Vogue's Grace Coddington's Life Inspired a Fictional Orangutan's Memoir

-Very exciting. I -- I would -- Be honest.
If I knew that I was gonna have an author of a book
called "GingerNutz" on, I don´t know if it would´ve been you.
Why not? -I don´t know.
"GingerNutz" does not strike me
as the name of a book you´d write.
How did you come to write a book called "GingerNutz?"
-Um, well, I didn´t actually write it.
My friend Michael Roberts wrote it.
And conceived it, actually.
-So why isn´t he here? [ Laughter ]
-Because you wouldn´t have us on last week.
-That´s true. There you go.
But how did this come about, this book?
-Well, it was a kind of silly story.
I was...75 a while back. -Yeah.
And they were trying to throw me a surprise birthday party.
-Uh-huh. Do you like surprises?
-I love surprises. -Oh, good, okay.
-Yeah, I do, fortunately.
Well, you know, I always know
something´s hatching when it´s my birthday time.
Anyway... Um, they decided they were --
they´d like a nice invitation to send to everybody,
which I knew nothing about.
And so they asked Michael, who´s an illustrator --
Well, he´s everything.
But, anyway, he´s an illustrator.
And they asked him to do an invitation for the party.
-And this is the invitation he drew -- for your 75th.
And that is, uh... There you go.
[ Laughter ]
It´s wonderful. -I think it´s wonderful.
But, apparently, everybody thought
I would be incredibly offended.
-Okay. Because it´s an orangutan
with very similar hair to yours, yeah.
[ Laughter ] -But anyway --
And I knew nothing about this, and the whole invitation died,
and I think they just e-mailed everybody or something.
I don´t know.
Anyway, about three months later,
Michael suddenly sent me this picture.
E-mailed.
And, actually, I never look at e-mail,
but I did happen to see this.
And I said, you know, "What the hell is this?"
[ Laughter ]
And I said, "You know, it kind of looks like me."
And he told me the whole story. -Okay.
And you were not offended?
-I absolutely love it. I loved it.
No, and I said, "She´s got to go somewhere, this girl."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-So, together we sort of hatched up a sort of --
-And so that´s how we ended with --
"GingerNutz" ended up with a very similar story to you
in a very similar memoir.
-Well, actually -- [ Laughter ]
It was easy, because Michael Roberts
actually wrote my memoir kind of with me, for me.
-That´s fantastic. -So he knew the story.
-And he knew how to take that story
and put it on an orangutan.
-Yeah, and sort of parallel it with --
-That´s fantastic.
-´Cause the whole story is completely my story.
-You -- I first came to know you,
and I know a lot of people in the fashion world
have known you forever, but "The September Issue,"
which is an excellent documentary about Vogue
and the inner workings of Vogue.
And, you know, not only do we see
sort of Anna Wintour at work, but we --
I got to be introduced to you.
Was that a film that you found a lot of people
then became aware of who you are?
-Um, yes, yeah.
I don´t think anybody knew who I was.
I mean, a few people in the fashion business knew,
kind of knew me a little bit.
But certainly nobody in the street,
or I was never recognized.
-And now, do people in the streets approach you,
still from "The September Issue?"
-Um, still, yes.
People are still seeing it. It´s really incredible.
It´s on planes or something. I don´t know.
-I remember watching it, and for me,
it felt very similar to "SNL," in that it´s very --
the stress that goes into putting together,
especially the September issue.
And I felt a real connection with you,
because I felt like Lorne Michaels
is a lot like Anna Wintour,
and your role, I felt like, was very similar
to a head writer at "SNL."
Because they sort of are very good at giving bad news
and then havingyou go tell it to people.
[ Laughter ] -Uh-huh.
Yeah, like, "Oh, those pictures are killed."
-Yeah, but then, it felt like you were very --
you had the right personality to do that,
to give people bad news. Is that fair?
-[ Laughs ] What gives you that --
-Well, I just mean, you´re very sweet,
so I feel like you´d give to it them in a way that´s easier.
-Oh, I´m not so sweet. -You´re not, really?
[ Laughter ]
-I´m really horrible. -You know what?
I´ve mistaken you with GingerNutz.
-Yes! [ Laughter ]
-The very kind orangutan who gives you bad news.
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Vogue's Grace Coddington's Life Inspired a Fictional Orangutan's Memoir

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