In the accompanying photo, observe journalist, author, and verbal pugilist Ian Spiegelman in 2003, making doe eyes at publicist Katie MacIntosh, while the visage of Radar editor Maer Roshan lurks in the background. Spiegelman looks so cheerful! He's positively beaming. Why, then, is he so shovey of late? Poor Toby Young got his book party upstaged by Spiegelman's antics, which is ironic considering Young's own unfunny staged play-beating. All that aside, what do you need to know about Ian Spiegelman, should you spot him in the wild? More than you would ever care to learn, and then some, after the jump.

First, aside from the photo documentation and the play-by-play, a comprehensive history of the feud between Spiegelman and dandy about town Doug Dechert (the jacketed fellow Spiegelman shoved at Young's party) can be found in this New York mag piece, along with background on other players in New York's gossip journalism cistern. But that particular story has been done to death, so let's focus on what Ian Spiegelman means to you, the modern educated American.

If encountered in his natural habitat — a party thrown in his honor — Spiegelman may be approached, with caution. He will likely threaten to shove some part of you into some other part of you, or remove some part of you and rub that on another part of you, or enjoy a beverage from a declivity he plans to carve into you. This is not really cause for alarm, and you have plenty of company. Spiegelman dearly loved his time at the New York Post's Page Six, throwing himself with gleeful abandon into the culture of attack, ridicule, publicity whoring, and fierce familial loyalty that Richard Johnson's gossip fiefdom is famous for. That's all gone now for Spiegelman, but he still embraces the lifestyle — hard drinking, debauched sex, fightin' words, and perpetually angry and unapologetically drunken bravado.

He's written two books, one more on the sex, the other more gossip noir, that encapsulate his underbelly fixations perfectly. Spiegelman seems to have more than a passing personal familiarity with the joys of sexual sadomasochism, and though he talks about fighting more than most boxers, he doesn't seem to get into many fistfights these days, nor talk much about past fights (he has admitted his girlfiend beat him up when he was 18). So again, despite the bluster, the chance of actual physical violence is low in his presence, Toby Young's party to the contrary.

Not that this makes him any less entertaining to have around. Spiegelman comes across as a throwback to old New York journalism, clich

or not — tough guys who lived hard miserable lives but ended up getting the story, and occasionally, the girl. With cookie-cutter journos and bloodless editors in charge of most media, the stereotype still has a lot of appeal. One of the most obvious parallels is the tough-guy fiction (and personal attitude) of Los Angeles' James Elroy, a comparison Spiegelman flatly rejects. Nevertheless, he walks a fine line of keeping everyone around him on edge while always threatening to veer into self-parody. And he always gives good interview. As long as you don't get lost in his shadow, having Spiegelman throw a punch is a great way to get your party (and your name, and your venue, and your magazine) in the paper.

It's too bad that journalists like Spiegelman — or journalists like Spiegelman attempts to emulate — aren't allowed to cover more ground than gossip, or sex, or crime, or anything tawdry enough to allow them to cut loose. Still, if everyone was in everyone else's face all the time, it might encourage more rough sex, but it could interfere with the drinking.

Payback [NYM]

Video: Spiegelman Explains Soho House Scuffle [Mediabistro]

Spiegelman's Burning [MobyLives]

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Page Six's Ian Spiegelman [Black Table]

Ian Spiegelman [Official site]

[Photo: Getty Images]