Julia Allison, the provocative but usually dignified sex journalist, really needs to think twice about inviting former Harvard "Duchess" Erica Birmingham to her 27th birthday party, and not just because the photo of Birmingham drinking Bud Lite in a tank top that surfaced earlier today. A classmate of Birmingham, who once shared a villa with her in Mexico, wrote in about her notoriety on campus, including "awesome or terrifying" parties involving midgets and dirty parrots. Her email — UPDATE: plus Birmingham's response and another email — after the jump.

Former so-called Harvard Duchess Erica Birmingham sent us an email, in which she displayed remarkably good humor. She also sent, at our request, a non-beer pic! "Saw your post about me and that random (and admittedly bad) picture. I actually had no idea Julia Allison wanted me to come to her birthday party so thanks for letting me know! And, all it cost was some generic insults in a public forum. For the record, I know that article in The Crimson is pretty ridiculous, and I'm not quite the hero of the Gawker class, but I am surprised to generate so many page views." We asked her what she was up to these days, and she gave us an update!

We noticed that Julia Allison somehow dug up an old Crimson profile on Erica Birmingham, alumna/Duchess of Harvard, for whom Ivy life was "an all-pink, Champagne-drenched party of her own invention... She's a character, quite literally. She checks into hotels under the name Rosalind Connage, the debutante from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'This Side of Paradise.' When she buys clothes online, she has her parcels delivered to "Duchess Erica Birmingham." And, her father is the former President of the Massachusetts Senate! All that and more, according to the article Allison dutifully re-posted to her blog, with the footnote, "ERICA: CONSIDER THIS AN OFFICIAL INVITE TO MY BIRTHDAY PARTY." Cute, but a tipster sent us a pic of young Erica in her heyday. Do you really want this girl at your party? We thought it was supposed to be a classy affair!