FAVORITE OF THE WEEK: Bestselling Author and Journalist: Lauren Weisberger "The Devils Wear Prada"

Welcome to Up Close and Personal. Once a week, on a Sunday, a favorite author, journalist will be featured as ‘Favorite of the Week”. The article will give them more exposure and publicity about their work.

This week we choose Lauren Weisberger. Ms. Weisberger was a Vogue magazine's editor-in-chief's assistant of Anna Wintour from 1999-2000. Her first novel The Devil Wears Prada which was published in 2003, was a thinly veiled account of the hellish life of a fashion magazine editor's assistant. It was critically bashed, but it was a mega success and spends six months on the New York Times bestseller list.

The book provides a semi-fictional but highly critical view of the Manhattan elite’s obsession with materialism and fashion. The Devil Wears Prada, which exists in more than 4 million copies, became the Golden Globe award winning motion picture starring Oscar two time winner, Meryl Streep and Oscar and Golden Globe nominee, Anne Hathaway and was released by 20th Century fox in June of 2006. The Devil Wears Prada was one of the top grossing films of summer 2006.

Her second book, Everyone Worth Knowing was published in 2005 and is based upon the trial and tribulations of the New York City public relations world. Again she proved that she was not just a one hit wonder, with more than a million copies in print to prove it and was on the The New York Time bestseller list.

Chasing Harry Winston is Ms. Weisberger's third novel, which was released on May 27, 2008. The main characters are three best friend New Yorkers, Emmy, Adriana and Leigh, who are facing the horror of turning 30. In September 2008,it was announced that Universal Pictures had picked up the rights to the book.

Jennifer Weiner, Adriana Trigiani, Lauren Weisberger and fourteen other American women authors collaborated on a novel American Girls About Town. The anthology includes brand-new stories from America's best-known women writers. Benefiting from the sale of the book are Barnardo's, the UKUs largest children's charity, and America's Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Lauren Weisberger graduated from Cornell University and is now married to Mike Cohen who is also a writer.

Photo of Ms. Weisberger by Robert Deutsch

To learn more about Lauren Weisberger please visit her WEBSITE

To purchase her books please visit AMAZON and Barnes & Noble