The Lowdown on Jho Low
There's a new playa on the club scene, have you heard? When he recently blazed past the velvet rope at Avenue, one naive young partygoer wondered aloud, "Is it P. Diddy?" No, it wasn't Diddy. It was someone even better! It was Taek Jho Low, the man making it rain at clubs all over town! Sure, he may not look like a baller—he's a doughy, bespectacled, 20-something Malaysian and Wharton graduate—but don't be fooled. Jho Low is taking bottle service to an entirely new level, and bankers who drop a mere $5,000 per night could do well to take some lessons from this guy.
Actually, you may have already heard of Jho Low and didn't even know it. Remember the mystery man who bought 23 bottles of Cristal for Lindsay Lohan last month to celebrate her 23rd birthday even though her actual birthday was, like, three months earlier? Yeah, that was this rock star.
Like any self-respecting playboy on the rise, Low is paying no mind to the recession. He reportedly shells out $150,000 each month to live at the Park Imperial ($100,000 for his own apartment; $50,000 for two apartments for his entourage of eight to 12 peeps). He once racked up a $160,000 tab at Avenue; he "routinely spends $50,000-$60,000" a night at Pink Elephant; and he supposedly dropped $300,000 recently for six memberships to "an exclusive Midtown club." Not surprisingly, living the life of a super-ultra-VIP has also earned him a big group of celebrity friends, such as Usher (with whom he's been photographed at least once), and Megan Fox, whom he flew to Las Vegas earlier this month to celebrate his birthday. (Supposedly! Due to the urgency of this breaking news story, the Post didn't have time to confirm Fox's trip to Vegas, unfortunately. But why doubt it?)
Jho Low has his share of haters, but that comes with the turf. One unidentified person quoted by the Post who was obviously too jealous of Jho Low to give his/her real name, described his lavish spending as "weird." Some residents of his building on 56th and Broadway—which is also home to Diddy, it should be mentioned—expressed annoyance that his fleet of Escalades are constantly idling out front and the doormen spend all their time handling the shopping bags that arrive daily filled with Jho Low's latest acquisitions. C'mon, people. Don't hate the playa, hate the game.
And don't assume for a second that JL is seeking attention by spending all this cash around town. He "clearly prefers to stay under the radar," as the Post points out. In fact, when the paper reached out to Low, his spokesman David Tan denied that Low ever blew $160,000 at Avenue and tried to place the blame on an equally mysterious Kuwaiti named Hamad Alwazzan.
Don't get shy on us now, Jho. This isn't the time to attempt to dodge the limelight. Embrace it. Bask in your new notoriety. And go get yourself a reality show so we can all go along for the ride.
— Molly Fahner
Big-spending Malaysian is the mystery man of city club scene [NYP]