Editor’s Note: The critically acclaimed documentary "Valentino: The Last Emperor " will be released on DVD on September 8. Click here for more from wOw on Valentino and "The Last Emperor." This article was originally publishd on wOw in March 2009.

ETCETERIST: Matt, you were a hard-working writer and editor — and still are — at Vanity Fair when a feature you wrote on Valentino led you to spend more than two and a half years filming his life, his creative work, his extraordinary relationship with his partner, Giancarlo Giammetti. Now the film is a huge hit, you’ve just been on “Oprah” promoting it — how has this project changed you?

MATT TYRNAUER: Stepping into a parallel universe changes you. Like learning a foreign language, you see things about life you wouldn’t see if you were only stuck in your own rut, living in your own camp.

ETC: I know you were concerned and wanted to remain a fly on the wall as much as you could, to not get sucked into Valentino’s intoxicatingly charming world.

MATT: Yes, it is intoxicating. Joan Juliet Buck has described it as anesthetizing, and you begin to want it. But for me, I was concerned if I got too sucked in, I would lose my identity as an interloper.

ETC: You never spent the night at any of Valentino’s houses, instead of in hotels or with friends?

MATT: I spent one night, in Switzerland, for convenience. And it was like staying at Windsor Castle, I would imagine. Upon arrival, your bag is taken from you and the next thing you know, when you get to your room, all your clothes have been aired and ironed and are hanging in the closet. Your shoes are polished and there is a fruit basket and a cup of tea waiting for you. This is the world of Valentino. Valentino lives in “The Bubble” and it is a bubble created for him by Giancarlo Giammetti, his partner for more than half a century.

ETC: The love story is the most compelling aspect of the film. For me it certainly was, and so, too, for all the people sobbing at the screening, people who otherwise have no interest in Valentino’s world, or bubble.

MATT: They may be the richest men in Rome, but their relationship is a universal story. That was really the reason I wanted to make the film. Theirs is the most amazing relationship I’ve ever seen in my life.

ETC: Interesting timing that your film is released into the debate over Proposition 8.

MATT: Proposition 8 is toxic, and should be repealed. But there is also the aspect … when pushing for legalizing gay marriage, you are unavoidably pushing for a kind of societal conformity: marriage. I found it remarkable how the love story of Giancarlo and Valentino shows a way you can get there without asking for conformity.

ETC: Your film became a segment on “Oprah.” That is a very big deal!

MATT: Talk about “freakonomics.” After seeing a screening at the Toronto Film Festival, the director Ivan Reitman, whom I did not know personally, contacted my office for a copy of the film he could screen. He invited Oprah, and she was very taken by it.

Click here to read Valentino to Billy Norwich: I Feel Lucky to Have Left Fashion.

Click here to read Valentino: The Last Emperor’s Pugs (Photos).