New York Observer

ambitions

Manager Of Party Ladies Might Do Anything For Fame

The Post goes off on some crazy story today about Elli Frank, who runs a service that provides girls for Manhattan parties, and how the New York Observer "accused [her] of prostitution" in a profile in 2004 and supposedly there was a settlement when she claimed defamation. Though, probably, it was not any meaningful kind of settlement, because the story's still there and it says things like "Ms. Frank says her girls don't have sex for money, and don't get propositioned" and also says "Her parents, a former Catholic lay minister and a registered nurse, as well as her three brothers, tease her that she's Heidi Fleiss." Doesn't it seem that any newspaper's lawyer who'd agree to a defamation settlement over a story like that would have to be a complete moron? (Also? Don't terms of settlements usually state that parties are forbidden from mentioning the settlement?) But we think we know why the Page Six item ran—we hear that Elli's telling friends that Paramount caught her story and bought the rights. So she may not be a whore-monger, but.... Well, congrats, ya little fame seeker!

12:00 PM ON THU SEP 13 2007
BY CHOIRE
1,083 views, 25 comments

Latest by c_webb: @TVAddendum: Thanks! But now I'm experiencing stigmata. Oh wait, that's salsa from my burrito. never mind. ... more

new hires The New York Observer continues its acquisitions with the hiring of a new media editor: One Zachary Roth, late of the Washington Monthly. We figure if you finish this piece of his on election financing or this one on parents and television, you'll know all you need to know about him; we sure didn't so we totally don't. He has a blog with his brother. We have yet to find any pictures of him, but oh, we will.

2 comments

departures on great terms

Doree Shafrir Ankles New Media Sweatshop

Near the end of day yesterday, Gawker's Doree Shafrir handed in her two weeks notice. She'll be leaving us for the New York Observer, where she'll write and report on "ideas." (That role has been, it seems, officially unfilled since the departure of Sheelah Kolhatkar for Portfolio over the winter.) Doree began here as an "associate editor" last October, and early this year transitioned to reporting on the media full-time. She can only be replaced here at Gawker with a terrifying room full of jerry-rigged threshing machines held together with baling wire and lubricated with grain alcohol. We sincerely wish her the best of luck in destroying Jared Kushner from inside his own shop—or, at least, in bringing that paper what the boy publisher may not know it so desperately needs.

12:09 PM ON TUE AUG 28 2007
BY CHOIRE
9,458 views, 92 comments

Latest by Madame_Ovary: Now the Glaring Omission will be your absence. Was $168K too little for you?... more

their 9/11 Exactly how big will tomorrow's New York Observer play the death of Brooke Astor? Cover drawing plus page one, double-column obit? Special guest columnists? Obit pull-out section? An entirely black overleaf? Will they actually not publish the issue in memoriam?

5 comments

changing jobs is like changing skinny jeans We hear that Rebecca Dana, who left the TV beat at the New York Observer to go to the New York Times but was shanked on her way in the door, has taken Brooks Barnes's old job—or an iteration of it—covering TV for the Wall Street Journal.

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this modern age

Computers Can Annoy, Anecdotal Reporting Finds... Again

New York Observer new gal Meredith Bryan has two solid swings this week: one hit (seriously, the Klute haircut piece! Wild!) and one miss. In the latter article, she writes of an annoying trend that's plaguing Williamsburg and presumably other places where people have a) dinner parties and b) computers. "We were sitting around eating appetizers and drinking wine," Meredith quotes "Eleanna, a 27-year-old artist who lives in Williamsburg" as saying. "Then we somehow started having an argument about yams and sweet potatoes. As in, 'Is a yam a sweet potato?' And Matt was like, 'That's it, I'm going online.' So we all crowded around his computer and learned that yams were not sweet potatoes. This was like, the evening's entertainment." Dear god. This article. Really? Let's all hop into the wayback machine and travel to February 15, 2007, the last time an iteration of this 'technology and real human interaction meet and mingle, so wacky-annoying' article made us want to punch someone in the face. more »

4:40 PM ON WED JUL 25 2007
BY EMILY
1,350 views, 24 comments

Latest by Cookie Guggleman: The Klute haircut piece brought back a memory of one my early style struggles with my mother. I saw a... more

when trend pieces attack

The "New Victorians": Um, How Despicable!

According to the New York Observer's Lizzy Ratner, the "New Victorians" are a cozy bunch of luxury-addicted, monogamous, career-focussed twentysomething urbanites whose appetites run more to "home and hearth and eating" than the crazy coke-fueled orgies that 'used to be' the earmarks of NYC early adulthood. "Eminent New Victorian couples can be found all over New York these days, puttering about their brownstones (original detail carefully restored), or pushing babies with names like Beatrice, Charlotte, Theodore and Henry in gigantic prams to the local playground," Lizzy explains. Well. This seemed like one of those classic, ridiculous Observer articles that strains to prematurely name and define a trend based on a few specious examples. And on the other hand.... more »

1:27 PM ON WED JUL 11 2007
BY EMILY
10,773 views, 95 comments

Latest by Are Modern Parents the "New Victorians"? on Strollerderby: Are modern parents forsaking nightlife and dinner parties for Venti Chai Tea Lattes and long walks with bebe in a... more

Inside Baseball

Women Consistently Underrepresented In Media... Softball

Today's WWD goes deep on the unexamined story of lack of women on media softball teams. Seriously. (Well, you try putting out a column on July 5! Go on! No seriously, please do, because we'll write about anything today.) Apparently the "New York Media Softball League," in its official capacity as People With Too Much Time On Their Hands And Not Enough Concern About Their Publications, has instituted a rule that insists that at least one woman be on the team for every five men. Vanity Fair and the New Yorker have not joined, so will not be subject to trying to find more women. "No knock on those guys, but they don't want to play on the same level, apparently," scoffs the editor of High Times. In fact, at our most recent game, we noticed an extreme, near-total lack of women on the New York Observer's softball team. (Makes sense: Of their six or so most recent editorial hires, only one was a woman.) Of course, if all women bat like our Doree or like Gawker Intern Kaila, we wouldn't want to hire them either. How could they possibly be any good at their jobs if they can't rock the diamond?

Batter Up [WWD]

10:25 AM ON THU JUL 5 2007
BY CHOIRE
1,266 views, 21 comments

Latest by miss_msry: @Clarence Rosario: A newspaper once worked for hired a summer intern who just happened to be the #1 softball player... more

jersey boys New York Observer owner Jared Kushner and his dad, convicted felon Charles, sell off nearly $2 billion in New Jersey real estate in order to focus on "fewer properties but larger transactions" in New York City. To the rest of New York's real estate families, though, they'll always be bridge and tunnel. [Star-Ledger]

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lit boys

Taylor Antrim Is Totally Hot And Stuff

Seriously, who cares if Taylor Antrim's new prep school novel with a Smiths song title is good? Just look at him. The Observer's Sara Vilkomerson certainly is looking, and boy does she like what she sees. more »

3:20 PM ON WED JUN 27 2007
BY EMILY
5,765 views, 23 comments

media softball

Gawker vs. Observer

On Thursday, June 21, 2007, the strapping young lads and lasses of Gawker Media took the field at Central Park's Great Lawn and engaged in fearsome competition with the salmon-hued staffers of the New York Observer. Some of the finest softball in the history of the game was played there on Field 6.

7:09 PM ON THU JUN 21 2007
BY BALK
528 views, Comment

the modern man

Must Straight Men Be Manscaped?

Manscaping: According to Simon Doonan, it's an epidemic amongst our city's movers and shakers. The depilatory procedure, "known among practitioners as 'back, sack and crack,' ...concerns male hetero hair removal. Yes, below the waist. Eeeeeuw!" Our feelings exactly, compounded with fear: Do we really have to go out and get our short-and-curlies tweezed away? Because, seriously, you could make wigs for every resident of Staten Island and have plenty left over for blankets and handkerchiefs. To get to the bottom (haha, get it?) of this whole sordid business, we checked in with the ladies of Jezebel. more »

11:16 AM ON WED JUN 20 2007
BY BALK
12,416 views, 92 comments

Latest by LtzPre10d: OK, New unapproved commenter here. I feel strongly that a crop at the shop is sometimes much needed. I don't... more

gay shame

New York Gay Pride Parade In The Red

Donations to Heritage of Pride, the horribly-named non-profit that produces New York's annual gay pride parade, have dropped off so significantly that the organization is now in the red after years of flushness. Why? Because rich and white people just don't care about their stupid parade. According to the Observer: "'Some people,' said Dennis Spafford, a spokesman for Heritage of Pride, 'don't care anymore.'" OMG no! more »

10:20 AM ON WED JUN 20 2007
BY CHOIRE
3,272 views, 28 comments

every woman adores a fascist

Who Wants To Marry An Ex-Junkie Sportscar Millionaire?

Sure, it would be easy to read the Observer's profile of Fiat heir Lapo Elkann and get all ladyishly offended. Lapo does seem have that noblesse oblige thing going on, especially when it comes to his dealings with the fairer sex! Seriously, what kind of guy sits down to an interview, checks out the waitress, and says, "Usually this place has ugly waitresses, but this one is a very delicate and elegant one, I must say"? But maybe that's just Lapo being... refreshingly honest! Uh oh... what is this feeling? Do I actually have a crush on a Euro-jerk with an anchor necklace who characterizes his conquests as like "flowers in a vase—they need to be changed every couple days"? Dad, why were you not around more when I was little?
more »

3:50 PM ON WED JUN 13 2007
BY EMILY
6,094 views, 67 comments

Latest by TheJerseyDevil: @WendyKroy: Nazi armbands, od'ing with tranny hookers...six of one, half dozen of the other.... more

media softball Current score of the ongoing Radar vs. New York Observer softball game: 7-2, Observer kicking butt. Also the Observer's media reporter Michael Calderone just took a ball to the eye. (Just one? Ha! Kidding! Sorry!) UPDATE: Radar sources report a "bench-clearing brawl" gave Calderone the black eye. Whatevs! We report, you decide.

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the jews

Why Philip Weiss Left The 'Observer'

Author and former Observer blogger Philip Weiss has taken to the pages of The American Conservative to detail how he felt he was forced out by Observer owner Jared Kushner and his former Harvard friend, Observer editor Peter Kaplan, for writing incorrectly about Israel. (Also, we find out that Weiss did the blog for free! Uh, what?) Weiss claims that as he got increasingly strident about his feelings about Israel, Kushner and Kaplan's quiet discomfort with his blog grew, and it didn't help that the paper was being totally besieged by complaints. Kushner comes from an Orthodox Jewish family, and his family has also long donated to Jewish and pro-Israel causes. And from Weiss's account, it sounds like this is Kaplan's lone Achilles heel that he might have for any Kushner editorial thoughts. Definitely Weiss made Kushner uncomfortable, if not unhappy. more »

1:04 PM ON WED JUN 6 2007
BY DOREE
1,764 views, 12 comments

Latest by dishalicious: @PBH: Wow, PBH, maybe you should change your handle to KKK, you anti-Semitic twatwaffle. ... more

dreams that end in tears

Authors Are Self-Dramatizing Crybabies

Pity the poor souls still laboring under the delusion that book-writing can potentially be a lucrative, fulfilling career. Or, like, don't! Today, we learn of some of the pitfalls and dashed expectations that, yes, even published authors find themselves coming up against. Such as: even a six-figure advance isn't really enough to live on for a year once your agent's 15% comission has been subtracted and you've had to pay for your own permissions. Also, did you know that writing alone in your room all day can be depressing? more »

10:35 AM ON WED JUN 6 2007
BY EMILY
4,038 views, 23 comments

Latest by PikachuMcHeidegger: @trix-are-for-kids: These people inhabit their clichés... Welcome to New York.... more

casual racism

'Observer' Blacks Up A-Rod

You know, we were all set to write off the A-Rod affair as a harmless bit of ballplayer adultery until we realized—thanks to illustrator Robert Grossman in today's Observer—that the dude is black. A black guy nailing our busty blond strippers? Unthinkable! To arms, people. more »

9:55 AM ON WED JUN 6 2007
BY BALK
3,602 views, 51 comments