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How is Amanda Scheer Demme, hott scenemaking proprietress of the Celebrity Salad-Tossing Lounge at Tropicana Bar, supposed to court the greatandinteresting when she's being undermined by her associates at the Roosevelt Hotel? At $119 a night ($30 more for a deluxe upgrade), every trailer dweller from Oklahoma will descend upon her A-list cocoon and demand to shotgun Busch Lite from what's left of Nicole Richie's butt cleavage.

To celebrate the coming unfashionable poolside apocalypse, we share another Defamer correspondent's "Tale from the Trop," in which some malfunctioning fabulous-detectors caused some guests to relocate:

I'm beginning to understand Amanda Scheer-Demme's brilliant PR strategy for deflecting the negative press surrounding pool access at the Roosevelt/Tropicana: say all the right things in the press, and continue on blithely and arrogantly doing exactly what you did before.

I put up out of town relatives at the Roosevelt Monday the first and Tuesday the second. First, because it's close to my Hollywood Hills home and, second, as New Yorkers, I thought they might enjoy getting a bit of the LA scene up close. Despite Amanda's quote just the day before in the LA Times that hotel guest would now be allowed access to the pool, they were denied entry Monday due to an E! party (the party kept them out that night, the prep kept them out that day) and denied entry Tuesday (during the day due to a photo shoot and again that night). They were actually offered the pool at the Millennium hotel as a substitute. Were they to cross Hollywood Bld. and walk through the Hollywood Highland mall towels in hand? Of course, none of these activities were disclosed upon check-in. When we complained, no discount or refund was offered. Ironically, a call to an "in the scene" friend got them walked through the ropes immediately Tuesday night. So much for taking care of guests. These are urbane New Yorkers, who actually work in the kind of fields Amanda claims she wants there (publishing, the arts). And who are the sort of people who will re-tell the story in the halls of Conde Nast, etc. On Wednesday, I moved them to the Chateau and the experience could not have been more different. Service was polite, the pool was wonderful, a dining table outside at prime time was secured on short notice as a courtesy to the fact they were staying there (hmm, treat guests BETTER than outsiders? Novel!). And we didn't even have to eat in yet another Dodd Mitchell-designed dining room. Same room rate, BTW, $300. Not only will this affect future guest housing plans, but it will affect room choice when deciding between the Mercer and 60 Thompson. And Citibank is doing a wonderful job making sure I'll never have to pay the hotel bill for the two bad nights at the Roosevelt.

More "Tales from the Trop" to come!