Anna Wintour has always had an aura of unapproachable mysteriousness. This is probably to do with the media's portrayal of her, but is also because we've only ever seen her sitting on front row at fashion shows and have never heard her speak. So when we found out she was to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman, we were intrigued. Would she be as icy as her reputation suggests? Would she take off those damned sunglasses? Can she actually speak at all?
On watching it, the first thing that struck us was her accent (yes, she can speak). Somewhere in the back of our minds we knew she was British, but we were still expecting an American accent. What we got was one of those godawful hybrids, reminiscent of Sharon Osbourne: a voice that is English for the most part, but lifts up in a questioning tone but at the end of every sentence. Ugh.
The editrix also attempted a joke or too, or at least, we think she did. She wore her trademark oversized sunglasses out to greet David Letterman, before taking them off for the interview. Wintour's second hilarious joke (the sunglasses gag was the first, in case it was too subtle for you) came when Letterman asked her: "Have you ever put anybody into a headlock?" Cue an awkward pause, then the deadpan reply: "Maybe you."
Could she not have got one of her writers to script a couple of rib-ticklers for her?
It was all rather forced, but then what did we expect? A jolly Anna Wintour, bursting with bonhomie and exuberance? We would have watched with baited breath had Anna suddenly started divulging all the behind-the-scenes gossip at Vogue, but let's get real; it was never going to happen. She is a cold fish, an ice queen, a nuclear Wintour, and that's why we like her. We like the idea that one arched eyebrow can send her minions scurrying away, as if it meant "OFF WITH HER HEAD!".
A nice Anna Wintour would be unnatural and wrong, like a friendly piranha fish.
