Bronson Van Wyck (pictured in white) is a blueblood, Yale-educated NYC event planner whose firm is known for staging fahbulous parties for everything from high society weddings to political rallies. But according to one reliable tipster, he's also a cheapskate who recently tried to scam his way into a cut-rate gym membership by rigging a charity auction. The full email detailing the party boy's underhanded plan to save himself $600 at Equinox, after the jump.

Gawker,

A woman standing in line in front of me at Hale & Hearty salads just ordered the single most disgusting combination of ingredients imaginable: peas, beets, hard boiled egg, chicken (egg & chicken together! horror!), goat cheese, raisins, garbanzo beans.

Please let your readers and fellow salad eaters know that certain combinations of ingredients are inherently gross and will NOT be tolerated.

Recently, a mysterious figure known only as Commander McBragg began sending us thrilling and, he claims, true stories of his colorful life. A daring rescue by a young Hillary Clinton, late nights with Barack Obama, and, today, a little romance with a young woman named "Julia."

I remember back in 2002 when I was working as an operations research officer at the Concepts Analysis Agency at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, and lived in a little one bedroom apartment off Ft. Myer Drive in Rosslyn near the Metro. It was early May and I was dating Julia, this chick I had met in a bar in Georgetown across the Potomac two months before. I'd always liked little brunettes and she was very outgoing and vivacious, but also seemed pretty frivolous and I had the feeling that if she graduated she would end up as a flight attendant for US Air if she was lucky, or a waitress at Bennigan's if she wasn't.

A tipster writes in to say that Diane Silberstein, president and publisher of Penthouse Media Group, just got "FIRED!!!!!!!!." She was formerly the publisher of Playboy. The explanation: "She was fired because there were disputes over how 'hard' they wanted the girls to look/pose." Well then, this raises several questions. Did Diane Silberstein really get fired? Can someone confirm for us? And more importantly, how "hard" do you think the girls of Penthouse should look/ pose? We'd say somewhere between steel bar hard and diamond-tipped drill hard, but we like it hardcore. Your thoughts on these vital issues in the comments, please. [pic via MB]

Earlier this week, a mysterious figure known only as "Commander McBragg" sent us a thrilling true account of the day Hillary Clinton's heroism saved his life. Today, a seedier tale of the underbelly of Harvard Law.

I remember back at Harvard Law in 1990 where Barack and I were putting the finishing touches on the latest Law Review up on the shabby-but-venerable second floor of Gannett House. Back in those days, you didn't need to shiver outside to have a cigarette and I could see the thin tendrils of smoke curl up around his face as he took another drag. Normally, he'd just go back to his spotless little basement apartment in Somerville after we closed up and I'd go back to my hellhole. I couldn't understand how he found the time to keep his damn place so clean. Anyway, the Review was in the can for the month, and I felt like celebrating. I pulled the little baggie from the coin pocket of my Levi's, undid the twisty-tie, and shook out enough for a couple of rails. I never touched the stuff while working, but after the day was done anything goes, especially after we'd just put the Review to bed.

An emailer recalls an epic adventure, involving a certain candidate whose heroism under fire we've all come to respect: "I remember back in 1978 when I was in Airborne School at Ft. Benning. We were on our night jump, the last before we would graduate and get our coveted wings. Once again, I was scared to death and just wanted it all to be over. I could smell the acrid sweat from the men in my stick as they waited behind me. Whatever had possessed me to volunteer for this?

So last night we ran an email from an anonymous correspondent who was outraged because Harvard is not admitting any transfer students, including her, for two years. The sad thing put in "hard work, blood, sweat and tears," including filling out eight applications, and was still facing a shameful life at a lesser Ivy, or perhaps (horror!) outside the League entirely. Her email was filled with palpable outrage and Gawker commenters felt her pain, though probably not in the way she intended. Now the would-be transfer has written in to say she has "worked hard throughout my life," including working a full-time job to pay her way through school. Then she said something about "the lifestyle seems to have its perks," which all of a sudden makes her seem less sympathetic again and maybe rich? Anyway, she was a reasonably good sport about the whole thing in the email, which we've reprinted after the jump.

An online staffer has written in with a fairly lengthy account of the continuing discontent inside Condé Nast business magazine Portfolio. The anonymous tipster said that "every last person at the magazine" except new managing editor Jacob Lewis is lined up against editor Joanna Lipman, deputy editor Amy Stevens and senior editor Kyle Pope. (And the ungrateful hacks wonder why they are being pushed out the door!) But the anger may only be strengthening Lipman's position. Condé Nast patriarch Si Newhouse has a big fan in Lipman, who recently told staff her initial meeting with the Advance Publications CEO left her "so happy she could have been hit by a truck." Now Newhouse is said to have embattled Lipman's back. Email from the Portfolio.com insider after the jump.

Imagine you're an aspiring plutocrat, attending a top college that is, shamefully, not Harvard. Horrified at the thought of being second-tier aristocracy for the rest of your life - Brown? Penn? Seriously? - you work as hard as you've ever worked in your pampered life to try to transfer in to the to that most crimson of Ivy League schools. You write eight admissions essays and mummy and daddy even finance a "leave of absence" from school so you don't earn too many credits and lose your transfer eligibility. Then you find out that, horror of horrors, Harvard won't be taking you or any other social climbers for another two years, i.e. the rest of your college career. Ha ha, the whole nation would laugh at you, and that's what's happening now to people like the following sad tipster, who wrote in about her "hard work, blood, sweat and tears," as though she were a field worker or Iraq veteran or something:

How much chaos can two knucklehead filmmaking students (can anyone confirm NYU? It's a hunch we have.) cause on a quiet Tuesday afternoon? Plenty if they're on top of Kate Hudson's house with "sniper rifles" for some reason! Police helicopters hovered over King and Varick in the Village and terrified office-workers emailed us. Even after Us Weekly reported the arrest of these three idiotic future Uwe Bolls your tales of bravery continued to roll in. Like this one, from an architecture firm, with a subject line simply reading "BEWARE":

"Just had my lunch paid for by James Gandolfini at my local McDonald's on the corner of 39th Street and 2nd Ave. He was a little disheveled but completely recognizable and so nice. As he was walking away from the counter... he left $40 and told the woman at the register that he'd be paying for my roommate's and my food. He smiled graciously and walked out. Ohhh Tony!"

"Also, as I was watching Anderson Cooper last night, I decided that if I were ever on his show (okay, and I know you are thinking I won't be but you never know, Alex) I would call him 'Andy.'"

It turns out that Beatrice Inn—that beloved Village hotspot and home to so many Page Six characters—is nothing but a common coke den! A stalker reports: "Josh Hartnett came into Beatrice around 1:30am with a blonde girl and two attractive guys. Literally went to the bathroom four times within one half hour, always with one of his delegates (one time with two of them). Also, none of the security guys were letting anyone smoke until he lit up a cigarette and suddenly the No Smoking signs were ignored by everyone. Plus, dude is TALL and gorgeous, even with the Pedro 'stache."

Can we help this young man? "Dear Gawker, It has come to my attention that hipsterdom has permanently destroyed my gaydar. 'Hipster or homeless' is pretty easy to figure out (most of the time) but figuring out hipster vs. homo-hipster seems to have become impossible..."

Another (self identified) REAL Starbucks employee has come forward to give us a peek behind the coffee company's chipper training day iron curtain of enthusiasm. This tipster confirms that Tuesday's mandatory job training was, in fact, for nerds, but then rises to a stirring defense of the company. The argument: "Sure, I got a nasty case of herpes on my hand because management is too cheap to buy more than one pair of rubber dishwashing gloves for a staff of fifteen. But hey, I'm insured to the hilt, so the Valtrex to quell said herpes is deeply discounted." Solid! The full, amusing email after the jump.

"...We basically got paid to come in and do nothing for a few hours which was fine... until i got hungry. Then it sucked. We could have learned all that in five minutes at the begging (sic) of a shift. Because "Don't serve a drink that you know is going to taste like crap" is a pretty easy guideline to follow. Although that would preclude us from serving the new Honey Latte, which tastes exactly like burned milk. What I don't get is who really cares that Starbucks closed for three hours? If you think the coffee is shit then... great it shouldn't have affected you. If you love it so much that you angrily bang on the door for a half hour... you need to discover internet porn or something."

"FYI: A mouse just jumped on the desk of a New York Times photo editor and gnawed its way through a packet of mayonnaise. (Not sure if the varmint brought its own turkey sandwich or not). People are freaking out."

Our Tom Cruise videos continue to attract attention from near and far, as well as some choice comments—including a number from Germany, where the government is taking a hard line against the religion. And from Poland, where they are terrified.

Subject: TOM CRUISE?
To: tips@gawker.com
I'm the wife of a united states soldier. I have watched T. Cruise for some time now .I'm no Dr. so someone should tell Katie,run,run as fast as you can.T.Crui se needs to be in Afghanistan under my husband.He would either come down to this earth or Ft.levenwort.hI thank you so much for putting this out.

"WHICH legendary american tv producer of late night comedy is been constantly seen walking back and forth at St Barth's Saline gay beach right around sundown?" Sic, sic, etc.