Gawker
When I saw a tall, dark-haired, model-esque woman sliding through the pre-awards crowd at the National Magazine Awards in the Rose Ballroom on 60th St. last night, my canny journalistic sixth sense kicked in. "She sure doesn't look like a magazine writer," I thought. Later, she strode out on stage during the awards ceremony. It was Padma Lakshmi, supermodel. "Fiction. It can...raise fire in the loins," she purred. Half of the audience shifted in their seats. "The sharpest weapon an editor has at her disposal is her pen. (Pause). Or her tongue." It really drove home the primary question in everyone's minds: Isn't this supposed to be, like, a magazine thing? What the fuck are all these famous people doing here? And Julia Allison? An attempted explanation, and some terrible, terrible cell phone pictures to sum up the night, after the jump.
I guess if you want to get technical about it, Julia Allison is employed by a magazine. But her main occupation is fameball. So when I saw her, in a white dress, dramatically posing for photos as if she was getting married, it made me question whether these magazine awards were supposed to be some sort of society event. Apparently so! The following people showed up to present awards, for no discernible reason whatsoever:
- Anderson Cooper. Who did not say anything gay.
- Former New Yorker editor and current Clinton family stalker Tina Brown. "She looks like Hillary," someone whispered loudly when she appeared.
- The aforementioned Padma Lakshmi. She said some stuff about her food show, too.
- Former baseball star turned investor turned magazine publisher Lenny Dykstra. Though he can't be 50 years old yet, he shuffled, mumbled, and spoke with his mouth an inch from the mike in a disquieting impression of Muhammad Ali in the throes of Parkinson's disease. Or maybe it wasn't an impression.
- Obama girl.
- New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Who, after the ceremony, was deep in conversation with New Yorker editor David Remnick. A conversation I imagine going like this:
KELLY: Congratulations on the award.
REMNICK: Thanks. Coincidentally, we're going to be doing an investigative piece on the NYPD soon.
KELLY: You are under arrest.
- Judah Friedlander and two other people from 30 Rock. They also made awkward, jokey attempts to somehow tie their show to the magazine industry. Not their fault, though. My guess is they were just as mystified that they were there as anyone else.
- Charlie Rose
The "Nick Denton Could Make This A Metaphor" moment of the night: Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman, after receiving an award, tried to walk off stage the wrong way, and had to turn around and double back.
And here, the night in poor pictures. I'm having some trouble aligning them correctly, so I will put the captions here, and the pictures below. 1. The view from the ballroom, and also what this crowd of media honchos controls: the world. 2. Here, Anderson Cooper, live on stage! It's really him, I promise! 3. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly walks away from me in fear after I challenge him to a debate on media consolidation laws. 4. Fameball Julia Allison and New York Magazine writer Vanessa Grigoriadis, whose article about this site was nominated for an award last night. They're both very personable!
That's about it.
Comments
Boy, Julia is really giving you the stinkeye in that last pic.
Do you do weddings Hamilton?
The hat shtick has to get a bit tedious for Judah, I would imagine.
So, Hamilton, give us some more Padma deets damnit. Was she what you expected in person? Better?
The first pic looks like A Night at the NJ Turnpike Prom.
Was Julia able to meet her quota of Boys Life subscriptions?
@fiveinchtaint: Man, that guy has zero credibility in my book. All it takes is one Dave Matthews' video.
One day! Just one day without mentioned that woman (not Padma). CAN YOU DO IT?
I just want to say, when Julia Allison has a cameo on 30 Rock, it will ultimately be Gawker's fault.
@TheHonJudgeSmails: This I did not know, nor do I like. His character on 30 Rock is pretty damn awesome, though. Makes him hard to hate.
OK, I've tried for a year now to stay out of this, but it's time: that dumbass media whore's puckered mug makes me want to jam a fork through my forehead.
What, no Padma pics?
@RonMwangaguhunga: The ASME hall monitors kept coming over and harassing anyone they saw taking pics or pulling out a cell phone. Rachel Sklar was bravely doing some undercover photo work during the show though, at the risk of being scolded or shot.
Met Padma years ago at a Hearst mag event. She was really cool. Funny, good personality, but almost otherworldly, she is so good looking.
Now -- back among the rest of us mortals...
I'm assuming you're using the term "famous" very loosely when speaking of Ms. Allison.
"What the fuck are all these famous people doing here? Like Julia Allison?"
These are separate thoughts, right? You are asking whether we like J.A., I hope.
famous (adjective): very well known; known and recognized by many people
Define many.
@DorothyZbornak: I should have refreshed...
A reporter taking pictures with a camera phone? A good digital camera costs less than two hundred bucks. Invest!
Where's the picture of Annie Leibovitz giving you tips on how to take really great cellphone pix, with Julia Allison as model?
@JuneBuggy:
and when security takes your $200 camera, the tears are priceless.
A world controlled by Padma Lakshmi and Judah Friedlander is a world I want to live in.
I hearts me some Judah Friedlander. I heard the National Pamphlet Association booked Paul F. Tompkins for their soiree.
CHRIST, will someone please tell Julia Alison that she looks like even MORE of an ass when she puckers her lips that like?
I probably sound all cracky, more than bitchy, and shit--but why the fuck (and for that matter what the fuck) is Padma Lakshmi giving out the ASME for fiction? If there's irony involved, I don't care enough to get it, and I frankly think the fuss over her (who to me is just a pair of bug-eyes and a You Tube rant life story, sorry). Marries a coot (albeit brilliant one) dumps him and all of a sudden she's, what, worthwhile?
Just. Don't. Get. It.
I'd rather here about what the Elle editors were wearing, frankly. Or the Lucky editors--oh that's right! They weren't there!
@Bunsy:
I met Rob Lowe at an NBC event once. He was very cool, funny and polite. I also met Courtney Love at a Jane function once. She was very cool, funny and polite. And attractive in that Bleached out banged up way. (Kurt was not so funny, but very cool, quiet and polite). People tend to be very cool, funny and polite and down to earth at these functions. As for the otherwordly beauty--I think Padma looks like Yvonne Elliman. Who at least fucked Eric Clapton--so waaay cooler (and less vomit-inducing) than Salmon Rushdie, sorry.
Judah Friedlander is getting waaaay annoying.
Comment on this post
Reply by EmailLogin with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?