• Nelly
• Ludacris
• Vince Vaughn
• Bill Murray

These are the only good famous bowlers in America who are not professional athletes. Huh. Well, at least Bill Murray's spot is understandable:

The two things that were most prevalent were tattoos and gays. And yet those two remained pretty segregated. By the pool nursing a beer was the very tattooed managing editor of A Public Space, Tom Roberge.

"This is pretty strange," he said, looking out over the empty pool. A blurb from Daily Candy (of all things!) was projected onto the wall. "I live in Brooklyn and rarely come into Manhattan, so this is very... different."

Upstairs, the man of the hour, Jesse Ball, was sitting at a table with a grumpy rumpled Jonathan Franzen, Vintage editor Jenny Jackson and baseball author Nicholas Dawidoff. Someone had brought along a copy of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. Ball wouldn't go swimming. "I don't want to reveal my tattoos," he said. "They're a lot of hearts."

Sun book reviewer Nick Antosca clutched a galley of the book of the hour in an arm that bore two black bars. "I can't comment on what it means," he said before kind of letting on that it was a quotation mark meant to bracket himself. He was chatting with Vintage PR guy Martin Wilson about working at the Sun. "Before I started working there, I had never read it. It's weird. When I started, the old books editor pointed at an anti-Bush book and said, 'Be careful what you say about this book....' I tried to write a negative review for an upcoming book but I don't know when they'll publish it. It's weird there....They love Conrad Black.... There are neocons in suits roaming the halls."

A cluster of gays surrounded the bar, including Kuhn's business partner Billy Kingsland; Billy's roommate and Advocate editor Sean Kennedy; Artforum's Kyle Bentley and the exquisitely named Lapo Belmestrieri who described himself as a "friend" before being corrected by Kennedy. "Say you are a freelance art director!"

"Whatever," he said.

Kennedy had just interviewed Hillary Clinton. "I asked her about the lesbian rumors. Her people were not pleased. I'm just glad they didn't kill the piece." Or him! Though he admitted his gaydar only worked for dudes, Kennedy believed Clinton's avowed heterosexuality.

Buntley disagreed: "Raging bulldyke."

Lapo, whose first language can't be English, said, "She doesn't have any lesbianic tendencies."

David Kuhn smelled very nice. "It's a cologne that was given to me by GQ fashion director Madeline Weeks for a favor I helped her out with. I can't tell you what it is." Did he mean the favor or the scent? "Either."

Vanity Fair researcher Brian Gallagher and GQ researcher Laurence Lowe were there. Gallagher was upset by the tone taken with him by the bartender, who had given him an overly-vermouthed martini. "She said, if you don't want so much vermouth, order it dry. What the fuck? What is this, a bartending intensive? I know how to order a fucking martini."

The real question of the evening was: On what side of the tattoo versus gay divide did Mr. Rich belong? The question was partly answered when he stripped down to a bathing suit and jumped in the pool. At least we found he was without tattoos.

Media Bowling reaches its triumphant climax this week, with big victories over Stuff, V Magazine, and a random defeat by something called "Freelance." They seemed sad. This video contains at least two disturbing things: a makeout sesh and a declaration of paternity. Don't worry, kids, that man isn't actually your daddy. Probably.

Earlier: Bowling

This week, the Gawker bowling team took on Maxim, BBC America, and the day-spa-sponsored smug jerks at Time Out New York, who smell and are bastard children. Gawker video thug Richard Blakeley has the highlight reel as usual.

Earlier:Gawker Bowling Juggernaut Continues Worldwide Dominance

Last night, a collection of New York's hottest media stars assembled at the Port Authority Bus Terminal - and this time not just to suck dick for a dollar! No, we were at Leisure Time Bowling for the latest round of NYAMBL matches. We are not ashamed to say that - challenges aside - we kicked some serious ass, rocking the worlds of Jane, Portfolio and new nemesis Comedy Central (nice use of office supplies, fellas). Here's video from the event featuring all your favorites: Richard Blakeley! Intern Kaila! The gay guy from Gridskipper! Hopefully, you'll enjoy it as much as we did. Actually, hopefully a lot more, it was fucking bowling.

Earlier: Bowling With The Trenchcoat Mafia

The New York All Media Bowling League (NYAMBL) is a short 8-week season of competitive bowling limited to members within the media industry based in New York City.

Who: 16 lucky teams within the entertainment/media industry. All teams are on a first-come-first-serve basis. Last year's participating teams will have incumbency.

When: Wednesday Nights, 8-10pm
February 21 - April 11
Each team bowls only 4 of the 8 nights

Where: Leisure Time Bowl, Port Authority
Fees: $750 per team
- up to 12 players per team, but only 4 can play per game
- Includes shoe, ball and lane fees
- Includes 1 beer tower (domestic) per night per team (12 beers)

When Vinnie "fast eights" Lauria, chief party organizer at the social startup Meetro, invited Valleywag to the premier Web 2.0 bowling event of the year, it only seemed fair to share. Here's what Vinnie wrote:

Yes, it's really happening. It's a pre-league party at the alley next week just to introduce all 12 teams:

• 3bubbles.com & Stirr.net
• A9.com
• Facebook
• Flock
• Meetro
• PBWiki
• Skype
• SocialText
• themintpages
• Veeceebo
• VideoEgg
• WordPress

Here are the party details:

Wed, July 5 @ 8pm
Palo Alto Bowl
4329 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 948-1031

The league will be 8 weeks, every Monday night from 7-9pm starting July 10, wrapping up Aug 28th.

Photo: Night Bowling [Dave Gorman at Flickr]

The New York All-Media Bowling League wound up its first season last night with a "wrap party and awards banquet" at a restaurant and bar called Trinity Place, ridiculously far downtown. There was free tequila, gift bags, awards, prizes, and — did we mention? — free tequila. Commissioner Bill Keith, rakishly tuxedoed, presented the awards: BBC America and Reuters were named the best-dressed teams; Entertainment Weekly had the highest single-game score (662, among four bowlers), and a Comedy Central squad was the league champion. And Gawker Media, we're very proud to say, won nothing at all.

A few more of Eliot Shepard's photos are after the jump.

NYAMBL spirit chair Erin Jontow, commissioner Bill Keith, and chair of vices Sophie Brendel. They enjoy spirits and vice.

Like any decent awards show, this one included a video tribute to those in the community who died this year. Or, in this case, a tribute to staffers whose mags died this year.

When Keith closes his eyes and wishes — really wishes — he can almost convince himself he's holding an Oscar. Or at least a Golden Globe.

Brendel was afraid she'd run out of gift bags, which included a tiny tank top, an issue of Giant, a book light, and a BBC America t-shirt bearing a cheeky Britishism. Her fears were unfounded.

Gawker Media managing editor Lockhart Steele, to Robert Putnam's chagrin, prefers bowling alone.

Earlier: The Last 'Cargo' Post of the Day, We Swear — But It Pertains to Bowling, and Bowling Is Good

Earlier: The Last 'Cargo' Post of the Day, We Swear — But It Pertains to Bowling, and Bowling Is Good

You see, the heavy drinkers too lazy for summertime softball came together this year and formed the New York All Media Bowling League. It's less strenuous than running around a diamond, beer is included with your registration fee, and the social atmosphere makes it easy to score yourself a new job. Suffice it to say, that this is not the sort of league for the serious athletes at the New Yorker. Just some of the teams participating: Daily News, BBC, Comedy Central, Jane, Stuff, GQ, yours truly (we're incredible, trust us), and, of course, poor Cargo. The death of the last, however, has all NYAMBL competitors wondering what will become of their team. The league maharajah, Giant's Bill Keith, responds:

Team Cargo is one of the most spirited and committed teams in the league, and NYAMBL is still fully behind them. Fortunately, as fun as it would be, I don't think we'll need to have a Sister Act 2-style fundraiser for them, as their bowling has already been paid for. And at the risk of overstatement, I think they need the NYAMBL more than ever right now.

Indeed. Group hug at the lanes tomorrow night.