Adman turned gym-rat CNBC host Donny Deutsch gets The Devil Wears Prada treatment in The Booster, Jennifer Solow’s new chick-lit novel about the advertising game. A “legendary ad executive” named Billy Baum is introduced in chapter two as he comes out of the bathroom declaring, “No one takes a dump like me.” He’s depicted as a crude misogynist with a “hyena laugh” who “spills dribble down the front of his shirt” and “yells to his secretary loud enough to pierce the closed glass door.” But his biggest sin might be ruthlessly firing the book’s protagonist when she can’t pitch her idea quickly enough. Solow, who worked at Deutsch Inc. in the mid-nineties, says, “All those grotesque details about Donny are true.” One thing that’s not true-to-life, however, are the details of her getting fired: He canned Solow after she lied about interviewing at another firm. Deutsch didn’t return messages.

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• Articles by Emma Rosenblum
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