Payola Six: 'NY Press' Plays Nice, Cuts Dechert Loose?
As are a great deal of our favorite items, this is completely unconfirmed — but we'd like to put it out there anyhow: We're hearing that wildly unpopular and infamously skeezy writer Doug Dechert has lost his column at the New York Press after just one installment. His debut was last week's issue, in which he wrote the cover story about Payola Six and, more specifically, Richard Johnson's wedding. We had found the item at the very least amusing, but it later came to light that Dechert had crashed the wedding (makes sense, as no one in their right mind would want him there), whereas the column read as if he were an invited guest. That might piss off an editor or two.
Naturally, the Page Sixers were livid about Dechert's piece and his assertion that Chris Wilson would be the first head to roll when Col Allan "tightened ship." Wilson, in particular, was overheard at the Hustler Club's rooftop opening last night calling Dechert "pond scum," adding, "I hope he gets cancer."
Well, we've no idea if Dechert has any life threatening diseases, but it sounds as if he's being treated like a tumor around the Press. Odd; we thought the Press thrived on its malignancies.
UPDATE: Press editor Adario Strange clarifies that they never had any plans to give Dechert, who is purely a freelance writer, any sort of regular column, nor are they making any efforts to distance themselves from him. Pity.
