GREATEST HITS: theForum@px.this
PX This hereby presents The Forum’s Greatest Hits, a thread-by-thread archive of the most fascinating discussions from "theForum@px.this" — our online F&B oriented community IP.Board (founded in 2007) made virtually obsolete by the re-launch of theBlahg, pxthis.com, on August 31, 2009.
[theForum@px.this will be fully and permanently dismantled upon the definitive completion of its archive.]
THE HOSTESS DIARIES CONSPIRACY
Started: May 27, 2008. 12:47 PM by (Forum Administrator) *jo* • Closed: June 22, 2010 11:56PM • Archived at 15,935 Views
PRIMARY SUBJECT : New York Times article "My Year at a Hotspot" by Coco Henson Scales, July 11, 2004
ADJUNCT SUBJECTS : Former gawker.com Managing Editor Choire Sicha, Former New York Times food critic Frank Bruni, Former Hue hostess Coco Henson Scales (and friend, William Diggs)
GIST OF TOPIC : Did Choire Sicha and/or Coco Scales (along with Frank Bruni) "conspire" to misappropriate the subject matter in PX This for their own glorification and/or personal gain?
SIGNIFICANCE: In June of 2004, Abbe Diaz purchases a short-running advertising spot within gawker.com to help publicize her book, PX This (Diary of the "Maitre d’ to the Stars"). Within several weeks of that advertisement, the aforementioned article in question, “My Year at a Hotspot,” appears in The New York Times, ostensibly written by former (prominent PX This "character" Karim Amatullah’s) Hue hostess, Coco Henson Scales.
Gawker Editor Choire Sicha declares the article the "best celebrity venality exposé ever!" and goes on to exhort, "if Gawker had a required reading syllabus, it would consist entirely of this article." He then further exalts the article by declaring Coco Scales "The People’s Hero" on his personal blog as well, choiresicha.com (now semi-defunct).
Within hours, "fans" of PX This ("anywhere from 15 to 35 people") send e-mails to Sicha drawing attention to Diaz’s book, with at least one pointing out Diaz’s status as a former advertiser. Diaz herself forwards a mention of her book in the Daily News to Sicha. Sicha responds via e-mail to Diaz (and at least one "enthusiast") but, despite referring to himself as a “big fan,” fails to publicly acknowledge the existence of Diaz’s book in any way.
It is later discovered the climax of Scales’s riveting narrative is completely fictional. Upon speculation as to how a fictional essay (by a previously unknown/unpublished writer) could possibly appear in the New York Times as a non-fictional feature in the first place, it is discovered Choire Sicha "dated Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni for a few months."
Scales has written nothing since.
RATING: ★★★★
WHAT THE STARS MEAN: Ratings range from zero to five stars and reflect the discussion’s entertainment value, from amusing to hilarious, with edification taken into consideration. Hyperlinks contained within are subject to change.
The archives of theForum@px.this have been edited for the sake of clarity, brevity, and squeakiness. [If you require an original unedited copy of the discussion, please e-mail px.this@gmail.com]
***********************************************
*Pictured (from boston.com): Choire Sicha, Former Gawker blogger, Emily Gould
** See also (earlier): Gawker Loses "Ignorasshole"
For more on this subject, read PX This Too – The Sequel to PX This – Coming Soon in the Autumn of 2010
the shit i go through – #001
"see this retarded shit i have to go through? going places i don’t want and being forced to meet peoples just to prove i am real…" – abbe diaz, PX This, page 216.
MONDAY, APRIL 19, 2010. yah so here is today’s shit. beefin with kevin-smith’s fanatics ha ha haa ahaa i am not even kidding. looong story, don’t even get me started. but if you did read (or intend to read) PX This, it goes a little something like umm piglets —> ben-affleck —> kevin-smith —> beefin with fanatics. don’t worry, it’s covered more fully in PX This Too (coming soon in the summer of 2010!) and believe it or not, if you have no idea what i’m talking about right now, it’s not nearly all as mumbly jumbly in the end as it sounds. i think.
anyways if you’re bored and you need a giggle, here is an example of some of the shit i go through:
(click here) —> http://viewaskew.com/theboard/viewtopic.php?p=4310778#4310778
i’m just sayin. bitches
:)
PX This – The Revised Edition – FREE E-BOOK HERE
Coming to Madison Square Garden – June 25, 2010
Aack! Reserve your PX Package today!
:)
**See also (earlier): "…HOW DID I FORGET U KNOW MAXWELL…?!!!"
abbe diaz says:
Oh rilly, Sietsema? Well, I’m kinda irked by you both.
I’m no fan of A.A.Gill; lots of people more au courant than you already know this. And I don’t generally make of habit of reading you or other writers of your "genre"– (so, no offense) primarily because you’re all kinda a little full of it. (But that’s okay, cuz I’m pretty sure yalls don’t "read" me either, yah?)
I guess what I’m wondering is why you’re so many days late and quite a few dollars short. Cuz I mean like, for example, even I personally covered this angle eons ago. It just seems rather odd to me that when Graydon Carter hired A.A.Gill for his notorious "takedown" of Jean-Georges’s 66 six years ago, nobody really gave a shit (except maybe The Observer). And let’s bear in mind— that multimillion dollar restaurant no longer exists. (Coincidence? Perhaps. But certainly Vanity Fair didn’t help matters much, did it?)
So, is your article supposed to inspire me to indignation now? Sorry, to me it just comes off as kinda a little laughable. And irksome. Oh right, I already mentioned that.
I’m just sayin. (This is the "comment section," right?)
P.S. PX This – The Revised Edition and PX This, Too. ** Coming soon in the Spring of 2010!** Bitches.
*See also (earlier):
• "i’m going in…"
Fashion Week is over? OMG, did I sleep through it completely?! Goddammit.
OK, so I’m a little late – shoot me. (Or pay me to blog, so I’m more punctual. Whichever!) In any case, I was supposed to post this awesome excerpt from PX This – The Revised Edition. Coming soon in the Spring of 2010
[*warning: Eats, Shoots and Ladders Leaves freaks please CLICK HERE and HERE before reading any further. then take that favorite book of yours and stick it up your ass. thank you!]
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2003. 7:01AM
… ann-demeulmeester looked taken aback, perhaps she was surprised i speak english. the assistant looked totally amused though, she snickered in her nostrils and everything.
oh but the highlight of the trip! was azzedine-alaïa again this time he fed us omelettes and salad. he is sooo cute i just want to scrunch him up and swallow him like a dumpling.
marc told mr.alaïa i made my long chocolate geld-iaz wool halter mock wrap dress— which, by the way, was so smokin, caroline the head big cheese for alaïa and some other random buyer-lady there inquired how they could buy it. and mr.alaïa flashed me a BIG SMILE and said: “ohhh ah-beeee! tres biennnn!” i tell you i could have dropped dead ecstatic right there.
then the next big highlight! was marc and i going to the RitzCarlton to meet some fancy Lady-ofSomeplace from england she was phoning and leaving messages for marc all week long asking to meet him we have no idea why.
so marc and i get there and she and her super cute 20something daughter are sitting having afternoon tea with some dude he was very sweet and funny he made jokes about KFC and krispy-creme how he can’t live without them and how he “owns one of each” because he has given them so much money.
the next thing you know he is saying oh! he is a shop owner too just like marc! he has a little boutique in london ahah haha ahahaa “have you heard of Harrods?” he asks. i mean can you fucking imagine. then here comes the maiterdee with business cards for him and the shop owner dude hands one to marc as he is scolding him for not staying at theRitz.
it was MOHAMED AL FAYED.
i mean. when did life become like this exactly can i ask you
mr.al-fayed touched me warmly on the shoulder as he stood up to leave so i concentrated really hard to suck all his luck if he suddenly gets hits by a speeding bus you’ll know why.
see. things like this you can tell peoples and i think they just wouldn’t believe you ahahahaha imagine me dropping this story on the piglets.
finally last but not least was big highlight#3 marc and i went to a dinner with the big willies from Valentino. it was at Davé and i actually got to meet davé he is the restaurateur that was in isaac-mizrahi’s Unzipped in the scene where isaac is chillin with galliano and leon.talley and they are mocking on donna-karan.
anyhoo so graziano the president of ValentinoUSA was a gigantic sweetie pie and he was in looove with me he admired my dress and told me i am “beautiful” and “elegant!” okay can we back up for a second i said the PRESIDENT of VALENTINO admired my dress. all the way from the other end of the table he halted ALL CONVERSATION to say “i’m sorry but i just haaave to ask who makes your dress?”
by the way i had the seat right next to the new head designer of Valentino he was a cutie face his name is damiano (“dum YAHno”). see i do not even know their last names. how is it even comprehensible i am on a first name basis only with a president and head designer of Valentino? i told damiano how azzedine-alaïa complimented that very same dress and if that was not the moment to be feelin oneself i tell you maybe there never is.
the only thing that ruined it was Chicken, Ferret’s wife…
***For more on this story, read PX This – The Revised Edition and PX This Too – Coming soon in the Spring of 2010***
Do you like pictures? Well, then you might appreciate the upcoming, soon-to-be-released, PX This – the Revised Edition
(followed closely by the release of its sequel, PX This Too).
With pictures!
But, not this one of "Tickle Me" Elmo perched atop abbe diaz’s Kawasaki Ninja 600R at the former Geld Iaz flagship boutique— it didn’t make the cut. Boo!
But, now you can see it here! Yay!
:)
See also (earlier):
• Remembering the Limelight [an excerpt from PX This - the Revised Edition]
• In Memoriam: Keith A. Glascoe [ an excerpt from PX This - the Revised Edition]
From the e-mail inbox:
"O MAH GAH I WAS JUST CLEANING MY APT AND I CAME ACROSS UR BOOK AND STARTED LEAFING THRU IT…. GAAH HOW DID I FORGET U KNOW MAXWELL??? I AM A HUGE HUGE HUGE FAN BUT I GUESS IT WAS AFTER I READ UR BOOK…. DID YOU SEE HIM ON THE GRAMMY’S?!?!?! AMAZING… I LOVE HIM SO MUCH OMFG….!!!!"
Yeah, we saw him on the Grammy Awards. But, thanks for the reminder!
:)
(We love him, too.)
= "personne extraordinaire"