Hulu is taking viewers back to New York City in the early 2000s this week with the new documentary Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl, which began streaming today.
Directed by Zackary Drucker—a trans artist and LGBTQ activist recently featured in Netflix’s Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen doc—starts off as a fun, gossip-y dive into the glamorous world of early 2000s New York City socialites, publicists, and celebrity bloggers. But it soon pivots to a more somber, more sincere narrative: The story of a once anonymous blogger, and the object of their affection.
The blogger, a trans woman named Morgan Olivia Rose, used to run a website called “Park Avenue Peerage,” writing anonymous, gushing news posts about New York socialites while she was still a college student in the 2000s. Her favorite? Future reality TV star Tinsley Mortimer. Mortimer is the biggest “get” in the doc—Paris and Perez Hilton must have said no—and Drucker makes the most of her time with the star. Now 47, Mortimer is as poised and genuine as she ever was.
Millennials may know her best from The Real Housewives of New York City, but this isn’t Mortimer turned up to 11 for a reality TV show performance. Instead, she is calm and thoughtful as she recalls rising through the ranks of the New York City social scene, where, once upon a time, she worked at a PR agency. But after seeing the glitz and glamour of other socialites getting their photo taken at lavish charity events, Mortimer decided she wanted that lifestyle for herself. With the help of publicist R. Couri Hay, Mortimer made that dream come true.
Not all of it was everything it was cracked up to be. In a talking head interview for the film, Mortimer says she disliked the term “socialite,” because it made it sound “frivolous, like I’m just lunching,” Mortimer says. “I was actually really working, and really busy.” She also, she says, was not immune to the brutal critiques of her look and personality on gossip blogs like Socialite Rank and Gawker. “People can just sit on their sofa, behind their computer, and make all these comments about you,” Mortimer said. “I get that they were doing a mockery of it, that it was, and that people loved it. But it’s hard, because that was a rough moment. I just think overall, it was a little bit more hurtful to me than helpful.”
But, despite it all, it’s clear that Mortimer looks back on her years on top fondly. “Looking back now on all the things that I did, it was so glamorous and fun,” she says near the end of the film. Then she adds, with a lump in her voice and tears in her eyes, “Things have been tough, a little bit, recently. It’s been nice to see that girl, who was super confident, and it’s been nice to remember that girl, and to hopefully do something like that again.”
Though she only alludes to it briefly in the film—calling it a “disastrous break-up” while on the phone with Morgan Olivia Rose—Mortimer ended her engagement to Chicago-based Coupon Cabin CEO Scott Kluth in March 2021, and it’s clear the break-up affected her.
When asked by Drucker what she wants to do next, Mortimer replies, “I just want to be a housewife, a real housewife. Not a Real Housewife, a real housewife! I don’t only want to talk about all my business stuff I want to do. I want to have a child and be a housewife, a real one.”