They told you the Devil wears Prada. They lied. The Devil wears MaliMali.

I saw the film last night, since I brought out a lot of DVDs with me for lonely evenings after difficult days. It is supposedly based on Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue. She was once briefly the editor of British Vogue, and I have a personal experience of her, which tells me she is not all bad.
I had a fashion label then, and tried to get a viewing at Vogue. I spoke to one of the fashion editors, who told me, OK, bring your stuff along on Tuesday at 10 am. So I piled the collection into a London cab and took it to Vogue House in Hanover Square. The editor was nowhere to be seen and had not left a message. So I piled the collection back into another cab and went back to my East End Studio, many pounds poorer. I wrote a snotty letter directly to Anna Wintour herself, saying I wanted reimbursement for my taxi fares. Two days later I received a sheepish call from the fashion editor who asked me if she could please come and visit me in my East End studio, to pay me the taxi fares and to look at the collection. So she came, but needless to say, she was too busy gritting her teeth to admire my brilliant collection...

But I digress, albeit slighty. I was talking about 'The Devil wears Prada', and that particular Devil was admirably portayed by Meryl Streep. It is inconceivable that her character was hampered by pathetic impulses like remorse. She was just BAD.

Here it goes from bad to worse. My problem is that I can’t even be bad properly. Oh yes I can, I mean I AM, but if you are going to be really bad, you don’t go sniveling around feeling remorse. My great old friend and mentor Princess Lulie was not-is not- a BAD person perhaps, but one could not, with the best possible intentions, say that she was NICE. She was interesting, sure- no, fascinating in fact, but kind and patient? Not a hope in hell. She had no problems about not being nice. So why do I have to be bothered about it? It is most annoying! And since we are talking about my old friend Princess Lulie, philosophical queries spring to mind as usual. If one’s acts are bad, but one’s intentions are good, does that make any difference? I mean the acts are just as bad, aren’t they? If Hitler had done all that he did, but felt bad about it, what difference would it have made? Zilch. Noone really cares. It is the actions that matter. So I therefore feel qualified to state that the Devil wears MaliMali. I wish I hadn’t fallen out with my one time great friend Sanjay, who was working on a philosophy doctorate on this very subject. I would have liked to have discussed it with him.
But back to Djenne. If I KNOW already that Bob, my terrible tailor, will have done a terrible job with what I gave him to do, why do I get upset??? Why just not go there, calmly, look at the stuff and say, well, Bob, this is absolute crap, you will have to redo it, with a smile?

On the other hand, if he is so terrible, why don’t I just get rid of him? Well, because I know him from the beginning here in Djenne. I just CAN’T. For goodness sake woman, just make a choice! Just be bad or be good! Don’t go pussyfooting about. You are well on your way to being really bad! This is my dreadful dilemma. I can’t be bad properly. So I become this dreadful floppy blancmange who can neither be evil properly or good with real conviction!