EDITORS IN MOVIES

The final edit…

1 THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) floats through her Runway offices dispersing office girls out of the lifts, wounding new hires with her disappointment, creating almost impossible tasks (unpublished Harry Potter), and calling out, ‘Gird your loins!’ Amonster. That’s all.

2 SUPERMAN (1978)

Jackie Cooper’s cigar-chomping, grumpy ed of Metropolis’ Daily Planet, Perry White, maintains that a good reporter doesn’t get great stories, they ‘make them great’. He certainly has his pick of corking lead stories, what with nearly 50 years of cinematic Supes.

3 THE POST

Washington Post honcho Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) has his journalistic resolve tested by leaked docs of national interest in 1971. Areal-life figure in a real-life case, Bradlee rolls up his shirt sleeves (literally and figuratively) and newsprint press porn ensues.

4 SPIDER-MAN (2002)

J. Jonah Jameson is an EIC with a magnificent ’tache and a short fuse, especially when it comes to the Spidey shenanigans that make the front page of The Daily Bugle. J.K. Simmons’ JJJ skipped universes to the MCU to continue shouting at Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.

5 THE FRENCH DISPATCH

When he dies, Arthur Howitzer Jr.’s French-based periodical obeys his last edict by printing a final issue. Based on New Yorker founder Harold Ross, Howitzer (Bill Murray) does not allow crying in the office and orders booze for meetings from the cafe downstairs.

6 THE PAPER

Chain-smoking grouchy exec ed Bernie White (Robert Duvall) has no time for warring editors (Michael Keaton and Glenn Close) on his buzzy NY tabloid. Even less so when his city ed and managing ed have fisticuffs among the presses.Live for the ink.

7 ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN

Alan J. Pakula’s thriller tracks Woodward and Bernstein’s real-life Washington Post Watergate exposé. Their leader is Ben Bradlee (see The Post) played by Jason Robards –a feet-up, red-pencil-editing pro who demands ‘harder information’ and ‘Where’s the goddamn story?’

8 13 GOING ON 30

When teen Jenna magically wakes in her 30-year-old body, she has drama to deal with as a magazine writer. Her Brit boss, Richard (Andy Serkis), has an of-the-era goatee and shiny suits but shows untapped moonwalking skills when she busts out her Thriller dance at a party.

9 HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS

Composure magazine’s doyenne is Lana Jong (Bebe Neuwirth), a woman dripping in pearls with a sharp bob and sharper tongue who wants copy on her desk in 48 hours and no ambition from her writers. She loses a journalist in 10 days…

10 DEADLINE – U.S.A.

Humphrey Bogart’s hard-bitten editor, Ed (yep, name and job align), has a fight on his hands to save his NY rag, The Day. His tirades about the importance of print are sadly as pertinent now as they were in 1952. He’d have hated social. #BuyMagazines.

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