'The City': Is Whitney Port cracking from the pressure?

We saw some definite shifts in this episode of “The City.” Whitney Port takes part in a trade show for buyers and points the finger at Roxy Olin when she gets burned. And Olivia Palermo isn’t backing down now that she knows Louise Roe and, of course, Erin Kaplan are nipping at her high heels.

Olivia isn’t a hot mess (right now)

I don’t like this turn of events lately. Olivia knows she’s being watched and she seems to be actually showing up to work and not just coming in to check her e-mails and strut her new flowy-top-with-a-belt look. Has anyone noticed her style creeps into Bea-Arthur-on-“Golden-Girls” territory sometimes? I digress.

Erin needs to double up her efforts and fast. Olivia’s momentum has picked up, and she must be stopped. I held out hope that Seth, the double-agent assistant, would be a fitting partner for Erin in her quest to oust Olivia, but he failed us in this episode. I see now that he’s just the gossipy office assistant who loves to play all sides. When he was complimenting Olivia on the trash-bag shoes and then threw a wink at Erin at the  same time? That’s when I gave up hope that he’d be of any use to Erin. Plus, he sent her on the wrong trail by insinuating that Olivia may be taking credit for Louise Roe’s pull. That was a totally unfounded assumption, and Erin took the bait. It only gave Olivia the chance to rub Erin’s nose into the failure of her evil awesome plan to replace her with Louise. Still, Olivia has to fall back into her old ways at some point. And when she does, Erin will be there fidgeting!

By the way, the best line of Erin and Olivia's fight was cut from the scene, but you can see it here in our exclusive clip!

Whitney goes aggro on Roxy
In many ways, I think it’s good that we get to watch Whitney stumble as she tries to establish herself as a fashion designer. She may not like watching it herself, but it gives a pretty interesting view of the whole celebrity clothing-line trend. With that in mind, it must be pretty difficult for some unknown fashion designer to do the same. After all, Whitney’s stardom has opened doors for her that others never have the chance to even knock on.

Fresh off her success in Miami, Whitney gets the chance to exhibit at a trade show for buyers. Her goal is basically to unload some inventory. At the beginning, she has a hard time closing sales. And you know what they say in sales, “If they walk away, they won’t pay.” She does better when Kelly is there and some strange man puts an order in for several pieces. Back at the office, they find out that the man has canceled his entire order. I love it when Kelly says that buyers are basically compulsive shoppers, which is why they go into the field. That makes total sense. At any rate, Whitney will have to find some way to unload the guy’s inventory or she’ll eat the losses. She then turns to Roxy and blames her for not following through.

Of course, Roxy is taken off guard by the sudden attack. Kelly steps in to take the blame, but the damage is done. Poor Roxy then tries to make up for the loss by revisiting the buyers who had expressed interest in Whitney’s line but ultimately walked away without ordering. After landing the sales, wasn’t it sweet that Roxy walked Whitney over to see her dress in the store window? That was nice of her, and it was really above and beyond.

It does remind me of what I said in a previous review. Roxy really needs something of her own. She’s not the type to be second banana. I felt there was some movement in doing that when Kelly had Roxy run that photo shoot and recently when she had Roxy assist her in producing a runway show. In the last few episodes, I felt Kelly was backtracking by letting Roxy assist Whitney instead of continuing to give her her own projects.

From the previews for the next episode, it looks like things are going to get heated between Roxy and Whitney. But, then, we all saw that coming, right?

-- Jethro Nededog
twitter.com/TheRealJethro

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'The City' sneak peek: Olivia Palermo gets sassy with Erin Kaplan

'The City': Olivia Palermo pulls off an upset

All 'The City' coverage on Show Tracker

Photos, from top: Kelly Cutrone tells Whitney Port what to expect from the trade show. Erin Kaplan accuses Olivia Palermo of taking undue credit for a pull. Roxy Olin is shocked when she hears a buyer has canceled his entire order. Credit: MTV

Comments

[jessica]

Jethro, you seem a bit too one-sided, Erin is a odd girl to
have in charge of Public Relations,

I don't care about Elle but I love the City so I just had to comment on this posting!! Finally! An episode where Elle separated Olivia from having to work closely with Erin. Why did it take so long? It was supposed to be like this since the beginning of this season? On this episode Olivia gets to work with her Accessories Supervisor, which makes sense. And she does a great job. Nice way to run an episode, where we get to see a great photo shoot with Ke$ha and Elle and its Executives are shown in a positive light, and also reach out to a younger audience. Exactly what Joe Zee was trying to do in the first place by hiring Olivia. Ke$ha looked amazing, LOVE HER!
Now why did we have to watch Erin try to hunt Olivia down for the past 2 seasons?
She came off as very unprofessional, not a good PR person to let her personal hatred with Olivia consume her efforts for 2 seasons. Finally it's over. Now please go away Erin. She is terrible at PR, she should have tact and poise. She looks like an idiot now that she didn't succeed in replacing Olivia with Louise. She is very childish and immature, how did she become the Director of PR? Look at the negative image she projected of herself and the magazine? She was too jealous of the attention Joe and Robin gave Olivia. She had been the one to receive that kind of attention in the past and didn't want to give it up. Even though Olivia can give Elle way more exposure to the MTV generation. Currently Elle's audience is women older than that. Erin should have stepped aside along time ago if she actually was interested in what's best for the magazine.
Joe and Robin should have told her to drop the beef with Olivia a long time ago, put on a smile, and try to use Olivia to drive a younger crowd to their magazine like they are trying to do, and just did on this episode. Why did they let her do her own thing and create this spectacle for so long? Erin is a wacko. Even though she lost the fight 2 episodes ago, that odd gay assistant Seth (her only friend) tries to push her again on this episode saying that Olivia didn't pull the look (which she clearly did if you actually listen to her conversation with her boss about waiting for the shipment of shoes). Erin again looks petty as she tries to get the name of Olivia's contact person. Please someone teach her how to professionally handle herself and drop this childish fight. I don't want to see it anymore, it's old. Erin has to remember that she isn't a character on the reality show, she actually works at the magazine, oddly enough as an Executive? She acts like a girl that should work in the mailroom who has a GED. I think she might be mentally unstable, just look at her psychotic facial expressions as she speaks with Olivia. It's obivious to anyone that she is deeply bothered by Olivia. If I were Olivia, I would not want to sit in front of her. Erin might hit her, she looks that affected by Olivia.
She needs a vacation and a date with any guy willing to go out with her.
Olivia can get away with her behavior, as Roxy and Whitney get away with their incompetence because they are stars on the show.
When we see Louise and Olivia filmed side by side, Louise looks really old and crusty. Not right for the City demographic.
Whitney again fails to sell her crappy clothing line, even to little trashy boutique shops. It's time to throw in the towel Whitney. Instead it looks like she tries to blame her lack of talent and incompetence on Roxy on the next episode. Roxy says "look I can't make the singer wear your clothes" Which is damn true. At least she was able to make the singer buy one of the crappy pieces. It's funny but when Roxy was doing work for Kelly's clients, Whitney always supported her and told Kelly to give her a chance, when it was Kelly's reputation and clients on the line. Kelly was smart to then assign Roxy to Whitney, and look how fast Whitney turns on her.

[CityGirl]

I have to agree with Jessica. Although I was initially sympathetic to Erin's position, I find that she has been behaving much too unprofessionally in the last few episodes. She would have more credibility if she acknowledged the good work that Olivia manages to pull off, if sporadically. Erin needs to stop badmouthing Olivia to everyone she meets. It's so unprofessional and she is seriously undermining her case. And what is up with the constant pouty faces everytime Olivia succeeds at some task? Does she want the magazine to suffer just to prove that she's right? It's time Erin grew up! I can't believe I'm saying this, but after this episode I think I might actually be on team Olivia.

Oh, and one last thing: Seth is a two-faced, little weasel. The fact that Erin has aligned herself with him just makes me like her less and less...