Jeremy Murphy On Top Fashion Moments In Book, ‘Too Good To Fact Check’

Jeremy Murphy is a hilarious writer. During the pandemic, he sat down with a glass of scotch (likely, Macallan) to write a humor book about the media—which feels more like a prickly how-to for journalism graduates, called “F**k Off, Chloe! Surviving the OMGs! and FMLs! in Your Media Career.”

More than anything, it’s “about the culture clash between young and veterans in the media workforce,” says Murphy, citing “the entitlement, the air of superiority,” of millennials.

Fast forward two years later and he has released another book. His latest book, “Too Good To Fact Check: Flying the Skies with Stars, Scotch and Scandal (Mostly Mine),” was recently released with Post Hill Press. It was co-written with Sophia Paulimer, a New York actor, director and writer who helped him write about himself—after spending a career writing about other people. She fills in the gaps with fresh eyes, not to mention a Q&A at the end of each chapter rehashing each celebrity anecdote (the irony is that she offers “the millennial perspective,” she says, and thankfully, her name isn’t Chloe).

The book traces Murphy’s raucous decade as former editor in chief of CBS’ Watch! Magazine, which really was the tail end of the glory years for glossy magazines (RIP). It gave TV stars the Vanity Fair treatment and was sort of like what Graydon Carter’s Airmail is today, long before it existed.

Murphy wanted to share “all these great horror stories from traveling with celebrities,” he says. As a media veteran, he had a contact with a book publisher, and—poof—the book was born. “Every aspiring writer hates me,” he notes.

From crashing a Valentino runway show to writing a speech for Usher, the book highlights celebrities who saw their popularity during his tenure as editor from 2006 to 2016, a position he held while being the vice president of communications at CBS.

He worked on lavish shoots with LL Cool J, Harrison Ford (who he refers to as “Harrison Bored”), and others—back when editors were rock stars. In one chapter, he apologizes to Kayley Cuoco on what he sheepishly recalls as terrible (it sounded sloppy). “We were not on our A-game, okay?” said Murphy. “And it showed, so she did not have a good experience.”

The real fashion highlights come in when he hires iconic fashion photographers to shoot cover stories for Watch, be it Patrick Demarchiler or Ellen von Unwerth. It was a time when the editor in chief would fly to a photo shoot with the actors and world-renowned photographer (something much less common today, due to slashed media budgets). It ends up that Murphy acted like more of a rock star than the celebrities, who were all “nice” he says in a mild-mannered way, avoiding any obvious lawsuits.

Some juicy anecdotes in the book include bar fights, hotel rooms set on fire, and someone’s assistant getting arrested on a flight to Paris. He attended a shoot on the Orient Express with Neil Patrick Harris, shot Julianna Margulies at the Hotel du Cap in Antibes, France, with Christine Baranski in a vineyard in Tuscany, owned by the Ferragamo family, and more.

Murphy would hang out with supermodels like Robert Konjic, and shoot at the famed Paris hotel, the Plaza Athénée (yes, where scenes from The Devil Wears Prada were shot). On working with Demarchelier, he says: “His photos stand out, they never look dated. He really captures timeless photos. And he’s fast—he gets the shots in 30 minutes, tops. He is that good.”

On Von Unwerth, Murphy recalls her being “wild.” She was, at the time, known for her washed out Guess ads that covered billboards across the world. “She only had two assistants, no equipment except lights, and they slither with her every time she moves,” he said. “She got teams to leave the room when it was too crowded. She went against our plan and came up with brilliant photography. At the time, we were courting high fashion advertisers, and she got us on the radar because her photography was provocative.”

Murphy says that the book is part “diary, love letter, stand-up act, and mea culpa in one book,” adding that it’s a “great way to become unemployable.”

In today’s tepid media landscape, it’s easy to see why he says that. In fact, those who read both of his books will get a crash course in journalism 101. For young aspiring journalism graduates who are bright eyed and eager to enter the media or public relations, Murphy, who today runs his own PR firm called 360 Bespoke, advises them “to go the other direction.”

“Run,” he says. “Go to Google. Go into health care. I’m kidding, of course, but I feel like a dinosaur. I’m going to be 50 next year, and I believe that the industry has changed so much that I don’t recognize it,” he said. “I’m kind of having a crisis of identity, like, am I a writer or a PR rep? So, I guess, today, you can be both.”

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