How did borderline crazy restaurant mogul Jeffrey Chodorow accumulate so much cash? And why are the lights kept so low at Kobe Club? Both questions can be answered in one fell swoop: he's cheap! The Choad was brunching at Sarabeth's recently, where he was overheard discussing Kobe Club, his much-maligned midtown…

The Defamer Special Correspondent on Possibly Suggestive Superproducer Small-Talk submits this snippet of conversation overheard at a fashion show last Friday (as well as the accompanying pic), lamenting that no free drinks were exchanged in the course of the following brief conversation:

For those who have been patiently anticipating an update to our ongoing, cultural critique series, "Overheard Celebrities," your wait is over: Blogger Johnny Hong Kong happened to be occupying the same sonic sphere as Keanu Reeves at a weekend screening of The Departed, during which the venerated screen thespian was…

A Defamer operative was on high alert during Sunday night's closing presentation of The Cherry Orchard at the Mark Taper Forum, a celebrity-target-rich environment begging for some low-grade eavesdropping:

A hardware hacker discussing the forensics of taking apart cheap gadgets:

The weird thing about this eavesdropped line is, well, that it's so obviously wrong.

A big name blogger and Microsoft employee was recently overheard at an industry event defending his employer when it was called the "Evil Empire." He said, "Two kids from Stanford stole our evil, and now we want it back."

Overheard while at lunch NVidia, about Electronic Arts Employees (that poor, downtrodden caste):

Overheard at a party:

Overheard in San Francisco:

Overheard on Main Street yesterday, a guy explaining the difference between Robert Redford's glamorous bitch and the keeping-it-real stepkids of Park City: "We slipped in the back door of Plan B last night looking for after-hours. Turns out it was a Slamdance party. Slamdance people are ugly."

Overheard on Main Street late last night, a surprising, if maddeningly partial, mini-diatribe on public schools, courtesy of former Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek as he brushed past us: "The public schools in my district are so lame..."

Overheard at Sundance HQ, an impromptu crash course in Hollywood Dealmaking 101: "The key to dealmaking is making other people think you're giving up something."

In our latest installment of Overheard Celebrity Movie Reviews, a reader gently eavesdrops on Elijah Wood, the much-respected expert on wildly successful film franchises adapted from beloved fantasy literature, and gives us this sneak preview of a soon-to-be holiday blockbuster:

In what we hope (but doubt) will become a recurring feature, Defamer is proud to present Overheard Celebrity Movie Reviews. In this debut installment, budding auteur David Duchovny offers a brief critique of director Cameron Crowe's critically savaged Elizabethtown:

We've long been irrationally obsessed with the cheaply-attired superheroes and movie characters who stalk the section of Hollywood Boulevard in front the Chinese Theatre, corralling tourists for uncomfortably posed, five-dollar Polaroids. LAist feeds our obsession, overhearing this conversation across the street…