Some Of Our Best Friends Are Loathsome
The New York Press is not only still in business (kineahora, poo-poo-poo), it just came out with its annual '50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers' list. Think of it as the inverted funhouse mirror version of Vanity Fair's 'Power List': You do not want to be up in this piece.
Some samples:
48. Judith Regan, Publisher, ReganBooks: Because of her caustic personal habits, the turnover rate of ReganBooks employees breaks the sound barrier. Her constant insults of underlings and willfully cruel office political decisions caused one former employee to describe her as "a destroyer of souls."
44. Fabian Basabe, Male Socialite: The face of the next generation of morons with money.
42. Lindsay Lohan, Actress: This auburn-haired celebutante trainwreck poisons America's gossip pages daily.
38. Nick Denton, Publisher, Gawker Media: Nick Denton takes partial blame for the dubious distinction of introducing the word "blog" to grandmothers in Dubuque.
23. Jason Calacanis, Chairman, Weblogs Inc.: Calacanis is chairman of Weblogs Inc., which now hosts more than 70 blogs about, well, who the fuck knows?
20. Sarah Lewitinn(aka Ultragrrrl), Socialite, Blogger: Once confined to her ultra-vapid sycophantic hipster blog Ultragrrrl, Sarah Lewitinn has somehow parlayed her love for wimpy bands and kitsch into a career as a record promoter and talking head about two guesses wimpy bands and kitsch.
15. Carlos D, Bassist, Interpol: The fact that he is forever linked to herpes is technically loathsome in itself.
12.Adam Gopnik, Writer, The New Yorker: That The New Yorker didn't fire Gopnik immediately after he filed his "dispatch" says something about this New York cultural institution and the people it serves: the masturbatory navel-gazing, the trivial obsessing over cultural signifiers. In year after year as one of the magazine's chief voices, Gopnik silly, vain, precious, falsely plumed and preeningly proud represents this tendency par excellence. J'accuse. Asshole.
8. Graydon Carter, Editor, Vanity Fair: In his day job, Carter edits a magazine whose unabashed purpose is to make icons out of idiots...
2. Maer Roshan, Editor, Radar: Roshan's pop-culture chronicle became a newsstand blip in 2003, coasting on a wave of deep-pocketed PR bluster and screeds penned by 80s retreads like Bret Easton Ellis. Radar skewered J. Lo and Bush's niece. And they used Kool-Aid colors! And collected more than 20,000 subscribers! And, after two issues, folded.
Congratulations to all the winners.
