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Climbing the ladder
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Field Guide
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Climbing the ladder
How-To
Gorgeous George's Guide To Villainy
Gorgeous George led to Julia Allison. Which is to say, he was "one of the first entertainers to create a faux persona that elicited hisses." The original fameball! George was a pro wrestler in the 1940s, and figured out that being a bad guy could be just as lucrative as being a good guy—and a lot easier. A new biography of GG has just come out, and his crazy life as a body-slamming fop offers plenty of guidance to anyone considering using villainy as a path to fame. Five things to set you out properly on your road to evil destiny: More »
Field guide
A Definitive Guide To Cable Feuds
Cable news is a hyper-competitive environment full of huge egos fighting with each other for every scrap of a ratings point. And at this time of year, with all the shouting heads descending upon the political convention like a gang of ferrets into a small sack, conflict is inevitable. Plus it's hot, and there's not too much real news anyhow, so everyone is grumpy. After the jump, an illustrated guide to the most vicious feuds in the cable world. Pick your side, demonize your enemies, and play along: More »
Embarrassments
Field Guide: Tucker Max
Why the hell have we written so much about Tucker Max? Because you want to read it! What started out as nothing more than a one-off request to have a look at a bad movie script has blossomed into full-blown miniseries chronicling the many dimensions of our bro Tucker's internet-famous personality. But why did anyone care about this rather pedestrian guy in the first place? Schadenfreude is involved, we suspect. We've taken the time to delve into the psychology of this pressing issue below, in the Gawker Field Guide To Tucker Max. Complete with photos from Tucker's incredible life! More »
Field guide
How To Be An Investigative Spy
Recently BoingBoing filled its readers in on how to tap a phone line. It's not too hard! All you need are a lineman's handset, some recording equipment, and a free stretch of time to spend in jail. But incarceration isn't necessary if you're a real (amateur) investigative reporter; there are plenty of legal and semi-legal ways to gather info. After the jump, a complete guide to everything you need to set yourself up as a DIY spy. Only to be used for a righteous cause: More »
advice
Gawker's Complete Guide To Covering The Olympics
It goes without saying that we will not be in Beijing to cover the Olympics. Furthermore, we've never been to Beijing, and our Olympic experience is limited to one pair of first-round tickets to see the Dream Team crush Kyrgyzstan or somebody in Atlanta in 1996. None of this precludes us from rounding up all of the information on the Internet in order to tell the media that actually is covering the Olympics in Beijing how to do its job. So listen up! Don't be just another sap writing about Michael Phelps while being beaten by Chinese police. After the jump, the only guide to covering the wondrous 2008 Olympics you will ever need: More »
Field guide
GOD, we've heard so much about Banksy this week. Yes, you know he's the supersecret anonymous world-famous street artist whose identity may have been revealed at last. But some people do not understand why this is the biggest art story of our generation. At least if you love democracy, freedom, and hilarity! Come along then, as we take a brief whirl through the world of Banksy: An artist that does not suck. With two dozen pictures, yo!
More »
Learning To Love Banksy
GOD, we've heard so much about Banksy this week. Yes, you know he's the supersecret anonymous world-famous street artist whose identity may have been revealed at last. But some people do not understand why this is the biggest art story of our generation. At least if you love democracy, freedom, and hilarity! Come along then, as we take a brief whirl through the world of Banksy: An artist that does not suck. With two dozen pictures, yo!
More »
the olds
A Guide To The Media Methuselahs
"I don't want to die. I love what I'm doing," said Viacom chief Sumner Redstone on CNBC yesterday. My, what a positive and also extremely sad quote! Coming from an old, old man like Redstone, it's more of a last-ditch prayer to Father Time than a peppy statement of on-the-job satisfaction. After the jump, a complete guide to the top five elderly figures in media moguldom. They're a cast that could end up having spent decades in power—probably because the younger counterparts who should be overtaking them decided to go into the tech industry on the West Coast instead (except Nick Denton). May these old men all live, um, a lot longer: More »
Field guide
Irena Briganti, The Most Vindictive Flack In The Media World
So, David Carr has gone and pulled the curtain back a bit on Fox PR—the single most vicious PR operation in all the media. Good for him. So let's do our part by zeroing in on the one flack who is the face of Fox's feared, vengeful media relations operation. Her name is Irena Briganti. She's the female alter ego and mouthpiece of Fox boss Roger Ailes (pictured). She's been described as bubbly and charming in person. But she's the one holding the bloody hatchet that Fox regularly brings down right on reporters' heads. Here's everything you need to know about the scariest flack in mediadom: More »
field guide
What You're Missing On Tumblr (And No, The Answer's Not "Nothing")
Anyone who follows Gawker's coverage of certain blogs on Tumblr could easily assume that the simple blogging tool is like LiveJournal for privileged white 20-somethings, and entirely unworthy of attention. But that's only the part that we, in our mocking masochistic obsession, have focused on, while ignoring the circus of delights that Tumblr can be. In fact, much as I want you to read my whole guide to the best and worst of Tumblr below, I'd rather you just went and read one of the best blogs from Tumblr, The Triumph of Bullshit. More »
field guide
The Four Types Of New York Karaoke Performers
During a recent visit to Winnie's, the onetime Chinese mafia hangout and current downtown karaoke dive, it occurred to us that in every karaoke bar in this town (and really, all over the world), one encounters the same cast of characters. They vary in accent and affect but, for the most part, karaoke is the closest thing to commedia dell'arte we have. In an effort to prepare you for the battlefield that is not only love but also karaoke, we've put together a field guide to karaoke archetypes, or as we call them, karaokarchetypes. More »
field guide
Ken Sunshine Would Never Have Paris Hilton
Last week, PR man Ken Sunshine went on Anderson Cooper's little house of 360 right after Larry King's interview of Paris Hilton to help dissect it all. Sunshine was an interesting choice for the program, since Paris Hilton is just the kind of client Sunshine seems to avoid! More »
field guide
Mike Sitrick, Paris Hilton's New Best Friend
At the end of last week, as the chaos swirled over which network would land the post-jail interview with Paris Hilton, and for how much money, and which network was denying most stridently that it had offered her cash, Hilton's new "crisis manager" Mike Sitrick gave a statement to the press. "Contrary to media reports," he said, "Paris Hilton is not being paid for any television interview nor is Paris Hilton being paid for any collateral material, including videos or photos."More »
field guide
Why People Hate Meghan O'Rourke
Meghan O'Rourke is having a moment. Her first book of poems, recently published, snagged a coveted full-page review—a rave!—in the Times Book Review. She is the culture editor of Slate. She's in the midst of planning her wedding to New Yorker staff writer James Surowiecki. It's a happy time for Meghan. But while this successful 30ish lady has her share of admirers, she also has her share of critics. An anonymous emailer sums up his concerns like so:It's not enough that she got her powerful perch at Slate at, like, 26 on the strength of —well, on the strength of what, exactly?—and that her first book of poetry (please) gets a review in the Sunday Times book review (because she's infinitely better than the 300 poetry MFAs churned out every year), but her journalism is absolutely insufferable: a minute examination of her own traipsing, boring life with beau Jim Surowiecki, gussied up alternatively as "journalism" and "verse."More »
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Field Guide: The 'Vice' Intern
We've partied with them and noted their ad policies, but what is it actually like to work at Vice? Their interns, apparently, are not a walk in the park. For an upcoming issue, the contents of the famed "Gross Jar"—reportedly filled with shit, blood, cum, dead squirrels, what have you—were emptied and made into tie-dyed T-shirts, and subsequently given to the interns. And they wore them! Dumbasses. Apparently they're also given to saying dumb shit like, "I'm not religiously Buddhist, but i try to practice Buddhism in my life." Uh, okay. More »
field guide
Field Guide: Leigh Haber
It's always surprised naive little us how easily certifiable krazies seem to thrive in book publishing. Sure, everyone knows about Judith Regan, thanks to Vanessa Grigoriadis, Vanity Fair, gossipy hyperventilating, and a certain hot off the presses roman a clef (not to mention, uh, Judith Regan). But what of publishing's lesser tyrants, snakes, and weirdos? To our mind, they're woefully underreported on (maybe because of lawyers, or some sad bookish omerta). Well, we're here to rectify that, and we're starting with a lady who recently accused us of being "people who have absolutely no inkling who [she is]." She was right, unfortunately: we didn't know nearly enough about the woman who Page Six recently called the new Judith Regan. So we set out to rectify the situation. After the jump, we share our findings with you. More »
field guide
Field Guide: Williamsburg
Overheard in front of the Prince St. Intermix around lunchtime today:(Yappy blonde in Uggs, to her friend): "So will someone please tell me where Williamsburg is?" More »
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