Oh, Derek Blasberg. When you rip off a story about socialites with businesses from the NYT for your column in the London Times, could you at least have the dignity to acknowledge that you're pretty much best friends with all of the people you're writing about? Like, when you're writing about how Tinsley Mortimer will only be interviewed via e-mail ("like other celebrities, she is reluctant to be interviewed be face to face"), we might believe you if you weren't photographed all the time with her. On her lap! With her on your lap!

From Tatiana Boncompagni's story in November, "Could You Call Them 'Business Climbers'":

Women like Ms. Beracasa (creative director of an estate jewelry company), Ms. Mortimer (designer of her own handbag line) and many others are exploring a new socialite end game — one in which they become a brand with mainstream recognition (extra points awarded for an actual logo). Aggressively milking the fame they acquire through their irrepressible urge to dress up and be photographed, they are spinning off businesses that may one day provide nest eggs for the time an inherited fortune runs dry or a Palm Beach marriage goes down in flames, or simply as a means of personal fulfillment.

''The idea is to turn this all into something,'' said Ms. Beracasa, who has a bombastic beauty reminiscent of Rita Hayworth and a platinum pedigree (her late stepfather was Randolph A. Hearst, and her father, Alfredo Beracasa, is a banking scion). ''You get to a point where you've created a brand, and you can branch out from there.'

And let's compare with Blasberg's take in yesterday's (UK) Times:

"The word socialite used to have a negative connotation, alluding to a frivolous party girl who was rich and didn't worry about anything," says Fabiola Beracasa, the daughter of the uber-hostess Veronica Hearst, reached by phone in Paris between the Dior and Valentino couture shows. Beracasa, a curvy brunette with a penchant for miniskirts and hosting over-the-top Hallowe'en parties, is the creative director of Circa, a large international buyer of antique jewellery. "The rules have changed," she says. "It can now mean a businesswoman or someone with the ability to promote and sell a product, even if it's herself."

Oh, and also? Calling Socialite Rank a "lowbrow site" doesn't fool us, either.

Spoilt Little Rich Kids? [Times UK]
Could You Call Them 'Business Climbers'? [NYT]