For the moment we'll ignore the Village Voice's repugnance in attempting to remove all traces of Nick Sylvester's at least partially fabricated cover story from its website. (Whether you like it or not, guys, you published the flawed work, and it's part of the historical record, and while of course you should attach an explanatory and corrective note, it's deeply disgusting to watch a newspaper — a newspaper! — try to throw inconvenient facts down the memory hole.) Instead we're treating it as a cat-and-mouse game.

Here's what we know: This week's Voice had a cover story by hotshot young Nick Sylvester reporting that men around New York are using Neil Strauss's The Game, about pickup artists and their techniques, and that women are increasingly aware of this and outsmarting their would-be seducers. We know said cover story has been removed from the Voice website. We know that the Voice's acting editor-in-chief Doug Simmons, to whom we were referred when we called because the paper's PR director has left the company, hasn't returned our message. And we're reliably informed that the newsroom — such as it is anymore — knows some sort of big shit is going down but isn't being told what.

When we first received word about last night's premiere of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, based on the book by Fake Writer J.T. Leroy, we were a little bit blown away. After New York magazine and the Times exposed Leroy as a complete fraud, a nonexistent individual fabricated by a woman named Laura Albert in order to gain literary success, how could these people possibly have the motivation to host an honest-to-God premiere and after-party? Were they actually sending us a freaking tip sheet for a film spawned from a lie, complete with the names of expected A-list attendees like Mandy Moore and Maggie Gyllenhaal? And were the Misshapes kids really DJing the fucking after-party, where Leroy himself was expected to appear? Certainly such a wheelbarrow of bullshit couldn t be for real but it was. When the balls behind an event are that overgrown, we have to attend.

• Time for another Fake Writer to emerge... How about Dan Brown, the far-too-rich author of The Da Vinci code? Two London writers are suing Random House over allegations that Brown's novel lifts key elements from their 1982 book — just in time for the movie, no less. [MSNBC]
• A tip of the hat to pop star George Michael, who was arrested in London this weekend after authorities found him parked outside of Hyde Park, high as a kite. Oh, how far we fall from the halcyon days of bathroom masturbation. [Rolling Stone]
• More on Caligula and the awesome perv behind it all. [Artforum]
• Malcolm Gladwell blogs, signifying the medium's tipping point (ba-dum-dum). [Gladwell]
• Artist Neil Goldberg captured the expressions on subway-riding New Yorkers' faces at the exact moment when they realized they'd missed the train. It's depressing enough to make you stick to cabs. [Encyclopedia Hanasiana]
• Speaking of which, Melissa Plaut — the voice behind the delightful cab-driver blog New York Hack — gets her big coming out party in the Washington Post. Not too shabby. [WaPo]

The good people at The Book Standard pass along this press release, just issued. They assure us it's for real, though, sadly, they did not also send along barf bags:

• Winona Ryder was in on the JT Leroy hoax and even concocted a detailed story about how she met Leroy for Vanity Fair's profile of him in 2003. Bitch! You are now officially a Fake Actress, Winona, and we don't care how pixie-cute you are. [Page Six]
• The battle of words and egos between Donald Trump and Martha Stewart continues; now Martha's daughter Alexis is getting involved. The two talked ill of the Donald's derriere and its relation to his silver spoon. [R&M]
• Morrissey the terrorist? Think about it. He's got the perfect cover, but those eyes are dark. Too dark. [Contact Music]
• Some cracknut named Larry Garrison claims to "own" the Natalee Holloway story, but he also claims to be "a journalist, actor, producer, motivational speaker and White House media consultant." So, you know. [Lowdown]

From the masthead of the new BlackBook:

• Is Britney Spears' baby-daddy Kevin Federline putting the moves on Jessica Simpson? If so, good for him — a man has to move up the totem pole to survive. [Scoop]
• Lindsay Lohan and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Yep, exactly what it says it is. Honestly, there's no end to this girl and who she'll take down with her. [Page Six]
• A federal court judge has ruled in favor of Kid Rock — and humanity — by blocking the sale of his sex tape with Scott Stapp. [R&M]
• Love in crisis: Rufus and Sally Albemarle reportedly split, Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston still in question. And this concludes the only thing these two couples will ever have in common. [Lowdown]
• Riverhead axes its two-book deal with Fake Writer James Frey. Yeah, ya think? [Page Six]

A theater in San Francisco has displayed posters for the forthcoming The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, the movie based on the fake life of fake and altogether nonexistent writer JT Leroy. Wisely, Palm Pictures has chosen to incorporate the hoax into their marketing tactics — one poster even includes far-too-long excerpts from the Times and New York articles about the scandal.

Innovative sales techniques from the Soho Housing Works.

• Best-selling crime writer Mary Higgins Clarke may have lifted her schlock from an Israeli writer's much-distributed screenplay. So, to review: James Frey is fake, JT Leroy is fake, and now your mom's favorite writer is fake. [Lowdown]
• Tom Cruise considers suing Life & Style for reporting that he had split with fiancée Katie Holmes. Uh, considers? The Tom Cruise we know would've served them with papers 2 days before the damn thing hit the stands. What's become of you, Tom? You're a shell of your former self. [IMDb]
• Teri Hatcher doesn't have a publicist, which means she sends nasty emails to Jeanette Walls. [Scoop]
• Brit actor Daniel Craig is reportedly well-endowed, which is probably the only qualification one needs to play James Bond. [Page Six]
• Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff bites the hand that entertains his boss. [Page Six]
• Spike Lee wags a righteous finger at 50 Cent for dressing his kid in a bulletproof vest. We don't see what the problem is — shouldn't Baby Cent know the warmth of Kevlar? [R&M]

Last Friday, we published a rumor that absurdist rocker Pete Doherty — the smack-drinking ex-boyfriend of supermodel Kate Moss — was really not a crackhead at all, but rather a an organized hoax to point out how easily the media focuses on any given trainwreck. As it turns out, the hoax is a hoax. The faux Doherty story was wishful thinking on behalf of some crack-hating crusader, who concocted the detailed scenario as part of some bizarre competition called HateQuest.

There's a little rumor quietly floating around the internets right now — something completely unconfirmed, unsourced, and uncorroborated. Which means it's totally interesting, of course. According to, well, we don't even know, professional crackhead, rocker, and erstwhile Kate Moss-lover Pete Doherty is a fraud. We've no idea who penned the following article, but we're seeing it reprinted on various sites, so we figured we'd help spread the bullshit:

• London papers cater to their demos. [BigShinyThing]
• If you're so lucky as to have a lover this Valentine's Day, remember: He spent last night cheating on you. [WSJ]
• Stoners fight for the right to, uh, be stoned: Free the Cartoon Network, dude. [SetCartoonFree]
• Big dick wants to shoot you in the face, give you a heart attack, and hit you up for some more contributions before you die. [Craigslist]
• Crisis: the Fashion Killers show has been cancelled! Could Laura Albert not find someone to play celebrity DJ and Fake Writer JT Leroy in time? Not exactly — we hear Knoop was at the show last night, though not in her Leroy costume. [Fashion Killers]
• Downtown softcore parties Rated X and Hot Fuckin' Pink might be a bit too pervy for the owners of Scenic. Poor Gawker paparazzo Nikola Tamindzic may have to shoot pornography elsewhere. [VV]

We'd love to stop writing about Fake Writer James Frey, but we don't have a choice (miss your beat and face the brank, as they say around Gawker HQ). And when remarkably-hunky- despite-the-balding actor Bruce Willis speaks out on Frey, we owe it to every last one of you to share the wealth. Of A Million Little Pieces, Willis opines:

Tonight and tomorrow at the Four Points Sheraton, the Fashion Killers (whatever that means) will be showing avant-garde wares from San Francisco designers. You care, of course, because the invite boldly proclaims that JT Leroy will be on the turntable at some point. We've no idea if this means Laura Albert (the woman who concocted Leroy) is playing off of her iPod or if Savannah Knoop will be toting a collection of DFA 7-inches — but, seriously, what the fuck? JT Leroy is getting more press and work than the rest of the literary community combined, and the dude doesn't even exist.

• Meet Tony Danza's daughter, 18-year-old Katie. Katie's a Delta Gamma at the University of Miami. She loves Lindsay Lohan, shoes, the color pink, and building massive gravity bongs. On the bright side, this is the sort of exposure Tony Danza just can't buy. [Ignore Mag]
• You know things are looking down for Fake Writer JT Leroy when he/she/it asks Courtney Love for help finding a literary agent. [Gatecrasher]
• Jamie Foxx cuts Mary J. Blige's solo from his debut album; we're still trying to understand why, exactly, Jamie Foxx even has an album. [Lowdown]
• The newly, uh, pudgy Janet Jackson has been ordered by her record label to lose weight. Virgin refuses to release her latest album unless she drops at least 20 pouds, and they've hired her a personal trainer. Apparently, it's hard to market a corpulent pop star. [Page Six]
• Someday, Ron Perelman and Ellen Barkin will settle their divorce, and then we can judge how much she got by whatever piece of property she buys next. [R&M (2nd item)]
• One last gasp from Fashion Week: IMG security men remove veteran Times photog Bill Cunningham from Betsey Johnson's show. Johnson's pissed, but not as pissed, we're guessing, as Guy Trebay and the Styles posse. [Page Six]
• In a Valentine's Day special from hell, Dr. Phil helps Paula Abdul find love — though she allegedly already has a boyfriend. Wonder how he feels about that. [Scoop]

• The most stunning assesment of Fashion Week no comes, of course, from the Observer. A sampling: "I want to be an important person, too!" [NYO]
• Understanding international relations through the characters of the O.C. Obviously, Marissa Cooper is Iraq. [YDN]
• So now that we've cleared the air about Fake Writer James Frey's fake books, lets talk about the real money: sup with his film deals? [LAT]
• Where do we draw the line on watching porn on the subway? OK on the iPod, but not on a 4-inch screen? [Too Saucy]
• You probably won't get salmonella poisoning at the Hotel on Rivington, but it's not a guarantee. [HotelChatter]
• You'll be happy to know that Tom Ford fought tooth and nail to show us Angelina Jolie's buttcrack in the latest Vanity Fair. [Tittle-Tattle]

Another bit on the JT Leroy mess: In addition to today's Times article, in which Geoffrey Knoop comes forward and claims that his partner Laura Alpert is the real JT Leroy (to reiterate: duh), New York makes mention of Geoffrey Knoop possibly shopping around a tell-all of his side of the story. This would coincide nicely with any sort of romantic issues Knoop and Alpert are rumored to be going through, though none of the legal-types involved with the Leroy/Albert/Knoop trifecta of bullshit claim to know anything about a book or a breakup.

And finally, on the front page of today's Arts section, Warren St. John finally brings us the JT Leroy denouement: