(Page Six says, "On this point, Spiegelman is one-third correct. The Christmas gift was $1,000. 'Richard Johnson made a grave mistake in accepting cash from Nello Balan,' Allen said yesterday. 'After he informed me of his error in judgment, he was reprimanded, and policies were adopted that render such ethical lapses completely unacceptable.")

That's weird! Col Allan didn't come to the Post until 2001.

"They're trying to destroy Jared and bury him," Stern's lawyer, Larry Klayman, told us this morning. The item calls his client a "rogue former freelancer" and "disgraced journalist." Klayman said: "And they made a very big mistake because now they've libeled him again." The most perplexing things about the item is why the Post would re-print the claims in their own pages.

Until recently, Stern and his lawyer were in the midst of settlement discussions with the paper. Stern's suspension began after Ron Burkle alleged that Stern had attempted to extort money out of him in exchange for positive coverage in Page Six. "Their statement was that I was suspended pending the outcome of the investigation," Stern told us this morning. "We asked that they keep to that and reinstate me because I was exonerated."

"We were trying to do it on an amicable basis," Klayman said. "We were asking that he be reinstated, and asking for other relief." Klayman declined to be more specific about the nature of that relief.

Klayman sent a letter to Post lawyer Eugenie Gavenchak last Friday, May 11, with Spiegelman's affadavit attached. The cover letter confirmed "an extension of the statute of limitations for an additional week." There's no mention of a lawsuit there, but it doesn't seem coincidental that this item appeared exactly a week after Klayman's letter, and Spiegelman's affadavit, reached the Post. The statute of limitations was a year, for Stern to potentially file suit for wrongful termination, false light, and other potential claims against the Post.

"The Post thinks they're brilliant by putting this in Page Six," said Ian Spiegelman this morning. "They could have just ignored it and seen if it came out in a lawsuit. It just stinks of Rubenstein." [Howard and Steven Rubenstein represent the Post.] You take something no one would ever have heard about, you blow it up, you scream about it, and somehow you think in all that screaming you sound right."

Lies & Smears Aimed At Post [Page Six]
Gossip Boss's Cash Grab [TSG]

The New York Times reports that "a group of Journal reporters based in China urged the Bancroft family in a letter to reject Mr. Murdoch's bid." The letter can be found here. It echoes concerns voiced by James H. Ottaway, Jr., whose family owns about six per cent of Dow Jones. Times of London editor Robert Thomson—expected to have an advisory position on the Journal should Murdoch's bid succeed—responded with a letter of his own which called the claim "a challenge to the integrity of the journalists at The Times and to me personally."

Former Times Hong Kong correspondent Jonathan Mirsky claims that "When Murdoch wants to interfere, he will. If there's supposed to be a China wall [separating corporate executives from editorial decisions], he'll ignore it." There's precedent: Flashback to this 2006 interview with former Page Sixer and champion liver-damager Ian Spiegelman. In response to a question about which Murdoch friends the gossip gang was ordered to "dance around or flatter," Spiegelman said, "The People's Republic of China. One time I was looking into an item about a Chinese diplomat and a strip club when word came from somewhere up above that China had carte blanche. The message I got was more or less, "If you mention Chinese, you'd better be ordering lunch." (Also Nicole Kidman, but we imagine that will be less of an issue for the Journal.)

Previously: Rupert Murdoch Loves Dow Jones, Whitefish

...probably the worst human being alive. He is a total, total freakish nightmare scumbag. He's a crisis management guy who can't manage a crisis. Every time you go to him and he's supposed to quiet things down, he just makes it bigger and bigger. He says all the wrong things.

Memo Pad: Rubenstein and Rubenstein [WWD]

Earlier: The Wit and Wisdom of Ian Spiegelman, Cont.

[Image via]

I don't want him to go over the Reichenbach Falls.

Ian Spiegelman: Try missionary once in awhile; you might be surprised.

Chuck Klosterman: Comparing Dee Dee Ramone to some punk from Ratt? You should be gnawed by rats, asshole.

Deborah Schoeneman: Up here in Bangor, gossip tends to revolve around lobstering and axe-murdering. Pick either.

Kate White: If it's right there in the title, someone's thighs better actually catch on fire by chapter three.

James Frey: Smoke crack.

J.T. Leroy: Exist.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Ah, go ahead and toss that fucker over Reichenbach Falls.

Don't kill Harry Potter, authors urge Rowling [Reuters]

[Photo: Getty Images]

[Full article via WSJ after the jump]

Pity the ink-stained wretch. While "The Devil Wears Prada," with its glossy magazine milieu, became a runaway bestseller and then a hit movie, recent novels by veterans of New York tabloid papers seemed to carry the stigma of old media. A trio of titles set around the newsroom — "Tabloid Love," "4% Famous" and "Welcome to Yesterday" — all failed to entice readers.

Perhaps the authors should have stuck to nonfiction: "The Glass Castle," a memoir by celebrity reporter Jeanette Walls, sold more than 200,000 copies. New York Post gossip scribe Paula Froehlich's self-help title "Secrets of the Rich and Famous," also did reasonably well, but Post colleague Ian Speigelman's novel, "Yesterday," couldn't gain traction.

For fans interested in the nonfiction aspects of the business, Monday marks the launch of TV's "Tabloid Wars," set behind the scenes of the New York Daily News. Bravo executives likely hope the show's realistic elements will take it further than the last series to use the setting, 2000's Dick Wolf/NBC drama "Deadline." Pedigree aside, "Deadline" failed to deliver. —7/23/06

Earlier: Gawker's Overkill Coverage of the Doug Dechert/Ian Spiegelman Fight
Related: I'm Called Son of a Whore [Sun UK]

First, aside from the photo documentation and the play-by-play, a comprehensive history of the feud between Spiegelman and dandy about town Doug Dechert (the jacketed fellow Spiegelman shoved at Young's party) can be found in this New York mag piece, along with background on other players in New York's gossip journalism cistern. But that particular story has been done to death, so let's focus on what Ian Spiegelman means to you, the modern educated American.

If encountered in his natural habitat — a party thrown in his honor — Spiegelman may be approached, with caution. He will likely threaten to shove some part of you into some other part of you, or remove some part of you and rub that on another part of you, or enjoy a beverage from a declivity he plans to carve into you. This is not really cause for alarm, and you have plenty of company. Spiegelman dearly loved his time at the New York Post's Page Six, throwing himself with gleeful abandon into the culture of attack, ridicule, publicity whoring, and fierce familial loyalty that Richard Johnson's gossip fiefdom is famous for. That's all gone now for Spiegelman, but he still embraces the lifestyle — hard drinking, debauched sex, fightin' words, and perpetually angry and unapologetically drunken bravado.

He's written two books, one more on the sex, the other more gossip noir, that encapsulate his underbelly fixations perfectly. Spiegelman seems to have more than a passing personal familiarity with the joys of sexual sadomasochism, and though he talks about fighting more than most boxers, he doesn't seem to get into many fistfights these days, nor talk much about past fights (he has admitted his girlfiend beat him up when he was 18). So again, despite the bluster, the chance of actual physical violence is low in his presence, Toby Young's party to the contrary.

Not that this makes him any less entertaining to have around. Spiegelman comes across as a throwback to old New York journalism, clich or not — tough guys who lived hard miserable lives but ended up getting the story, and occasionally, the girl. With cookie-cutter journos and bloodless editors in charge of most media, the stereotype still has a lot of appeal. One of the most obvious parallels is the tough-guy fiction (and personal attitude) of Los Angeles' James Elroy, a comparison Spiegelman flatly rejects. Nevertheless, he walks a fine line of keeping everyone around him on edge while always threatening to veer into self-parody. And he always gives good interview. As long as you don't get lost in his shadow, having Spiegelman throw a punch is a great way to get your party (and your name, and your venue, and your magazine) in the paper.

It's too bad that journalists like Spiegelman — or journalists like Spiegelman attempts to emulate — aren't allowed to cover more ground than gossip, or sex, or crime, or anything tawdry enough to allow them to cut loose. Still, if everyone was in everyone else's face all the time, it might encourage more rough sex, but it could interfere with the drinking.

Payback [NYM]
Video: Spiegelman Explains Soho House Scuffle [Mediabistro]
Spiegelman's Burning [MobyLives]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Page Six's Ian Spiegelman [Black Table]
Ian Spiegelman [Official site]

[Photo: Getty Images]

Shockingly enough, Spiegelman has been none too pleased by the fact that Dechert had him fired from his gig at the Post nearly two years ago, nor was he beaming when Dechert had later threatened to "push his Jewish schnoz into his face." He aired his beef with Dechert two drinks into Young's party, asking Dechert whether the "racist, fucking anti-Semite piece of shit" in fact still wanted to push/bash his nose in. Spiegelman proceeded to lightly bump Dechert, initiating some sort of violent lambada, but Dechert refused to shove back, instead telling Spiegelman that "he was not going to start shit with his punk hot-head ass" because "I don't believe in fighting in clubs." He punctuated this retort by telling Spiegelman in no small terms that if he did want to fight, he better come outside ready to get his ass beat.

Not one to back down from a challenge, Marty McFly Spiegelman proceeded to shove Dechert with both hands, calling him a "fucking pussy" and declaring his intent to "shove his eyes into his nose." Before Dechert could take the bait, Toby Young's saintly/emasculating wife intervened to halt the fight, noting that a book party was neither the time nor the place to settle such a gentlemanly dispute. Dechert later told us that Spiegelman "has it coming and deserves to get clocked," but Dechert didn't act "because there's no rush." Spiegelman claims that Dechert should be thankful for the breakup by Young's wife, lest Spiegelman "beat the fucking piss out of him."

Alleged extortionist and party co-host Jared Paul Stern, for one, would have liked to see who the better pugilist was in person. "I was looking forward to the fisticuffs," he said—a statement with which Toby Young clearly agreed: "Let 'em fight!" he concurred. "It's great publicity!" Sure, but for what? Was anyone there promoting a book or something?

—Reportage by Neel Shah

Earlier Toby Young's Book Party: Best Fight Ever.
Elsewhere: Near-Fight Breaks Out at Toby Young Book Party [FishbowlNY]

We hate these events, these self-importantant celebrations of a crowd's collective arrogance. But once every three or four decades, something genuinely interesting happens. In this case, at Toby Young's book party tonight at Soho House, the crowd was treated to two writers working out their mutual hatred like twelve-year-old boys. Former Page Sixer Ian Spiegelman lost his job in 2004 ostensibly because of a threatening email he sent to [insert sketchy adjective here] writer Doug Dechert (more backstory here). Tonight, these two were reunited and, after the right amount of lukewarm liquor, they worked out their issues with fisticuffs. There's more to explain later in the forthcoming party crash, but at this hour the pictures are story enough. More bloodshed — or the drink-throwing sissy journalist version thereof — after the jump.

We don't know about the others, but this is the second event Schoeneman's recently pulled out of; she was scheduled for a roundtable discussion over lunch for the Bergdorf Goodman quarterly (what, you're not a subscriber?). The other panelists were Ian Spiegelman and Jared Paul Stern. Interestingly, Stern apparently gave Schoeneman an earful about her numerous television appearances commenting on Payola Six, in which she handed Stern her own guilty verdit (which is perhaps justified, but not when simultaneously promoting your own book about the gossip industry). And who really wants to deal with a pissy fedora over a nice lunch?

Or she could be avoiding Spiegelman. Equally plausible, equally wise.

Update: Contrary to linkage below and elsewhere, Deborah emails to clarify that she did not cancel, but actually read in front of a large crowd last night. The Bergdorf lunch was never scheduled, she notes.

Ex-Gossipers Provide Gossip Column Fodder [GalleyCat]

Ian: The reporters at the Post are good people, they're good reporters. The people who manage the Post are a bunch of scared little girls with no spines. If you're a VP at NewsCorp, you're a spineless little Julie.
[...]
Ian: And then, they have Howard Rubenstein who's probably the worst human being alive. He is a total, total freakish nightmare scumbag. He's a crisis management guy who can't manage a crisis. Every time you go to him and he's supposed to quiet things down, he just makes it bigger and bigger. He says all the wrong things.

Earlier: The Wit and Wisdom of Ian Spiegelman

• "Oh," said Mr. Spiegelman. "I thought that was fucking what-his-face's kid."

• "No one made you," Mr. Spiegelman said. "You drive a fuckin'—"

• "Listen, Jersey, I will put you down. I will—down like a sick dog."

• "I'll have another Scotch out of your skull."

• "I'm gonna stab you in your belly and pull your guts out and rub 'em on your bald head."

A Book Party [NYO (now with permalinks!)]
Earlier: 'Post'ies May or May Not Be Banned From Spiegelman Party, Which They May or May Not Attend

"I'm upset that you might think the latest press hits for my book were about the Post," he wrote. "I love the Post. I have always said so. But I do fucking hate News Corp. And I have always said so. I think that News Corp has no place in America. I think it's a totally, totally evil corporation." Jossip believes this email had the unintended effect of causing Allan to ban his employees from attending the party, but Jossip also says that certain Sixers will skulk to Spiegelman's anyway, being sure to avoid any cameras. In fact, we're hearing sort of the opposite: That there is no ban, but that Sixers, in wake of this brouhaha, are now reluctant to attend.

Got it? Yeah, us neither.

Did Ian Spiegelman's Email Get His Page Six Pals Banned From His Book Party?
Earlier: Gawker's coverage of Ian Spiegelman.