How Journalism works

I’m very excited. Private Eye published a quote I submitted! They didn't credit me in print, but they did send me a cheque for £10, so yesssssssssss. Although I submitted the quote for the Luvvies section ("devoted to gems from the acting profession"), they put it in the Street of Shame. You could go out and buy Private Eye to see it, but you probably won’t bother, so I'll just reproduce it here:

How Journalism Works
"We hug goodbye and it's a warm and proper hug where I tell him he’s lovely and he squeezes me tighter."
Chrissy Iley…er…interviews Johnny Depp in the Guardian.

I’m thinking of putting that in my clippings, pretending the £10 was a freelance fee and telling people I've now written for Private Eye. But then the "how Journalism works" slogan would gain a redirected irony, and I'd be more ridiculous that Iley. I'll probably do it anyway though.

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On a related note, my friend Sophie who writes for The Independent's Media section told me that the other day she received a free mug in the post with a note saying she was now "a friend of Private Eye" (The Eye is mainly read by journalists, so presumably her position as a media hack makes her particularly eligible). The weird part is that it was sent to her home address. Freaky!