The Real Jay McCarroll Blows Off Daily Beast Hoax: No One Reads Them
Last week Tina Brown's new blog fest The Daily Beast ran a post featuring sketches by past Project Runway contestants as ideas for First Lady Elect Michelle Obama's inauguration gown. Then, oops!, The Smoking Gun figured out that the supposed entry by season one winner Jay McCarroll was actually a "hoax," perpetrated by a Canadian musician named Jay McCarrol (one L!) The author of the piece—who worked on it while at the now-shuttered Radar—had contacted him instead of the real designer by mistake and he just decided to run with it. So he sent the author the sketch, and the whole article ended up getting published on the Beast. Tina and Co. took the sketch down after the Smoking Gun reveal, and now the real McCarroll has weighed in on the whole kerfuffle: He tells the New York Observer:
I’m over it now. It’s guess it's funny. I guess it keeps my name in the spotlight, doesn’t it? And I didn’t have to do anything—zero! I called my lawyer—not to sue—but I kind of, like, didn’t know what to do. The design was fine, but I didn’t want to be like misquoted. I mean, this is for, like, the president’s wife! Not that anyone is reading that piece anyway, I’m sure.
Heh. Ouch.