Gawker: manhattan media clusterfuck

New Sweet Valley High Cover Girl? Soap Star Leven Rambin!

Sheila — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:53:59 EDT

Now this is actually awesome: a fameball turning on itself in such convolution that the snake eats its own tail. Remember Sweet Valley High, the 80s young-teen series about a pair of California twins named Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield? They went to Sweet Vally High, and although they looked exactly the same, their personalities were actually quite different! (Jessica was the slutty one, and Elizabeth liked to read and write.) Well, Random House is releasing them with new designs in April, and the book's cover gal, posing as both Elizabeth and Jessica, is our favorite seventeen-year-old All My Children actress/Julia Allison boyfriend-stealer, Leven Rambin! The old and new covers of Double Love and Secret, which we remember all too well, follow.

While Leven models as both Elizabeth and Jessica on the SVH covers, you'll remember that on All My Children she plays both the autistic Lily Montgomery and her older half-sister, Ava. It's this sort of thing that will get you nominated for a Daytime Emmy!

A Reality Show for Fameball Trio?

Sheila — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:10:56 EDT

Oh noes! If you read Page Six magazine in Sunday's Post, you would have found it impossible to ignore the item warning us about the possible upcoming reality show... starring Star magazine talking head Julia Allison, her bestfriend, handbag designer Mary Rambin, plus their other friend, former hedgefunder/current techblogger and "heiress to the Sun Microsystems fortune" Megan Asha.

"The premise: the trio are starting an online business together, which a source close to the show says will give it 'more gravitas...'" Indeed it will! Allison has denied this rumor before, but since it's all up in the magazine with a big picture, and in Asha's blog, we think it may be true! Hey gals: if you're gonna be on a reality show for reals, you're no longer allowed to get all up in a tizzy about occasionally ending up on Gawker!

Also reported by P6 regarding the current rash of NYC-centric reality shows starring fameballs: "The 10021" (that's the Upper East Side), starring socialgay Kristian Laliberte, diamond heiress Annabel Vartanian, Devorah Rose, editor of Social Life mag, and male model Teddy John. (Rose gave a priceless quote to Emily Gould last year when asked why she worked at Social Life despite her "serious" interests: "Um, because it's easy?")

More on the Eater/Down by the Hipster Blogger Catfight

Sheila — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:48:34 EDT

Down by the Hipster blogger Scott Solish (formerly of Curbed, which owns Eater), who blogged anonymously until Eater's Ben Leventhal outed him yesterday, explains to Grub Street why he was exposed. "This is an act of a real 2-year-old." [Grub Street]

Foodblogger Catfight: Eater vs. Down By the Hipster

Sheila — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:14:59 EDT

The world of restaurants, be it chefs or food writers, has always been fantastically bitchy: remember Jeffrey Chodorow's taking out a ranty full-page ad in the Times in response to Frank Bruni's no-star review of his Kobe Club? Thank goodness it's continuing the grand tradition, even on the web. Yesterday Eater, the restaurant blog that's part of the Curbed Network (Curbed, Racked, Eater), published by former Gawker Lockhart Steele, posted a rumination on their competitor, Down By the Hipster. Yeah, they got a little catty! "[Blogger] Scott Solish isn't making money on DBTH, has a day job, and has begun to talk of such things as book deals and joint ventures...Are Down By the Hipster's best days behind us?" DBTH's equally snide response ("Lil' [Ben Leventhal of Eater] secretly seethed, desperate to know why anyone dared challenge his authority as the ultimate insider") was inevitable. We'd go so far to suggest that public bickering isn't becoming to either party, but we're glad they did: the exchange is this morning's guilty pleasure...

Writes Ben Leventhal from Eater: "Such blogs [like Down by the Hipster] tend to fade, giving way to bloggers' day jobs, kids, or boredom. And it tends to happen right around the one-year marker."

Yeah, not like SERIOUS, career bloggers!

DBTH, written and co-owned by Curbed alum Scott Solish, blazed itself into the blogsphere... just over twelve months ago. Like the great indie blogs that came before, it was an instant mix of good intel, access and attitude. With very strong ties to the hotel biz—and also, somewhat randomly, to the nightclub Cain—DBTH has been a machine, and of late has upped its postcount...

But, Solish isn't making money on DBTH, has a day job, and has begun to talk of such things as book deals and joint ventures. Plus, the presence of a new, way off-brand, contributor suggests he's getting tired of the grind. So, it's time to put it out there: Are Down By the Hipster's best days behind us?

Meanwhile, Solish of Down by the Hipster responds that the above post was "pretty much out of left field. But then again, so is the writer, Ben Leventhal."

We even spent some QT together, buying Lock a beer and watching his murse for hours. But while we enjoyed ourselves, Lil BL secretly seethed, desperate to know why anyone dared challenge his authority as the ultimate insider. But the anger and fear is justified. Sitting in that lonely FiDi apartment, seeing Grub Street, Guest of a Guest, and just about everyone else with access to the internet scoop him must drive him batty.

Pinkberry, Momofuku and Shake Shack couldn't open enough locations to keep him on the inside. Frank Bruni only only takes him on review dinners every so often. So what is he to do?

Solish says that Leventhal emailed him regarding the public slapdown, "It is what it is...i just gave you more explanation that any one else gets, because you're a friend. don't do the blog if you can't be the guy."

Words to ~~live~~ blog by.

Jakob Lodwick Thinks He's "Diluting" Mary Rambin's "Brand"

Sheila — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:52:11 EDT

Total class: Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick explains about "this girl Mary [Rambin]," the handbag designer-or-whatever and Julia Allison bestfriend (whose seventeen-year-old sister he shagged), revealing why he's named his moustache after her. It's because she said he "looked like an idiot" via a deleted blogpost... (She wasn't wrong, but later apologized.) "Since she's not currently well-known, if my readers later hear her name in a legitimate context, they'll think of my moustache. I'm diluting her name and her brand..."

"From here on out," he continues, to give the appearance of taking the high road, "I will no longer engage the vicious small-timers of the web. In other words: ad-hominem attacks — attacks on my character, on me as a person — will no longer be acknowledged."

"Blog away!" adds the ever-self-conscious Lodwick, conflicted as always about whether he even wants people to talk about him. But no good act of hubris should go unrewarded. So Jakob, we'll do just that.

[Photo of Mary Rambin: Nikola Tamindzic of Home of the Vain]