Richard Johnson
”Entire New York Gossip Agenda Shaped By One Dude in Jersey
Recently, Steppin' Up editor Chaunce Hayden got himself banned from tipping Page Six because of an inaccurate item he sorta sent them about a sex tape involving the wife of radio morning show host Opie. Does that sentence confuse and upset you? It should, because there's no fucking reason you should've ever heard of Chaunce Hayden, Steppin' Out, or "Opie," as Chaunce Hayden more or less admits in a Radar profile today. The unread free New Jersey magazine is actually just a vehicle for Mr. Hayden to meet famous (or "famous") women and land his name in the columns. More »Opie's $10 Million Page Six Suit: The Source Denies All
Chaunce Hayden (pictured: his back tat), the editor of marginal gossip rag Steppin' Out, was named in a $10 million lawsuit yesterday for being the source who provided Page Six with a false item about a sex tape featuring Bam Margera and the fiancee of radio shock jock Opie. The Post already tried to pin all the blame for the mistake on Hayden (which is rather ungallant, whether accurate or not). And Page Six editor Richard Johnson even told Hayden he would never use another item from him again. But Chaunce has his own story, which can be summed up as: I just said this was a rumored sex tape, jerks. And I didn't start the rumor. It was some dude named, uh... Ben!: More »Opie's Fiancee Sues Post, Richard Johnson For Millions
Remember when Page Six published a story in April about a purported sex tape featuring Bam Margera and the fiancee of radio shock jock Opie? And Opie immediately denied it, and then the Post admitted it probably wasn't true, and blamed it on a bad source? Well Opie is not the type to let them off that easy—his fiancee has filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Post, Page Six editor Richard Johnson, and the source, Steppin' Out editor Chaunce Hayden. It's a bottom-of-the-barrel multimillion-dollar legal slapfight! Highlights of the lawsuit: More »Olbermann and O'Reilly Drag General Electric and Rupert Murdoch Into Their Dick-Measuring Contest
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp owns Fox News and the New York Post's Page Six, so there's often a bit of corporate synergy in the targets those two outlets decide to attack. Like NBC, for example. MSNBC competes directly with Fox News and NBC with the Fox network, so it's only good business to undermine them at every turn. But it's become an all-out a war, lately, waged both in print and on television. Let's go back to the beginning! More »Malcolm Gladwelling at The Post
Super-famous New Yorker writer and liar Malcolm Gladwell isn't the only reporter who tried to sneak funny bits of prose into his articles for a respected newspaper. (Except didn't he not do that? I'm confused.) Anyhoo, it's a fun old game to play, and we used to play it Page Six. My fellow former Sixer Chris Wilson and I used to daydream about getting the term "Bukkake Bandit" onto the page, which, in 2003/2004, was no easy trick. In fact, it never even got past Richard Johnson. Another crusade was to get the Google definition of Senator Rick Santorum's name into the Post back when that was still new and fun. More »
this thing looks like that thing
'NYPost' Swipes 'NYPress' Item On Phony Knicks Fans
Have you seen those commercials starring real-life Knicks fans going on about how much they love their team? The New York Press called foul on the ads this week, reporting the team had hired actors to play the roles. Not exactly a shocker, how many authentic Knicks fans could there possibly be these days? The New York Post was outraged enough to run a double bylined piece today, albeit without crediting the Press story, which occasionally happens after an item has languished for a couple of days. Though, um, we wondered how the Post came across the item—can you even get the Press in Midtown? More »
the riches
Rupert Murdoch And The Temple Of Dendur
Whoever organized last night's party to celebrate the launch of Fox Business Network at the Metropolitan Museum of Art had a good sense of history. Held in the shadow of the Temple of Dendur, one had to wind through the sarcophagi and statues of pharaohs and gods of dynasties past. Inside, Rupert Murdoch's disembodied voice addressed his Praetorian guard. Soon we too saw the unusually lithe Murdoch. He had a glass of something in his hands. "America has the best companies," he was saying. Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, listened raptly. Rupert's fave deputy, Roger "The Penguin" Ailes, smoothed his tie and blinked his eyes. Sundry dynastic scions mingled: Lauren Bush, Ivanka Trump, her messed-up brother Donald Jr., Jared Kushner, all gathered under the bas relief of vultures. Nikola Tamindzic was there to capture the captains and dames of industry.More »
just friends
Lloyd Grove And Richard Johnson Are Friends
At last night's launch of the Fox Business Channel at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (more on that later), we saw Portfolio blogger Lloyd Grove roaming about the grounds of the Temple of Dendur. Talk about relics! (We kid!) What has our favorite Daily News ankler been doing since he left his gossip column behind almost exactly a year ago? More »
page six vs. radar
Page Six (Limply) Strikes Back
As expected, Page Six has retaliated against Radar for running two negative items about head Sixer Richard Johnson—one about his icky Vanessa Grigoriadis rape "joke," and one about his (alleged) icky enabling of Joe Francis' date raping—by digging up whatever gossip they could about (um alleged!) Radar investor and Page Six emasculator Ron Burkle. And it is that: He took out a mortgage.
Borrowing Up [Page Six]
'Radar' v. Richard Johnson: It Is So On!
"Emasculated? We'll See!" was the headline of the Page Six item this morning that basically told New York magazine's Vanessa Grigoriadis to watch what she said about that venerable gossip institution, because the males of Page Six would totally rape her... except maybe not because she's so darn hairy and ugly. Charming. Not to mention completely out of proportion! Grigoriadis's claim—that the column was "emasculated" after former Sixer Jared Paul Stern was accused of trying to blackmail supermarket magnate and (whatever, alleged) Radar investor Ron Burkle, wasn't even that controversial. And Richard Johnson's move to cover his ass by whipping out his dick, as it were, seems to have completely backfired. More »Is Page Six's Richard Johnson A Murderer?
Today's Page Six went oddly deep on Ahmadinejadmania, airing complaints from an Iranian restaurant-owning fellow about being quoted in AMNY. "KAZ Bayati, owner of popular Persian eatery Persepolis, is afraid for his life after being incorrectly 'outed' as a supporter of Holocaust-denying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," blares the oddball gossip sheet. Only the thing is—AMNY didn't print the guy's last name, at his request. But Page Six did. So who's getting innocent people jailed and dismembered now, Richard Johnson? Ya big drama queen.
MAHMOUD'S NOT ON HIS MENU [Page Six]
Iranian Americans applaud the freedom, not the speech [AMNY]
toe tappers
Gossips Nail T.V. Hottie As Manhunting Sex Lurker!
In a strange reversal, today Page Six published the answers to a blogger's blind item. And not only does Page Six say that former CNN gay hottie Thomas Roberts is the hot anchor with the nudie sex-seeking Manhunt profile (that's SFW, just shirtless shots), but they describe it as "another embarrassment" for tabloid T.V. show "The Insider" and compare it to "Insider" host Pat O'Brien's sex-partying hard-drinkin' rehab scandal. We are not so scandalized. Near as we can tell, Page Six's Paula Froelich is still a regular correspondent for "The Insider"—(or did they sever ties last Fall? That would make more sense)—despite Page Six's description of it as "a tabloid show known best for its round-the-clock coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death and featuring carnival-like freaks during sweeps week." But we're loving the new Moral Police outlook for fall over at Page Six! It's so extremely unlikely!
lies
Paris Hilton Pays 2 Million For Lying To Page Six
Remember the fake Page Six item that Paris Hilton commanded her then-publicist Rob Shuter (pictured in his highlighted glory) to plant back in 2006 about aging heiress and formerParis Settlement A Real Gem [NYP]
the hamptons
Peggy Siegal Is Not A Caterer
When unaging (at least around the face!) PR doyenne Peggy Siegal throws a movie party in the Hamptons, she bizarrely expects you to see whatever movie she's working on. On Sunday, it was some Jaime Foxx action flick called The Kingdom. When we rolled up for her party at Savannah's in Southampton about ten minutes before the movie ended, no one was in the restaurant yet. Peggy approached: Jackie Onassis meets Nan Talese meets Allison Janney. "Sorry, we're early!" said Deb Schoeneman, the editor in chief of Hamptons Style. Peggy's eyes were burning embers of annoyance in their deep sockets. "It's O.K. this time but not again. I'm in the movie business. Not the catering business," she said. Awkward! People arrived. Jeff Zucker, the short bald president of NBC Universal, worked the tables like a croupier. More »
nightlife




















