We ran into Social Life magazine editor Devorah Rose on Friday night at the Sixth Annual Sharing the Light Gala, a charity soirée at The Four Seasons restaurant to benefit MacDella Cooper’s efforts to build schools for needy children in Liberia — and, naturally, we were unwittingly foisted into the contrived melodramas of two grown women. With an open mind, we approached Rose to ask her what she’s doing with herself besides appearing on other people’s reality shows. Though we’ve been a little hard on her for this in the past, she brightly agreed to an interview. If, of course, we’d do it in front of a camera crew for, you guessed it, a reality show.
We asked her a few times whether she had her own TV program now, but she avoided the question. “Do you have a reality show in the works?” she said. “I don’t even know, there are just so many cameras. I think they’re your cameras, I have no idea! I don’t even know what’s going on. There’s just so many flashing bulbs.”
And then this happened: “You know, the reason I’m here is that it’s so important that women support other women,” she began, harmlessly enough. “One of the ideas behind Social Life — the women I put on the cover are empowered. Tinsley Mortimer is someone I also put on the cover; we were very close at one point. When I put her on the cover, she was going through a lot of drama. I really built her up, and I made her look gorgeous and take out those horrible curls — those things were devastating. We were close, and then she disappeared. I saw her last night at the opera, and she turned her back towards me like a million times. I have no idea why.”
“When I had my first piece of bad press, the person I turned to [was] Tinsley. And now it’s like she’s disappeared, but she’s talking to everybody else, and making all the wrong moves. She used to be a Park Avenue princess, now she lives in Chelsea. She’s dating this prince — where the heck is his crown? Maybe he’s a Canal Street knockoff. I heard he’s mooching off of her. I feel used. When you are close friends with someone, you don’t disappear. She’s not there for me anymore. She’s no longer my friend. I am pissed. I have never been treated that way. I mean, Carolina Herrera spoke to me at the opera, but Tinsley couldn’t? You don’t do that. That’s not genuine. That’s not honest.”
Now, it should be noted that not once did the name “Tinsley” escape our lips. But Rose went on: “The war is on! The war is on! If she’s here, I’m going to confront her! The war is on.” (Mortimer was not there.) Eventually we walked away. Soon after, a producer approached us with a waiver to give permission to appear on a reality show. Feeling used, we refused. But not before noting that the waiver was for Tinsley’s own show, Empire State. This may not be so boring after all.
