See the 'Vogue' documentary, without all the riffraff, for just $150

Let's face it, if you can't casually plunk down at least $150 for unnecessary baubles and bling, you're not really the target audience for The September Issue, the documentary about style-bible Vogue and its feared and revered editrix, Anna Wintour. That seems to be the presumption, anyway, of a promotion that Bloomingdale's is running in Southern California with the upcoming flick, which chronicles the making of the record-busting September 2007 edition of the magazine (all 840 pages of it). For the next week, fashionistas can get VIP passes for a private screening in Los Angeles on Sept. 10, provided they spend $150 or more on accessories and/or handbags at the upscale retailer. Is that a deal? The well-coiffed crowd could wait until the movie opens the next day and spend about 10 bucks for a ticket at their neighborhood indie theater. But then, they'd have to rub elbows with (gasp!) commoners and art-house hippies (you know, the pasty skin, bad haircuts and Joy Division T-shirts). That would be a very un-VIP-like experience, and that just won't do. As for the film itself, critics are digging its close-up look at Nuclear Wintour and its examination of the rarified fashion/business world from skilled documentarian R.J. Cutler (The War Room, Thin). See The Hollywood Reporter's review from this year's Sundance Film Festival here.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley