Knowing Mr. Kissinger as well as I do, I suspected that he would behave as Richard Nixon told me he generally did when a colleague came under pressure: privately declare solidarity with both sides and separate himself, so that neither side would confuse him with the other side, until it became clear which side had won. He promised more, and I hoped for more, but Mr. Kissinger is an 84-year old fugitive from Nazi pogroms, and has made his way famously in the world by endlessly recalibrating the balance of power and correlation of forces in all situations.

Kissinger, Buckley, And Me [NY Sun]

I went to a very small birthday party for my friend Cory Saturday evening at an apartment in Hell's Kitchen.

Social-fat Kristian Laliberte shows up (wearing a ski cap for some reason even though it was 75 degrees?) with some girl (both with severe coke face), which I felt I had to capture on my cell phone camera for Gawker. Unfortunately, his 6'5", 120-pound French boyfriend caught me and proceeded to chase me around the apartment asking "Why are you taking pictures? You are lying to me. You are being a bitch." Like, he would leave me alone for 15 minutes, and then come back again, "Can I just delete those pictures?"

The French guy was so rabid I had to ask him "Are you we going to have a problem here?" in my best threatening-physical-violence voice. [If you know Jory, this is kind of hysterical. In short, although tall and gym-obsessed, he is not frightening. —Ed.] Then the girl came up to me, "Can I see your phone?" Kristian was overheard in the kitchen saying "I really want to delete those pictures, I heard he works for Gawker."

It became the talk of the entire evening, until the three stormed out, the French guy adding "You have some very interesting friends" as he pranced off.

It was so ridiculously dramatic, it was awesome.

I'd shoot myself before I had anything like Julia Allison in this paper. What you're pitching sounds like the 256th version of Sex in the City, and that's so played out. I'm satisfied with the two sex columns I have now, and I really don't have room for additional columns at the moment. But thanks for thinking of us.

- Tony

Now, while I appreciate his distaste for a dating column and it being "played out" I don't think he had to take it to "shooting himself in the head" levels. I mean really!!! And while I did mention Julia Allison and the idea that, love her or hate her, she has readers, I wasn't pitching a column LIKE Julia's. I was pitching a relationship column that like Julia's, people would ACTUALLY READ, since I don't know ANY women who are reading the Voice these days. And like it or not, relationship columns are classic and people read them, even if only to make fun of them.

I am a bit perplexed by this. [Redacted] did not attend the CFDA cocktail this year, but his colleague [Redacted] was extended an invitation by Executive Director Steven Kolb himself to be guest of our organization. This segment of the evening is primarily for dinner guests and a VERY limited number of cocktail-only guests. Put simply, no money would or did exchange hands, so this must be a misunderstanding that I hope this email has now clarified for you.

Like many events run by not-for-profit organizations, I manage an EXTREMELY limited number of press comps that I administer after reviewing a host of factors, which include but are not by any means limited to audience and number of impressions - I cannot stress this enough. I regret that was not able to secure one for [Redacted], but she did volunteer that if the ticket for "Upstairs at the Library" was under $250, she would be happy to purchase one. I never communicated with any one at "Publisher's News Site.com" on this matter, so I am still unsure as what the genesis of this belief was, but, naturally, I would have done my best to clear it up immediately.

Though it may surprise you, I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that the majority of publications who devote extensive, multi-page coverage to this event opt to purchase their own tickets (including some you have referenced in previous emails as inferior in scope to yours), or buy at least one ticket for the one comp ticket (maximum) they receive. They do this to support the event and the CFDA, which is but one of the reasons both the dinner and viewing party sell out almost instantly.

To repeat, if people who intended to cover any portion of the last night's event for a blog, website, paper or magazine paid to attend, that decision cannot have been based on a directive from me, this office or anyone at the CFDA, because no such directive was issued, ever.

We have discussed it a few times, but please allow me to restate that The New York Public Library is, as you probably know, an historical landmark that begs strict adherence to city regulations, so respect for its rules and limitations must be paramount for us. We are bound to monitor strictly the number of guests in Astor Hall (which, incidentally, does not boast central air conditioning - no insignificant consideration for an event that is always held in June in New York City) for this event. Celeste Bartos Forum, where dinner is held, seats 450 for dinner - no more. To generate this list, we are principally obligated to: CFDA board members, nominees, honorees, presenters, table buyers, backers and supporters. If one knows even a little bit about this organization, he or she could imagine how quickly we may even exceed capacity by addressing the needs of those constituents alone.

I hope this gives you more insight into the Awards, its protocols and demands, as well as why so many of these decisions can not be regarded as personal. Thank you for taking the time to clarify the facts of this matter - I really appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Morrison