Peter Davis – socialite reporter extraordinaire – was last seen confusing his relationships with socialites like Tinsley Mortimer (his sister-in-law) with objective fashion editorial. You know, the type of confusion where he mistakenly includes his friends and business interests in his write ups of parties and all things glamorous. Easy mistake, right? We're willing to cut him some slack.
But then, we're told, Davis had to go and have a Fashion Week hotel sleepover with Matthew Williamson, who, wouldn't you know it, is a designer regularly written up by Davis' rag Fashion Week Daily. They took their partying from Bungalow 8 back to Matthew's hotel and, we're sure, were up all night discussing who gives better blowjobs: Jim Shi or Julie Fredrickson.
A Jossip reader is quite concerned that we may have jeopardized our access to the booze which flows freely from Paper magazine parties.
Peter Davis, socialite reporter and one-man Tinsley Mortimer press machine extraordinaire, backs Paper. And since we insist on prying into the journalistic motives of this elite media and society member, well, we risk being blacklisted from the Paper scene.
Paper gives good parties - read: lots of free booze - and P. [Peter] Davis is a backer of Paper. Didn't you know he was loaded? It's Davis as in the "Davis Cup," a tennis to-do founded by his great-great-something (uncle? grandfather?). If you don't beieve me, just look at his signet ring.
We are flattered that our reader is so concerned — especially because he insinuates that this coverage in some way makes braver than our peers who choose to ignore this socialite on socialite dry hump in order to maintain their open bar access. (We think that it's just because nobody else really cares.) Either way, fear not.
If a Paper party worth attending comes along, and we are left without an invite, we will simply crash. If only to ask Peter Davis if he will please put photos of us on Patrick McMullan in exchange for more favorable coverage on our blog.
We think we have found a new topic of fascination here at Jossip: socialite reporter Peter Davis. (In addition, we also love the term "socialite reporter" and are going to start throwing it around the way Davis throws around his sister-in-law's name to get writing assignments.)
After his New York Times "Socialite Boys" story, which favorably featured his boyfriend/arm candy Christian Leone, we thought it was pretty funny/pathetic that he thought maybe nobody would notice. But then we realized his preferential writing style, not to mention personal climb up the social Himalayas of New York, didn't end there. He's wiggled into the Mortimer clan, writes about Tinsley Mortimer for every magazine including Fashion Week Daily, and went to college with Jared Paul Stern.
Davis also trumps up more ink for Leone in Avenue Magazine, that uptown real-estate cum socialite rag that rich people get in their doorman buildings. In his Avenue column this month, Davis snaps a photo of a smiling Leone and also of his family: socialites sisters-in-law Tinsley Mortimer and Dabney Mercer replete with glowing mentions of what they are wearing.
If, in fact, the rumors are true (Avenue has not yet returned calls or e-mails) it is quite interesting that Davis is not only talking up his family, but also trying to score a few point with his editors by glowing over them in the Times
.
"People have their pose down," Mr. Leone said, watching as Mr. Saffir grinned for the cameras with yet another woman, Debbie Bancroft, a society columnist for Avenue magazine.
The next morning, many of those images appeared on the Web site of the photographer Patrick McMullan, and perhaps would later show up in the party pages of glossies like Quest, Avenue, Vogue, Gotham and W. The site patrickmcmullan.com has page after page of pictures of men about town (578 for Mr. Saffir) or, for lack of a better term, male socialites.
So do you think the Times should also include an editor's note on how he works for Debbie Bancroft and that he himself appears on Patrick McMullan's site more than MisShapes end up on Last Night's Party?
Our tipsters full e-mail, stuffed with amazing "I heard" quotes and tons of "elitists suck" sarc, after the jump.
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Maybe this is just how things work in the wonderful world of socialite elitist types, and we just don't get it … but we like to think we get things. And what we get from this is that Peter Davis is more of a PR/publicist type that a journalist.
Because our readers are better investigators than half the journos out there, they are always uncovering these strange unknown connections. Especially, for some reason, when it comes to Peter Davis. As of yesterday, we knew approximately two things about Davis: 1) He wrote a New York Times articles about how super special his "It Boy" boyfriend is, and 2) He went to college with Jared Paul Stern. Now, we can add a third fun Davis fact to that list.
Did you know also that Peter Davis is socialite Tinsley Mortimer's brother in law?
Actually, we didn't know that. Very interesting. So we did a smidgen of research on it, and found that yes, his sister married into the the Mortimer family.
I LOVE this photo I took of the Mortimer clan: longtime PAPER editor Peter Davis (who incidentally was one of PAPER's first interns about twenty years ago!!!) flanked by his sister (right) Minnie Mortimer and his sister-in-law (left) Tinsley Mortimer. Cute family portrait, no? Meanwhile, I also snapped Peter's handsome brother, Topper (left above), with Anne Slater at Heatherette. What a quirky and fabulous dynasty.
Big deal, right? So Davis really wants to be one of these "on the scene" type journalists. We can relate. But we think it's funny that he isn't just related to the Tins, he also writes about her and the fab clan (pictured) for Fashion Week Daily.
At a Lyn Devon party, he accomplished the amazing feat of "spotting" the people he showed up with:
The guest list at Devon’s show ran like a who’s who of chicettes. We spotted Tinsley Mortimer (in Zac Posen), Minnie Mortimer (just back from the West Indies), Jessica Joffe, Jill Kargman, Allison Aston …
Then he snagged those hard to land "what are you doing for Easter" interviews, and somehow got his sister-in-law to spill to him. (All you really need to know is that she's doing nothing except eating peeps and wearing Manolos.)
Maybe it isn't the biggest deal in the world, but somehow a Paper editor and Times writer being paid to promote his own socialite clan by inserting photos and dreadfully boring interviews with their ring leader seems a little … self promotional? Dishonest? Elitist?
Well, at least it's Ethics in Journalism Week … and Peter Davis is making sure we're not left disappointed.
Related: DYNASTY [Paper Magazine Blog]
We think some of our readers might be fedora wearing spies themselves. Today, one engaged gossip writes in to ask about some possible connections between media scandal mongers.
Did [Peter Davis] go to college at Bennington with Jared Paul Stern? Someone by that name did. And he graduated the same year Jared did (1994) and he studied literature and writing, just as Jared did.
Just asking…
While we get underway on our research, does anyone care to help out your gossip community? If you know where Christian Leone's boyfriend went to college, let us know. Maybe there needs to be a journalistic red flag on Bennington's lit department?
Earlier: The Sunday Styles Writer and His Boldface Boyfriend
Earlier: Page Six's Jared Paul Stern stung by Daily News
Update: Yes the New York Times' Peter Davis went to Bennington with Jared Paul Stern. However, according to JPS, Davis graduated in 1991, not 1994 and left the year after Stern arrived. Stern "knew him slightly" but it's doubtful they studied Chaucer (not to mention ethics) together.
We knew it wouldn't take long to find one more thing to make fun of in Peter Davis' "It Boy" article in Sunday's New York Times. In the fluff piece, the writer rattled a few names of male socialites who are supposedly recognizable by imaginary "female counterparts," and include:
Mr. Leone, 34; Mr. Saffir, 39; Luigi Tadini, 23, a jewelry executive; Derek Blasberg, 24, a freelance writer; and Euan Rellie, 38, the chairman of Lucy Sykes New York, a fledgling clothing line mostly for children, to name a few.
One Mr. Leone would be Giorgio Armani publicist Christian Leone (left), Davis' current beau.
Davis didn't tell readers that he's dating Leone. But fashionable types who knew of their relationship first raised their well-manicured eyebrows on March 8, when Davis penned a giddy "exclusive" for fashionweekdaily.com, reporting that Armani had just "nabbed" Leone to be vice president of public relations.
A spokesman from the Times printed an apology which emphasized that the relationship should have been disclosed to readers. But does anybody really expect a Sunday Styles writer to date a person whose name just shows up in regular face print?
FROM BOYFRIEND TO BOLDFACE [Page Six]
Earlier: Just Don't Call Them 'It' Boys. Or Gay
Editorial Director
