Vanessa Grigoriadis - Look Who's Talking

If you don't get HBO and are feeling left out of the Sex and the City movement, do not despair -- read Vanessa Grigoriadis. A thin and fashionable young writer herself (currently at New York Magazine) she writes up the real high jinx and misdemeanors of the notorious Apple with just the right amount of tongue in her cheek. Her subject matter is rich -- a steady stream of off-beat profiles and trend du jours with enough serious journalism mixed in to rest her laurels on.

For instance, take Welcome to the Dollhouse -- the piece that launched her name and garnered a $600k check for movie rights. It's a solid 4,000-word work about a cluster of young and social trust funders-turned publicists who wield an ungodly amount of power and are able to make or break big corporations with a flick of their cell phone. They are Masters of the Universe in 4-inch Jimmy Choos. (This piece is especially fascinating if you have followed the Lizzie Grubman drama, it's written before that messy backup.) Grigoriadis captured these girls at their peak - the brief but giddy period when pomp and glitter ruled -- and she writes them up with the same breathless rush that characterized their reign

She has been credited with reviving New York Magazine, giving it the energy it needs to keep pace with Time Out New York, and national glossies like Vanity Fair. A quick scan of her archives reveals why. Don't let the impossibly witty titles fool you - she is serious and she knows how to develop a story line. "Boy Interrupted", a studied piece on Rob Bingham the publishing heir/writer, is simply gripping. She builds the story around traditional elements of fiction (setting, characterization, theme, conflict) to produce a dramatic bit of reporting. The same is true of "The Single-Mom Murder", about Manhattan fashion writer Christa Worthington. It's nerve-wracking, suspenseful, too engaging to be true -- it's no wonder Hollywood runs panting after her stories.

In addition to the captivating character profiles, her serious reporting pieces are deft and timely. In a piece called "Baby Panic", she addresses the slight furor a little book called Creating a Life recently aroused. It's a wonderful piece. Rather than a cliche-ridden staging of the mothers vs. career women clash, Grigorias sits down with the author, Sylvia Hewitt -- an independent, liberal, career-minded journalist offering Hewitt a rhetoric-safe space to state her case.