As 2006 huffs toward its inexorable end, we decided to take a moment to recognize those personalities that made our job that much more tolerable this year. These are the people who gave us endless fodder for our douchebag mill, who were attracted to the spotlight like moths to a flame, whose stated disdain for our coverage of them was contradicted by their almost pathetic attempts to court it. The adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity has never felt more apt.
If you've been paying attention to Gawker this year, you should recognize most of the names on this list. (We've given you a little preview at right. We'd never leave the Tinz off our list!) They're the people who've distracted you, intrigued you, and sickened you (often all at the same time!) in 2006. If you've fallen behind, consider this our New Year's gift to you. We're feeling magnanimous.
Without further ado, the list of Gawker's Personalities of the Year, in no particular order, after the jump.
- Judith Regan: The publisher of her eponymous imprint ReganBooks continued her reign of provocation most of the year, but almost no one could've anticipated her swift, sudden, unceremonious fall from grace. We thank her for injecting a possibly unprecedented degree of insanity and unpredictability into the normally staid publishing industry, and hope that she resurfaces soon, anti-Semitism and all.
- Tinsley Mortimer: Ah, the Tinz. What do you say about a 31-year-old socialite known for a "handbag line" and her seemingly endless proclivities for partying? Oh, and giving one of the more retarded interviews to the Post in recent memory. For 2007, we hope she and Topper finally call it quits, if only because seeing her officially single would be amazing.
- Derek Blasberg: Total fashion fag and socialite hanger-on (we refuse to use the word "walker"), and one of our more recent obsessions, male socialite Blasberg, joined at the hip with black socialite Genevieve Jones (see below), has managed to parlay a stint at Vogue and some freelance writing into Page Six mentions and having Lindsay Lohan at his birthday parties.
- Genevieve Jones: There's something different about Genevieve Jones, don'tcha know? The Baton Rouge native, who has no job and no discernible source of income, has insinuated her way into the upper echelons of New York society, and might be behind Socialite Rank. Then again, she might not. Then again again, does anyone really care?
- Alex Kuczynski: After the publication of her memoir-slash-cautionary plastic surgery tale Beauty Junkies, Alex K. was everywhere—ev-er-y-where—waxing poetic about her own beauty and everyone else's comparative ugliness. We continue to be amazed that the Times allows her off-leash in their pages. Then again, it's Thursgay Styles, and they'll publish anything.
- Julia Allison: The latest in a long line of women who've landed in New York determined to Make a Splash, Allison has flirted and blogged her way to ... what, exactly? Well, she goes to a lot of parties, and she gets photographed a lot. Also, we hear she reportedly writes a dating column for one of those free papers. Anyone heard anything about that?
- Aleksey Vayner: The enterprising Yale senior with the ridiculously inflated (some might say pathological) sense of self, whose resume-video was the resume-video heard 'round the world. Also known for being the charter member of the Douchebag Hall of Fame.
- Jared Kushner: What do you do when you're 25, your father's just been let out of jail, and you've got a spare couple billion lying around? First, you buy the New York Observer in what some have called a fire sale. Then you buy the most expensive building in the history of the United States. Then you give interviews to various press outlets that imply that you can't wait to be the next Mort Zuckerman. A fine goal, indeed.
- Jared Paul Stern: The gossipmonger got busted by Ron Burkle and his wiretap, but nary a peep about the lawsuit has been heard in quite some time. In the meantime, Stern sold his book, Stern Measures, for somewhere in the six-figure range. Oh, and also, we let him take over the site for a weekend. Oops.
- Marisha Pessl: Marisha! Book hot, stage hot, TV hot, blog hot—who cares? All we know is that as long as the Special Topics in Calamity Physics author continues her reign of unfiltered bon mots, we'll have lots of fodder.
- Lloyd Grove: We continue to be amazed that someone so bland was ever taken seriously as a gossiper. Now that his "multimedia" opportunity appears to have fizzled, we fully expect him to have a column in Thursgay Styles.
- MisShapes: Where would we be without Leigh, Greg, and Geordon to make us feel fat and unstylish every day of our lives? We'd probably be doing a lot more drugs, that's where.
- Kaavya Viswanathan: Harvard's poster child for plagiarism has picked herself up and dusted herself off, surfacing at various Harvard parties and in a women-in-business networking and philanthropic group. We foresee law and/or business school in her future. Maybe she and Aleksey will cross paths someday.
[Image via]
Contact information for this author is not available.
Dec 29, 2006 03:40 PM
0
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Start a new discussion