‘Paper’ Tigress: ‘You'll Never Work in This Town Again!’

Amanda Lorber

6/ 2/08

You're never too young for your first publishing feud, especially if you're super-ambitious Amanda Lorber, the 17-year-old star of MTV's reality series The Paper.

After the show's finale last week, Lorber told the Times she was surprised by the amount of venom leveled at her by her peers in the press.

"I thought of all people to degrade my character, I wouldn’t have thought it would be the journalists to do it,” she said.

And so she's fighting back. After Alexandria Symonds, a reporter at a Columbia University's The Eye, postulated that Lorber's "overbearing and annoying" personality stemmed "from a crippling self-consciousness and a terminally unfulfilled desire to be liked," among other things, she received an e-mail from Lorber.

In it, the young editrix detailed evidence of her popularity (she was the lead in Grease, don't you know) and chastised her peer for her journalist-on-journalist (and girl-on-girl) crime:

I'm not saying I don't have enemies, obviously I do. You seem to be one of them, but as I write now, I'm starting to see where it's coming from. It's a different kind of jealousy. The type spewed from young women who resent teenage girls that get their names out there. You, Ms. Symonds, are obviously a fundamentally bitter woman. You degrade the work ethic and academic values of a 17-year-old in order to cure your self-consciousness and upset at perhaps never being recognized for your work when you're through with "The Specator."

Well, snap. Lorber's coming to NYU in the fall, and we think we smell a sequel. Washhington Square News versus Spectator, anyone? The full is e-mail after the jump.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amanda Lorber
Date: Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 9:44 PM
Subject: RE: "On MTV, The Paper Beats Rock—Sort Of"
To: "editor@columbiaspectator.com"

Ms. Symonds,

I'm writing to communicate my (quite understandable) disgust with your piece. In case you hadn't caught the hint from my email address (apparently, blatant sarcasm isn't your forte either, because I'm not interested in becoming president and it's quite clear from the show
that I'm cracking an, admittedly corny, joke), this is Amanda Lorber, editor-in-chief of the Cypress Bay "Circuit," character on the MTV docu-series "The Paper," and impassioned writer.

I found it quite strange that a journalist would unnecessarily decide to attack her own. For years, all I've wanted is to graduate and make something of myself. To become a successful journalist, one who makes a difference in society. Of course, those ambitions apparently strike
you as "annoying" and as "grating" as my personality. I didn't know wit was crime, either.

I'm baffled by the way you degrade what I do, by your cruel, vain, unfounded descriptions of what I'm truly like. "This is a fundamentally lonely girl. Sure, she's overbearing and annoying, but
it's obvious that it all stems from crippling self-consciousness and a terminally unfulfilled desire to be liked." Oh, you know me so well. You neglected to mention that the show only focuses on SEVEN CHARACTERS, one of whom is my best friend, the others being simply uncooperative coworkers. So, let's see. Six people out of 5500. You're right. I'm lonely. Sarcasm again, in case you missed it. I'm involved in a variety of clubs, including Drama, musical theater, and the national honor society, in which I hold other titles of position and a
lead in the school production of "Grease." From an objective standpoint, I'd say I'm well-liked outside of my competitive editorial board. This isn't the "self-delusion," speaking. I base it off of the affectionate way other students respond to me.

I'm not saying I don't have enemies, obviously I do. You seem to be one of them, but as I write now, I'm starting to see where it's coming from. It's a different kind of jealousy. The type spewed from young women who resent teenage girls that get their names out there. You,
Ms. Symonds, are obviously a fundamentally bitter woman. You degrade the work ethic and academic values of a 17-year-old in order to cure your self-consciousness and upset at perhaps never being recognized for your work when you're through with "The Specator." In fact, if my staff hadn't been excitedly 'googling' every article written about our (national television) show, I would never had come across your disgusting piece.

You should be ashamed, sincerely (and I do mean that), Amanda Lorber

postscript: I might have been "too young to subject" myself to doing this television show, but apparently, I'm not too young to be disparaged and intensely criticized by you.