To be sure, it’s quite fair that Lynsi Smigo — the fiance of Opie & Anthony radio host Gregg “Opie” Hughes — would be so disgusted that somebody would insinuate she made a sex tape with Jackass‘ Bam Margera that she would sue over the matter. It’s just sort of silly to think that the matter will see a courtroom.
Back in April, Page Six ran an item with the sex tape claim, provided by Steppin’ Out editor Chaunce Hayden. Which explains why, in addition to the Post, Hayden and P6 editor Richard Johnson are named as defendants. Nevermind that Johnson & Co. have since thrown Hayden under the bus, blaming him for the erroneous report and severing a lengthy relationship with the column regular. But it’s not like Hayden has the cash Rupert Murdoch’s Post does.
Smigo is looking for $10 million. As a consolation prize, she’ll take 10 minutes with Hayden’s tongue. [TSG]
Page Six editor Richard Johnson vs. Steppin’ Out editor Chaunce Hayden in the Bam Margera Sex Tape Retraction. [Gawker]
Outside last night’s Maxim Bunglows party at Kobe Club: Page Six’s Richard Johnson smoking a cigarette. Inside last night’s Maxim Bunglows party at Kobe Club (besides those Sopranos actors who are EVERYWHERE): Alpha Media chief Kent Brownridge sporting the type of smile one would expect from a man who’s officially over Jann Wenner.
Yesterday’s New York University panel about celebrity gossip and its players, sponsored by The Atlantic magazine and aptly titled “The Britney Show,” brought together heavyweights like Page Six’s Richard Johnson, Star’s Bonnie Fuller, and X17’s Brandy and François Navarre, who were kind enough to leave their six million dollar Pacific Palisades home to hang in the city.
Johnson shot himself in the foot when he called celebrity blogs “parasites,” accusing them of not “generat[ing] their own news stories,” which is amusing since Page Six wouldn’t get through the day without lifting items from many of these bottom-feeding blogs, and the brand’s own effort at competing with them failed after just three months.
And the always quotable Brandy Navarre, who is building a cache of Miley Cyrus photos in the hopes she becomes the next trainwreck poptart, admits her agency is “trying to get the shots before they go into rehab.”
And that’s when her God complex shines through: “Mr. Navarre suggested that a pack of paparazzi may have been able to prevent John Lennon’s murder in 1980; Ms. Navarre said photos of partying starlets have sometimes spurred their families to get professional help,” reports AdAge.
And the little matter of X17’s own photogs allegedly brutally assaulting individuals to within an inch of their life? Well, so long as they’re not celebrities, preventing their murders isn’t really the Navarres’ concern.
The friendly skies between Page Six and Girls Gone Wild sleaze Joe Francis are, like spring, here before you know it. [Radar]
You know that Son of Sam Law, created to keep criminals from writing books and profiting from their crimes? Joe Francis totally found a way around it! Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch: The Girls Gone Wild creator is currently in lock up on tax evasion charges, not for exploiting underage girls!
But from behind bars, he’s already planning the launch of Girls Gone Wild magazine, which Page Six describes as a “PG-13 print version of his raunchy video series in which drunken college girls are coaxed into stripping for the camera.”
The first issue should hit newsstands April 15 and, given that P6 honcho Richard Johnson and the Fran-Man are BFFs, you can expect in-depth chronicling of its Kim Kardashian-filled pages.
Happy birthday to Richard Johnson, the Page Six chieftan who turns a year older today. Oh, and on Monday Details editor Dan Peres and hottie actress wife Sarah Wynter welcomed Oscar Dallas Wynter Peres in the world at 6 pounds, 6 ounces. Tiny, unlike his soon-to-be ego. Happy bday to the wee one.
Apparently, one superfluous mention of Manhattan restaurateur—and Page Six benefactor—Nello Balan was not nearly enough. Yesterday’s rambling, uninteresting report (that Balan’s $1000 was borrowed and inadvertently broken by a leggy model) was promptly followed up by the revelation that said model may, in fact, be dating Owen Wilson. By which, of course, we mean was spotted taking a class with him at Bikram Yoga! Presumably, after meeting him during one of his famous open-door peeing parties.
Frankly, we’re happy for Owen but can’t help feeling just a little bit disappointed with Page Six. Not just for rehashing the boring umbrella story and for continuing to placate the man who gives them generous cash donations around the holidays, but for not even putting any effort into it. After the jump, the item in full and our analysis. Pay special attention to the noticeable absence of kicker/purpose.
Restaurateur Nello Balan is reportedly “at war with a stunning model he says borrowed his $1,000 umbrella to stay dry…then had a pal return it with a vengeance - broken in two.” The boring back-story? Balan first threatened to sue catwalker Le Call when she neglected to return his pricey Jean Paul Gaultier parapluie and is now accusing her of committing “an act of disinterested malevolence, intentional infliction of mental distress, willful destruction of property, and whatever else I can think of.”
Frankly, we’re not sure what all the fuss is about, seeing as the umbrella (despite costing the equivalent of one month’s rent) is, after all, only an umbrella. And besides, since when did Balan become such a tightwad? Or are we the only ones who remember that this is the very same individual who once generously gifted Page Six’s Richard Johnson with a cash-only Christmas present in the exact same amount for no reason whatsoever?
Hmmm, sounds like someone could sure use some holiday cheer this season! Or, at the very least, more gratuitous coverage by the country’s premier gossip column.
We’ve always wondered what Page Six would be like without Richard Johnson. And today we got a sneak preview! Gone are the tawdry tales of Jeffrey Epstein and his boatloads of nubile island nymphs and transgendered prostitutes! Today’s top story: Sometimes Bill O’Reilly’s an ass. (Remember folks: You read it here, first.)
Thus, with Richard mysteriously “traveling” (to the AMC in Boca Raton? Or possibly paying his own way to attend crazy stripper parties…again?) we’re regarding today’s column as a glimpse of what Page Six would be like with Paula Froelich in the driver’s seat. And since you have zero attention span, we’ve summed up this extra-special Paula only edition for you in convenient bullet-point format.
What we learned from Paula…after the jump.
Being bloggers, we often use inclement weather as an opportunity to cower under our bedsheets and scour the web for things other people are writing about subjects we’re either too lazy (or else too uninterested) to write about ourselves.
Case in point, this excerpt from The Phoenix, which speaks derisively about the whole “Did Page Six Threaten To Date-Rape Vanessa Grigoriadis??” incident while simultaneously providing the most intense, detailed though-provoking analysis of the saga to date.
Naturally, the write-up concerns Page Six’s ill-advised response to Grigoriadis’ NY Mag “slam” which read: “Grigoriadis ignores the fact that half the Page Six staff is female. The male half might take her somewhere private and disprove her theory, but we don’t like a woman with a mustache.”
“GLAAD contacted Page Six editor Richard Johnson this morning to discuss the description of Miriam [as a ’she-male’]. His e-mailed response read, ‘You’re kidding me, aren’t you? I would have used ‘chick with a dick’ but we’re as [sic] family newspaper.’”
And when not using slurs against transsexuals and the gays, Page Six is running epithets aimed at the Romani: “Porn Punk Gypped Bonds’ Ex.” [P6]
With the US Open and Fashion Week both over, what will happen to our favorite imaginary couple, Anna Wintour and Roger Federer?
Page Six doesn’t want the romance to die, and reports that “the comely cougar [Ed: gross] has also feted him with luxe fashions.”
According to an insider, Wintour sends Federer notes that say “This would look great on you.” For any other fashion editor, that would be normal, but for Wintour, that’s code for “I love you.”
Before Jeff Bercovici’s feud with Eric Altermann even had time to cool to room temperature, the new Portfolio blogger is launching a crusade against Richard Johnson.
Friday’s Page Six carried an item about Heather Mills McCartney, in which the Dancing With the Stars castoff is written up for illegally parking in handicap zones, and: referred to as “peg-legged.”
In his new role at Conde Nast, it seems, Bercovici is a champion of P.C.-ness and the rights of the disabled, calling out RJ & Co. for their off-colored comment about McCartney’s missing limb.. Also: A chance to carry on an anti-”where Corynne Steindler works” crusade.
That, or perhaps Jeff B. couldn’t care one way or the other, and instead latched on to any opportunity to drum up scandal to drag attention to his new blog. Just the type of attention a struggling Portfolio needs!
What’s next, Richard? Full-body liposuction, angry chick-rock music and a raging addiction to heroin?
[P6]
Heh. Even Dan Abrams got namechecked.
Friday’s 3-page Page Six column is just the beginning. Next: TV, the Internet, your soul. [MP]
Watch out, Daily Newsers. Rumor has it Page Six is ripping a page out of Rupert Murdoch’s playbook (probably because he owns them!) and hatching a plan to “turn itself into an unstoppable, unavoidable, hegemonic global powerhouse…as part of an effort to birth a multimedia gossip juggernaut.”
You’ve got to give it to Murdoch. He’s nothing if not consistent.
[NYMag]
“What,” you might be wondering, “ever happened to Page Six editor Richard Johnson and his drunk driving incident?” Richard, as you’ll recall, was arrested just over a year ago as he attempted to drive off from Soho House in his 2005 Ford Escape.
At the time, he refused a request to take a blood alcohol test (he only had one glass of wine, he told the officer) and was summarily charged with two misdemeanors.
Now, more than 12 months later, where do things stand?
Did Nello Balan really slip Richard Johnson $1,000 in an envelope in order to boost his holiday cheer? If he did, he’s not exactly racked with guilt. In an Oscar caliber “damage control” performance, the restaurant impresario nobly defends his right to give unsolicited monetary donations to make-or-break gossip columns—and accuses those of us who fail to grasp his selfless generosity of being Scrooges, Grinches and penny-pinchers who’ve lost the Christmas spirit.
“If I did, so what?” he wondered in his Romanian accent between bites. “What is wrong with a Christmas gift? What, Americans have to be such Grinches about Christmas?” Americans, not so much. Journalists, maybe. Along with other allegations, the New York Post’s admission that Johnson accepted the cash has sparked a media frenzy. But it’s been too long to remember the details, Nello said. “It was 1997. I was in Aspen.” He wondered if he hadn’t asked his assistant to send over truffles, or possibly scarves, gloves, and ties (Hermès is across the street), and just maybe the assistant got flustered and sent cash instead.
Meanwhile, the NY Times tries to figure out just how beneficial Malan’s selfless act really was, asking “was there a quid pro quo?”
[Spoiler: Yes.]
Editorial Director
