"Julia got me the most thoughtful gift for Valentine's Day," Meghan Asha writes on her blog, "Girlfriends are the best remedy for the V-day blues." Who disappointed Asha? She was, last we heard, seeing TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington. Michael, be a gentleman and at least send flowers.
As you know, Julia Allison, the Time Out dating columnist, is providing free advice at the Dunkin' Donuts Toast Tent in Herald Square. (Hurry!) For a young student-reporter she dispensed the following wisdom: "What goes around comes around! If you know, you're going to write down, say stuff about people, you... and you choose to write about your relationship publicly. You're going to get burned. I think it's in general a horrible idea. Aside from changing our Facebook status from single to attached, that is just about as far as you should go." (Click the thumb for the scratchy audio. Yes, the student-reporter was a Gawker spy.) The compulsive fameball forgot to mention that she knows the perils of self-publishing from personal experience. By blogging every turn of her relationship with College Humor's Jakob Lodwick, including a mention of his bipolar condition, Allison complains she's scared off her last three suitors. And it's Valentine's Day tomorrow. CLIP »
After destroying Hud Morgan's image and ending the show "CW Now," Julia Allison is being made to pay for her sins, although she tried to put the best spin on it in a Web post that went up just before her site went down: "Tomorrow [THIS MORNING!] I will be hanging out at the Dunkin' Donuts Toasty Tent in Herald Square, dispensing free relationship advice... whilst eating various items off of DD's new menu." Allison, who has been crying a lot lately, asks everyone to come day "hello." Find in your heart on Valentine's Day Eve. Also, there will be hash browns. Screenshot of Allison's now-offline "ALERT!," plus a second, very special chance to see her, after the jump.
Maybe Julia Allison should just stick to communicating via smoke signals, since everything the woman writes on anything more permanent is made immediately public. Of course, that might interfere with the dating columnist's constant Tumblr updates. Former New York Press sex columnist Kelly Kreth (the one who was fired for taste, not plagiarism) called Allison out today for lifting an imaginary game from one of Kreth's old Press columns for her blog. In the comments, Allison responded: "I've never heard of Kelly Kreth until this post. In fact, I've only read one issue of the NY Press, and that's when they called me an Asshole on the cover." Oh, Julia. You know perfectly well it's dangerous to tell a publicity whore that nobody knows who she is! Next thing we knew, an email found its way to our inbox, in which Allison tells Kreth that she "purposely doesn't read other dating columnists, I don't want to be influenced," and also warns the ex-Presser to "be VERY VERY careful with Gawker." Someone probs should have given Allison the same advice about Kreth too, we're thinking. After the jump, the sad little exchange.
There's always a chuckle to be had when one attention-whore snipes at another attention-whore for stealing her attention-whorey idea, however lame. Today we got an email from a very annoyed Kelly Kreth, the former New York Press sex columnist, who says that Julia Allison pinched something for her blog from one of her old Press columns! Color us shocked-Allison's interpretation of the "borrowing" concept is broad, well-documented, etc. After the jump, the brilliant idea Allison snaggled today from Kreth. First though, a followup request from Ms. Kreth.
What was it they said about Nixon's fall, in the aftermath of the Watergate break-in? It's always the cover-up that gets you. A mildly embarrassing photograph of Hud Morgan in a poncy red scarf, which his boss didn't like, surfaced on the blogs. And word was bound to get out of the 28-year-old Men's Vogue writer's liaison with 17-year-old Leven Rambin from All My Children. Not a big deal, until the thin-skinned gossip columnist very publicly berated his snap-happy blogger friend, Julia Allison, at the Beatrice Inn; and vaguely threatened a former colleague at the Daily News for exposing the affair with the barely legal actress. Something about the item coming back to haunt him. George Rush, from the New York tabloid, is unlikely to be much disturbed. Fruitini-loving Morgan used to fetch for Lloyd Grove, Rush's overpaid internal rival. The column, Rush & Molloy, has just updated its item with new details, of one of Leven's other older admirers, this one much older, whom she had to bar from her apartment building.
Who needs Gossip Girl? Manhattan's real-life dramas are so much more intricate, petty, and intertwined. Publicity whore Julia used to date Jake, Barry's former toyboy, who was bipolar, which might explain why he dated jailbait Leven, who was friends with Britney's younger sister, who's pregnant. Leven now sees Hud, though he once shared a bed with perfume promoter Alan, who's married (to a man!); Hud looks increasingly like his former boss, Lloyd, who introduced him to Julia when the dating columnist and TV commentator moved to New York. Bad move: Julia published a photo of him in a red scarf, looking Lloyd-like, and now Hud's pissed: he yelled at her at the Beatrice, even though pretty-boy Fabian and Chloë were there. (Wasn't she in some movies?) Sooo embarrassing. But not as embarrassing as Julia totally stealing Chloë's red dress (not nearly as nice as the ones designed by Barry's beard, Diane) for Valentine's Day. Or when Emily, Julia's new best friend, hinted that Josh was a premature ejaculator; he certainly got revenge. CLICK FOR CHART »
Pop quiz: What is the best way to secure a second date with Julia Allison, assuming, for whatever reason, you wanted to do so? Answer: Bring a television camera to the first date! It worked for Chris Balish of TV network CW. In fact, attention-hungry dating columnist Allison had to be repeatedly told to at least pretend to have to think about a second date with Balish before saying "yes." But the relationship was not meant to be. The day after the first date segment aired, panicked network executives decided to replace Balish's show, at least for now, with something more substantive: "America's Next Top Model." The terrifying Julia Allison date video that could shake Balish's career to its foundations, after the jump.
Julia Allison may have finally met her match. The Star magazine talking head was seen in tears last night at Tara Subkoff's party at low-ceilinged downtown club, the Beatrice Inn. (Party photographs are on Getty Images.) Allison is pretty thick-skinned, her ambition undimmed by the abuse she's received from blogs and former boyfriends. But other party-goers, who included maybe-gay socialite Fabian Basabe, saw her traumatized by a half-hour lecture from Hud Morgan. The belligerent Men's Vogue writer accused the "craven self-promoter" of dragging other people into her bad press. The talking bosom's plaintive response? "I'm a dating columnist. It's what I do. People don't give Candice Bushnell a hard time. Why is everyone so mean to me?!" Why, indeed? (The answers, which include a red scarf, and teen starlet Leven Rambin, after the jump.)
You hoped the cover of Time Out was the pinnacle of Julia Allison's inexplicable celebrity? Tough. The Star magazine talking head is letting slip that she's being profiled for the New York Times. (Allison gives a little oops to indicate that she really should be more discreet. Yes, she should.) The former dating columnist was to have been subject of a piece in New York magazine, until editor Adam Moss determined she was "over-exposed". And that was before the Time Out magazine cover, and the vast output of drivel on Allison's personal blog.
Every drunk idiot in New York called erstwhile "dating" "columnist" Julia Allison's funny little voicemail number from the front page of Time Out. And Time Out helpfully uploaded their calls. And we're posting them! No one actually seems very interested in dating Julia, as New Yorkers are largely a group with a strong instinct for self-preservation. Highlights include a call that seems to be from the Holy Modal Rounders and this one, from Juan: "Hey Julia, it's Juan, and I just wanted to know if I could impregnate you, alright. Give me a call, at Jancy's house." Embedded playlist after the jump. Oy.
It's Fameball season. Blogger Erin Horgan is now "famous" for taking photos of John Mayer in a Borat thong. When the singer-songwriter pranced around in front of a crowd on a cruise ship wearing the neon green shoulder-strap swimsuit, totally to his surprise someone blogged it. Normally the story ends with "blogger sells photos to gossip magazine," but Horgan kept blogging about the attention her photos were getting, enough to interest the Cape Cod Times. Now getting a video interview (embedded after the jump omg click) on the windswept-white-people broadsheet's web site doesn't constitute fame, I know, but then gossip blog Just Jared ran a post made of exclamation marks about said interview, and now my editor is making me write about it here, so Erin Horgan is rolling up a little fameball.
Videoblogger Meghan Asha, who pals around with TechCrunch's Michael Arrington from time to time, comes from a wealthy Los Gatos family, we hear. The evidence? She flies around the country in a private plane. Here's what that party venue in the sky looks like. That's Asha between fellow geek-luster Julia Allison and comedian Demetri Martin. A tight squeeze.
The metaphor is made incarnate. Nick Denton has always credited himself with starting Julia Allison's career through Gawker's constant coverage of her every professional and personal move. Of course he can argue that the young media personality makes herself a target by writing forty blog posts a day, mostly with photos of herself, or photos of herself holding photos of herself. Conversely, the more Allison rises to fame, the more Denton's profile rises as a star-maker. All of which is perfectly expressed in this photomosaic, in which commenter Heather Watson combined 625 Julia-pixels to make one big portrait of Nick. Watson provides a poster-sized version for your bedroom wall.
Nerd-lusting Star editor-at-large Julia Allison is all grown up. She's on the cover of a magazine! Sure, as a commenter on some other blog noted that "Time Out notches just below Delta's Sky magazine and just above the vaunted Baugher Family Christmas Newsletter," but we all must start somewhere. In a recent poll, 65 percent of you recently voted for Julia as the girl who makes your geek go wild. If Sarah Silverman and Jenna Fischer can make the cover of Wired, why not Allison? Take a memo, Greg Anderson.
Time Out's Julia Allison-led Singles Issue is online now, complete with a behind-the-scenes video of the making of that sure-to-be-iconic cover image. Also there are essays! One, from Ms. Allison, about being a self-empowered single lady or something. An another, from some non-famous TONY staff lady, dissenting! Ashlea Halpern is not buying Julia. Because Allison's "MARKET YOURSELF LIKE A BRAND AND BE TRUE YOURSELF TOO LADIES" advice is insipid and useless pap, sure, but also because Ashlea seems to be convinced that it only works "if you happen to look like Julia Allison", which surely ties a record for point-missing. Oh, we've embedded the damn video after the jump, in case you have no self-respect. It's four minutes long. She rolls around in bed with her dog in PJs. 'Cause she's single and loving it! [TONY, Previously]
That's our own beloved Julia Allison on the cover of Time Out New York. Holding out a cocktail napkin with her number on it! For the Singles Issue! It's like seeing Aleksey Vayner on the cover of Fortune. The Millionaires' Secrets To Making YouTM the Sexiest Brand on the Market!
When Gawker nastily republished swimsuit shots of Emily Brill, daughter of the publishing magnate, several readers objected. Just because she's a spoiled rich girl, she's not a target, you said. Emily Brill (right) had done nothing, beyond displaying a newly svelte figure on her Facebook profile, to call media attention to herself. But think of that introductory post as a self-fulfilling prophecy that Steven Brill's ambitious daughter would become a public figure.
Anna Wintour's famous bob has been compromised by imitators: Posh Spice, mother-of-the-messiah Katie Holmes and even, lately, the actress' husband, Scientologist preacher Tom Cruise. But we still prefer the original hairstyle, as defined by the legendary Vogue editor, seen here from behind, in a presumptuous shot by Julia Allison. The Star Magazine talking bosom was sitting behind Vogue's Wintour (omg!) at the Oscar de la Renta runway show, yesterday. "It took every ounce of self-control I had not to pet her hair," says Allison. Commenter FLIPPER BABY responds: "Just a little less self-control and we would have gotten footage of Wintour snapping JA's neck with her mind."
