'The City' exclusive: Erin Kaplan unleashes on Olivia Palermo and the finale

As we’ve watched Erin Kaplan, the California transplant who's Elle’s PR director, on “The City,” it’s clear that she has learned a couple of things since the last season. First, make sure that the cameras get your fabulous shoes. And second, everyone loves an evil awesome plan. Her plan to oust Olivia Palermo from Elle may not have gone the way she wanted, but she tells us that things will be different next season.

“I think I have taken a bit of a backseat in the past,” Kaplan tells Show Tracker. “But if I’m back, there will definitely be changes!”

We talked to Kaplan about some of the highlights and lowlights of this season, and, of course, what she thought of the finale episode.

In the beginning of this season, you and Olivia made a truce. What happened to that?
In that episode, they actually didn’t  air it, but I apologized. And it took a lot for me to apologize, but I did. I said I’m sorry if we got off on the wrong foot and if I offended her in any way, I’m sorry. And we did. We kind of decided to move on. And then she just kind of went back to the same old thing that she had been doing. You know, not showing up for work and assignments. I don’t think she had any intention of changing.

At least Joe Zee came around this season. Were you glad that he was seeing some of the stuff you pointed out about Olivia last season?
I think the degree to which she failed this season was just taken to a whole new level. You had to be blind not to see what was happening. I guess I kind of felt vindicated a little bit. But at the same time, what she did – not showing up for a photo shoot – was just, I mean I’ve never seen anything like it. So, I would hope that action would be taken after something like that.

Was it nice to have someone to conspire with in assistant Seth?
First of all, what you see is obviously a condensed version of my relationship with Olivia and my relationship with Seth. Seth and I have conversations that are 45 minutes long, and 40 seconds might get into the episode. Sometimes they’re taken out of context. Sometimes we’re talking about other things and happen to mention her. So, Seth and I, by no means 100% sit around the office scheming and plotting and drawing up maps and doing these elaborate plans at all. I think that it’s the way that it’s shown sometimes. I don’t think we’re that evil.

Is Olivia Palermo really as unpleasant as she comes off on TV?
I think we've spent an enormous amount of time filming since the beginning of December. I think the show magnifies our personalities, but I don’t think they’re ever showing us as something that we’re not. They only air the footage that we give them. You know if we say certain things, they air it. I don’t think any of us have been too poorly portrayed.

That was very diplomatic.
I’m saying it through gritted teeth, I might add.

We know that being part of New York society can be just as important as one’s experience. Have Olivia’s connections been outweighed by her poor performance at Elle yet?
I don’t think I was ever enchanted by her. And regardless of her contacts or what she does, it really has no bearing on my job. Like you said, I did come here. I worked for my job and I continue, and the magazine is by far the most important thing I can do right now. I don’t think that is ever going to change. Even if I had the luxury of not working or relying solely on my contacts, I wouldn’t want to do that. I enjoy working. I enjoy working for Elle, and would want to work regardless.

We don’t appreciate it when Olivia turns around when you’re talking. Don’t you just want to pull her hair when she does that?
Yes, she does turn around while I’m talking. Aside from it being disrespectful and rude and just Human Decency 101, we’re filming a television show. There are cameras around. We’re actually being paid to talk. So, for her to just not engage is bizarre, to say the very least.

After your meeting with Joe Zee, when you pushed once more for Louise Roe, did you feel confident he'd pick her?
Not at all. I really didn’t have any idea what he was going to do. He obviously knew how I felt, and at that point the decision was completely out of my hands.
 
Now that you've seen Olivia in Japan, what do you think of her performance? Was that enough to warrant being the face of Elle?
I had heard that she was doing really, really well in Japan — really producing. I thought she was going to come back with videos for the website, interviews, photos, etc. — when I finally watched the episode, I was a bit confused. I had to watch it twice because I thought I had missed a pivotal scene.
 
After Joe Zee announced she had the job, I can’t believe Olivia said to you, "Erin, are you OK with that?" Did you just want to punch her?
No, I actually expected that type of response, but trust me, a lot of things ran through my mind at that moment!

Didn't Joe Zee overhear Seth telling you that if you didn't want to leave before, you may now?
I’m not sure. Of course, I wasn’t thrilled with the outcome, but I love my job and would never, ever leave Elle because of Olivia.

— Jethro Nededog

twitter.com/TheRealJethro

RELATED:

'The City' finale: Whitney Port awakens the beast

'The City' finale sneak peek: Can Roxy Olin forgive Whitney Port?

All 'The City' coverage on Show Tracker

Photos: From top: Erin Kaplan, Elle's youngest PR director ever. Erin Kaplan meets with editorial director Joe Zee. Photo credit: MTV.

Comments

[bebee]

This interview was a lot more satisfying than the actual "Finale", very insightful! OK, I'll definitely watch next season. Great job!

[Fashion Blogger]

Olivia did really well in her assignments this season. I love how Erin tries to put her down. Wake up, Erin. Your nobody without Olivia. If Olivia decides to take the position that is offered to her at Vogue, then your off the show and guess what, bye by, no one will care about you anymore. People need to wake up and smell the Chanel No. 5. Without Olivia at Elle, say goodbye to Joe Zee and Erin Kaplan. Love Olivia, sweetest person you can meet in New York. And that Seth guy, ew.

[Diana]

Actually, in regards to the question concerning the portrayal of the people on the city, people have to realize that you have to take what they put on tv with a grain of salt and recognize that there is an entertainment value...its a reality television show but at the same time, its unrealistic that these people would have this drama in their lives so it needs to be created...even the hills characters like lauren and audrina have admitted that many of the scenes on the show were staged, and things were done to create tension...I really think though that Olivia is playing it up for the cameras as it is quite obvious from her one line answers towards erin, and I don't believe whitney when she acts out and presents herself as a tough person, it makes for good tv but its obvious that a lot is staged or intentional

[swelike]

Is "Fashion Blogger" the return of Olivia's ne'er do well cousin, Nevan? We can only hope.

[Remy]

Olivia is beyond boring. She doesn't need a microphone, just a mirror. She managed to make Japan all about herself. She could have stayed in New York, but I suppose it looked better to have her pleasuring herself for the cameras in a foreign country. Such a small faced! Yes, and such a small brain.

[Estoira]

Thank you so much for interviewing Erin and getting to truth about Elle.com.
Joe picked so one who is rude and lazy over a true professional. Does Joe plan to hire a Coach for Olivia to teach her how to work and be professional?
Erin, be strong and know that you encourage so many of us who are hard working honest employees. Thank you, for hanging in there.

[mm]

I love Olivia's style, now that is not enough to keep her in that job as the face of elle.com. joe zee is so obvious, there must be some contract with elle and mtv to keep Olivia so elle stays in the mix. I am waiting to see something that olivia has actually produced, where is that footage on elle.com? When i open elle.com, i should immediately see Olivia's videos and you dont. So what is she doing? I think her job made more sense at DVF. Erin is so correct, you want your coworkers to actually do some work.

[Jacob]

I think Olivia is misunderstood. There is so much creative editing by MTV, that everything is becoming obvious, boring and a fake (like The Hills). Joe Zee comes across as a very poor manager, which he likely isn't, but again, creative editing. It's time Elle got out of that show and moved on to something more professional on the TV front. If Erin continuously spoke to a co-worker the way she speaks to Olivia in the show, her direct manager would definitely be addressing the conflict on many levels, and you don't see this from Joe Zee. It's all created for entertainment purposes folks, don't forget this.

[Stan]

Is it me or is "The City" becoming more of Erin's show than Whitney's show. Erin is the only reason i tune in. MTV should definalty give her a show of her own because i'm tired of Whitney's whining, Roxy's dizziness and Olivia's peanut head.

[Estoria]

Erin,

I am so confused. If Olivia, was so great?" As Joe thnk she is. Where are all this video blog interviews? Where are they?

[Sara]

Olivia's face looks like a rat and she has the personality to match. The only word that comes to mind is.... what happened to you that you have this inability to deal with confrontation?

[coco]

i think erin is a great person and a successful business woman. she definetly deserves her position at elle and should be really proud of what she has accomplished. in regards to olivia palermo i just have one question about her new title as "the new face of elle.com" basically i have yet to see her in a blog or video since the last episode of the city aired so either her new job title was just for entertainment purposes or she is a complete failure as a business person and can't manage to complete any assignment. so where are all her videos and blogs? are they hidden somewhere on the website so that no one will see them (which is prolly a good thing since she is a complete airhead anyways)

[Bell]

Watching all the episodes and reading those comments, one thing I don't understand, why doesn't anyone bring up the season 1 episode where olivia takes credit for Whitney's great job for styling Jessica Alba? Has Joe Zee seen that? I think Erin should tell him to watch it to see how unworthy olivia is. she's not even pretty, even with all the makeup she puts on. those few occasions she was told she did well, how hard were those tasks anyway? all she had to do is pick outfits and jewellery from great designers (for most women, how hard can that be!). she went to japan to please the japanese ladies, but think about it, how hard is it to please japanese with someone who doesn't look like one of them?

[Lindsay]

Joe made a huge mistake. He's a big disappointment. I have my own reasons and opinion. So back off.