have some doubts about the actual timing, since his beard appeared to morph repeatedly throughout the episode. Anyway, Jay says he thinks things are going too fast, then he shows up at Olivia’s party (dressed up and carrying champagne). They leave almost immediately after his arrival. Also, someone at some point called Erin a hooker.

It would seem that The City is establishing characters similar to The Hills. Olivia is the new Pratt; Jay is the new Justin Bobby; Erin is the new Heidi (original Heidi, like before she changed noses); And, of course, Whitney is the new Lauren. Except everyone is freakishly tall and skinny.

“Someone has to be an inspiration.” -Olivia

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 3:14 pmand is filed under The City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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