Romy and Michele aren’t the only ones who tried a bait & switch at their high school reunion — they’re just the ones who got caught.
in honor of the upcoming 20th anniversary of romy and michele’s high school reunion (april 25, 1997), here is an insightful rant courtesy of moi. thank you, and you’re welcome.
i watched romy & michele’s high school reunion last night and found myself involuntarily scoffing when that one chick (lisa luder) extremely coolly said she’s an associate fashion editor at vogue. then i let out a big holler a short while later when christy masters (the one whose laugh makes you want to stab her in the neck) announces to the class some of the successes of their classmates — namely that lisa luder is a “fashion editor” — no “associate” — at vogue. luder does nothing to correct this mistake. i think the camera even cuts to her grinning, simmering in her own brilliance. i can’t be sure but 90% of her character is her being smug so let’s assume it’s true.
anyway, although romy & michele tried hocking that fake post-its story with the business suits and the flip phone (“hey! if anybody needs to make a call…..!”) and although all that backfired spectacularly…… lisa luder lowkey did the same exact goddamn thing.
listen. i know a bunch of editors/associate editors/editors in chief/yadda yadda who cover a variety of beats — politics, parenthood, food, makeup — plus i follow so many folks in journalism on twitter, i’ve seen so many upsets at major companies, so many folks tweeting out their contact info or promoting their friend who recently lost their job and all of this boils down to one key point to why lisa luder’s gloat is an embarrassing display of Fronting The Fuck Outta Herself: you can be an editor, or an associate editor (a step down) or a senior editor or even the editor in chief at a big publication one week and then back to being some nobody freelancer the next, through no fault of your own. and everyone knows not to act like they’re the shit because they can lose their job at any moment and having that attitude will drive away any potential employers looking for a Team Player.
the situation is more volatile now than it was in ‘97, certainly, but being an associate fashion editor only really means she’s been working there for like, a year? maybe two? but this chick’s got her slick-backed hair and her all-white suit, name-dropping “vogue” with a smirk, completely putting on a front and expecting people to bask in her glory. i. call. bullshit. she was a bully! she’s the one who handed the bag of magnets over to christy so christy could put them on michele’s back brace! she HAD the magnets READY TO GO and then LAUGHED HER HEAD OFF when christy pulls off her evil little stunt!
lisa luder doesn’t suddenly become a good person because she defends romy and michele’s outfits. granted, the “right, christy. you keep telling yourself that” line was EXPERT SHADE, but she wasn’t misaligning herself with the A Group just because she’d transformed into a good and cool person over ten years. it’s just a new iteration of her doing whatever it takes — being a bully in high school for the sake of being part of the “in” crowd — to think of herself as the most amazing person to walk the planet.
notice how at the end of the movie when romy & michele get their shop, jeanine garofolo is shopping there, and sandy frink has kindly loaned them the cash to open the store, but there’s ZERO mention of the ~fancy associate fashion editor at vogue~ who did a piece on their ~fresh~ colors & ~flirty~ designs? if she had any pull like she acts like she does, she totally would have written a piece on how these two women are changing the fashion frontier, one boa-lined shiny dress at a time, which is what romy and michele are totally doing! lisa luder is a hack and a liar who got away with it because she wore a bold lip!!!!!
and when she steps out and compliments romy and michele’s outfits for being “not bad”??? i gotta gag. that’s the type of shit someone who doesn’t have any sort of authority on the subject would say. that’s the kinda shit the celebrity judge on a cooking competition says. like the only true thing they can say is “i like that this dish came with a fork so i can eat it.” man. she was probably living in a one bedroom 7th floor walkup with 3 other people in queens and bought that suit at a steve harvey discount shop. probably cut her hair and sold it to pay rent. talking all boss like she knows anything. pfft, eat my ass and call me santa. lisa luder is a bad person who pulled a romy and michele and got away with it for TWENTY YEARS. it’s time we recognize her for the worst kind of villain there is: a hack who only bothers to speak up for good people because it just so happens to suit her own insidious, egocentric agenda. GET BENT, LISA LUDER.
