Ugly Betty star Becki Newton tries magazine role for real

Becki Newton hung up three times on a reality TV star, when she worked as an assistant to the editor-in-chief of a magazine as part of a challenge.

The 31-year-old plays a receptionist on a top magazine in hit US show Ugly Betty, but discovered the job is much harder in real life.

The actress embarrassingly dropped the phone three times when Jillian Michaels – a personal trainer on the US version of the Biggest Loser – called.

Newton took on the role as part of an article she was writing for US fitness magazine, Self.

She said: “My character in Ugly Betty, Amanda, the receptionist, avoids doing work and hangs up on people on purpose.

“When Self invited me to try being the assistant to editor-in-chief Lucy Danziger for the afternoon, I jumped at the chance to prove I’m no Amanda.”

But things didn’t go as planned.

She said: “I hung up three times on Jillian Michaels, the Biggest Loser star and Self contributing editor.”

Newton also confessed that she might have asked the magazine’s creative director to get her a latte, after mistaking her for an intern.

And despite spilling silver nail polish all over her desk, she did get one thing right.

She said: “I did give myself an amazing manicure, and I have a new respect for Abbi, Lucy’s actual assistant, who could kick Amanda’s a** any day.”