Lloyd Grove, party crasher? We used to spot the former Daily News gossip all over town, standing tall in his blue blazer as he gauged the pecking order. But last night at Fox News' party at the Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner, Grove was persona non grata.

He was not invited to the bash, but having made it in to at least CNN's soiree, he also tried scoring his way into FNC's event, which he wasn't invited to. This photo of Grove with
Sen. John Breaux was taken outside the party, as Grove threw around terms like "Conde Nast Portfolio," "Men's Vogue," and "the Washington Post" to credential his way inside.

We're told Fox's press folks finally let him in once the groveling became too much.

Meanwhile, Lloyd just penned a Portfolio – sorry, Conde Nast Portfolio – story about how Marquee man Noah Tepperberg has made a living from keeping people behind the velvet rope.

Nightclub impresario and chess champ Noah Tepperberg puts down his BlackBerry for long enough to mince words with Portfolio's Lloyd Grove, who's gone from reporting on the antics of celebrity life in short form to reporting on the antics of celebrity life in long form.

Tepperberg, seen here with biz partner Jason Strauss and an unidentified blonde, is, of course, the co-owner of Marquee and a lead at Strategic Group, the special events and marketing giant that's also in the business of celebrity wrangling. (He was also featured in Bar Mitzvah Disco.)

The common masses will blame him for what nightlife has become: velvet ropes and bottle service (just banned in Boston!). The privileged set will celebrate him, also, for what nightlife has become: more exclusive, more parties. And for the uninitiated, he will explain the difference — why there is still a line down the street to get into Marquee, and why you're probably standing in it instead of inside, on a banquette.

CONTINUED »

The conflict of interests in Lloyd Groves's profile of Col Allan extends even further. A tipster writes in,

The New York Post editor has many MANY (I mean like 10-15) emails from Lloyd Grove begging for a job here after he was fired from Daily News.

Apparently, Grove's emails went unanswered, and he had to settle for writing at a magazine whose demographic reads the Times.

WaPo Reliable Source columnist Amy Argetsinger snuck a camcorder into last night's "Grammy's on the Hill" awards, and captured an inebriated Ted Kennedy slurring his way through a group rendition of "We Are The World." A sarcastic Lloyd Grove muttered, "Wow, Ted Kennedy drunk at an open-bar D.C. event! Call the presses!" [BigHeadDC]

• Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee are back on? Must be because he has a really big…heart.

• Lloyd Grove reverses ban on mentioning Paris Hilton, but needs a LAT byline to do it.

• Marc Jacobs checks himself back into rehab. This in no way affects the way we feel about our Spring MJ bag.

• Less than a week out of the clink, Lindsay Lohan's father is already dreaming up new and creative ways to exploit his daughter.

• Oprah's new school in Africa is more like a prison. Where's Bono when you need him?

• If Tribune Co. gives him the chance, Sam Zell promises not to break the company apart. Until he's ready to.

A moratorium on Paris Hilton? Is that even possible for the press to attempt?

Sure, Lloyd Grove made a decent stab at it, but now he's writing fluff pieces for New York and chronicling gays with a modicum of power for Vanity Fair, so you see where that led him.

But let's not let any of that get in the way of the Associated Press' novel effort.

CONTINUED »

Have you picked up New York magazine this week? It's a pretty good read, with the exception of that article where Lloyd Grove offers his (unsolicited) advice to Barbara Walters.

Naturally, Walters, a highly successful veteran journalist, doesn't actually deign to speak with the illustrious (read: unemployed) Lloyd Groves for the piece, so his commentary is largely recycled and wholly uninteresting.

And though Grove claims he's been "doing business with Walters since the mid-eighties," below is the extent of their most recent collaboration:

I approached Walters at Michael’s, where she’s a regular at table 1. She gazed up from her plate of untouched gravlax and smiled a vague smile. “I’m not supposed to be speaking to you,” she said, looking pale and a tad weary in hardly any makeup but still marvelous for a woman of 77…She was wearing a black fur hat that had been shoved tightly over her head, as though to prevent stray thoughts from spilling out with her blonde highlights.

To recap: Lloyd Grove generously offers to "save" Barbara Walters' career by doling out his journalistic expertise in the form of an open letter/manifesto. Meanwhile, Barbara's omniscient blonde highlights advise her not to steer clear of the tall, lurking ex-reporter who's accosting her at lunch.

All of which raises a very obvious question, namely: just how many other people's careers will recently terminated gossip, Lloyd Groves, selflessly repair before attempting to salvage his own?

Ben Widdicombe will finally sit atop the gossip throne he's been pining for — beginning next month.. After Lloyd Grove's departure for all things "multimedia," the usual pairing of Daily News gossip offerings was limited to just Rush & Molloy, leaving a vast hole in our bookmarks list. The news – which we reported back in August, and Radar updated earlier this month – is a surprise to few. It's the details (read: money grab) that proved most entertaining. But now we hear that the timeline has been set in place, and Widdicombe will return from the holiday season with his own five days-per-week column with Laura Schreffler by his side come January.

Page Six editor Richard Johnson, on who should be named I Want Media's Person of the Year:

How about Richard Johnson? His latest challenger for gossip supremacy, Lloyd Grove, was vanquished with a whimper after three years of getting beat by Page Six. The Post finally surpassed the Daily News in circulation nearly 30 years after Rupert Murdoch came to town. And Page Six weathered the Jared Paul Stern scandal, despite the best efforts of the Daily News to destroy the column.

Nice to see old grudges – and egos – don't die hard. Quaint.

Exclusive

"What the hell is Lloyd Grove doing with his life?" is a question we've heard at least five or six times this week, and that doesn't take into account the number of times we've been asked that very question since we broke news in various forms of his departure from the Daily News. Earlier this month we reported that TMZ.com had passed on making him their East Coast chief. Liz Smith reported Lloyd had made a deal with Vanity Fair, but wasn't forthcoming with specifics — leading many to speculate whether he landed a staff position.

The answer to that myth, of course, is "no," he is not on Graydon Carter's masthead. But he is writing for the magazine.

On Friday night we bumped in to him at Out magazine's Out 100 party. Lloyd at a gay party? We were as confused as you. But it turns out the ex-Lowdown gossip was there on assignment — for his VF piece. We hear the Out party was just one of many stops on New York gay gravy train, and that he's been hunting around town for the, ahem, power sluggers of the gay glitterati. (Unfortunately, we haven't been approached.)

So while Lloyd refused to tell us the focus of the article, we have surmised his fist post-NYDN gig is going to involve a lot of under eye moisturizer, David Barton's gym, and, in all likelihood, Simon Doonan.

Exclusive

Today Liz Smith reported ex-Daily News gossip Lloyd Grove landed within Graydon Carter's confines at Vanity Fair. We've already spoke to a number of insiders who are questioning the accuracy of the report, but most are wondering – if his VF placement is true – what ever happened to Lloyd's claims that he was starting a new gig "doing something that is multimedia, with components of Internet and television and print media"? Sure, VanityFair.com just relaunched as part of Conde Nast's effort to learn how to spell "I-n-t-e-r-n-e-t," but certainly his VF post isn't the well-rounded media outreach program he had hinted at, right?

Right.

We're told that Lloyd initially planned on heading to TMZ.com, the AOL-Telepictures joint venture that most Americans know as "that site with the Brandon Davis 'firecrotch' video." And, to scratch their scrotum, it's also that site that broke the Mel Gibson anti-Jew drunk driving tirade. It was as recently as a few weeks ago, we hear, that Lloyd was in talks with TMZ chief Harvey Levin about coming on board as the chief East Coaster. Confirms Harvey: "We talked to him and nothing materialized."

How come nothing materialized? Like most issues, it came down to money. One insider tells us Lloyd was looking for pay in the $350,000/year ballpark, and TMZ scoffed (though they wouldn't comment to us about why the talks broke down). Elsewhere, a source with knowledge of Lloyd's job hunting mentions the "spoiled goods" complex: A disappointment at the Daily News, other gossip outlets fear touching him. But not, apparently, the ultimate celebrity sheet that currently features a wet, unauthorized Brad Pitt on the cover.

Update: We hear Liz Smith got it wrong. (Not surprised? Us either.) Lloyd is not moving to a staff position at VF, but is merely writing an article for the rag.

• Former Lowdown gossip Lloyd Grove lands at Vanity Fair, marking the second time he's followed Jessica Coen's career path. [Liz Smith]

• Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, and Nicholas Kristof are easy lays this week. [NYT]

• Simon Dumenco's solution for keeping newspapers out of the hands of the wealthy: revise the tax law. Ahem. [AdAge]

• Nielsen, which is having a hard time getting its shit together, speaks up loud enough to announce ABC has an early lead in November sweeps. [TVW]

While it's clear Lloyd Grove's "multimedia" ("with components of Internet and television and print media") aspirations weren't so much about his new job as a cry for help to Internet overlords (and, we should note, evidence of his hypocrisy), this morning the ex-Lowdown scribe surprised us with a few hundred words in the Los Angeles Times. He'll call it a career restrospective; we'll call it a saving-face self-send off. Lloyd will call us assholes; we'll call Lloyd at 3am and whisper sweet nothings.

But all those anecdoates about what it's like to write gossip at such a serious newspaper as the Washington Post – where editor Katharine Graham served as one of his best sources – were trumped by Grove's kicker:

Not buying that argument [that gossip serves a purpose]? Then how about this: It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it — maybe even at the Los Angeles Times.

It wouldn't be a Lloyd Grove send off without a not-so-subtle job pitch, now would it?

My Life as a Gossip Columnist [Lloyd Grove, LAT]

(Photo: Ambrel)

New York's new Fresh Intel blog has a little Q+A with recently dismissed Daily News gossip Lloyd Grove. We're amazed he was able to talk without slurring, considering the topics of conversation consisted of bottles of wine, vodka tonics, and a slight smattering of skeeving on pan handlers.

And then we get this gem, which Mediabistro, Gawker, and Romenesko are all likely to run.

What do you hate most about living in New York?

The incessant intrusion by media-obsessed bloggers.

Ah. See, that was the thing with Grove. He just wasn't masochistic enough for this biz.

Lloyd Grove Gives to Panhandlers, Won't Settle for Less Than 600 Thread Count [Fresh Intel]

As Jossip has previously reported (and eventually wondered "why has this not happened yet?") Lloyd Grove is leaving the pages of the Daily News. Whether he is to be replaced by Ben Widdicombe's Gatecrasher has yet to be reported by the New York Times … buy maybe in a few more weeks.

Because nothing is official until it's in the Times, Grove's departure does create plenty of buzz, but certainly nothing anyone is surprised to hear. After three years and six weeks as the News' awkward gossip monger, Grove is throwing in the towel, along with the conversations with his many imprisoned friends. And he even has some random, sketchy, plans for the future.

“The end of my gossip column in The Daily News is not the end of my presence in New York,” he said. “I have discovered in the last few weeks, oddly enough, that I am still employable. I will be doing something that is multimedia, with components of Internet and television and print media.”

Oooh, now what could that be? Sounds very futuristic and media-centric. We bet he's setting up his own blog/vlog/newsletter out of his basement. Just kidding! We have no idea what job Grove managed to snag, but, hell, good for him. And we should probably extend our congratulations to Widdicombe, too.

Lowdown: A Farewell to Gossip [New York Times]