Todd English's Cold Feet Wedding Scandal: Prenups, Press Plays, and Domestic Abuse
Last week, we reported on celebrity chef Todd English ditching his bride at the altar, and the bridal party spinning their story to the Post. Forget the "maybe." It was total spin, to prepare for battle: pre-nups and abuse allegations. After Erica Wang gets stood up at the altar by Todd English last Saturday for their wedding, there's a huge celebration that doesn't happen. We get a tip about how much fun the bridal party had at the reception for someone who just got stood up, the Post wrote a story on it that required two bylines, and we questioned the bridal registry naming the wedding for June instead of October. So: what happened? According to the Post, English promised his bride-to-be a big wedding after she gave up her life to be with Todd and travel with him. They didn't fight often, but when they did, English would leave for days at a time. Three weeks before the wedding, when they were getting their rehearsal pictures taken in Central Park—and wedding insiders know the great joke there—things looked great. Wang even helpfully provided the Post with those photos. The week before the wedding, Wang visited English in Tampa, and things were fine. She leaves, and doesn't hear from him for six days. At 1PM on their wedding day, he calls her, tells her it's off, and hangs up. The next time she hears from him is when she's presented with a bill for half the wedding, having her credit cards cut, and being told to move out. "Reports surface" that he was out partying in South Beach with other women that night. English gave them a different story, via statement: I am deeply saddened and remorseful for the cancellation of the wedding and any embarrassment that it caused to Erica, her family, my family and our friends. It was never intended this way, but our relationship has not been positive for some time." After saying Wang had hit and wounded him during a fight and tore up a prenup agreement, the statement added: "As sad and painful this has been for me and I am sure for her, we are better off alone rather than together. I wish Erica well." Wang told the Post in response to English's statement that she never hit him, that the pre-nup was Draconian, and that he never presented her with another one. Now. Let's cut the shit: Erica Wang and company start looking to spin press in their direction sometime last week in preparation for a scandal. They know things aren't going well. Maybe it was the day of the wedding. Maybe earlier. They get some Post reporters to come to their reception with the promise of an exclusive when this thing blows up. They tip off a few other outlets (like us) to it to see if they'll sniff around. And here we are. But here's the thing: we've been told from a very, very good source that most if not all of English's closest friends and family were very well aware of the fact that he wasn't going to show long before the fact. In fact, plenty of Todd's friends or family didn't even bother coming to New York,... MORE >>
NYT Profile Helps Twin "Unemployed" Midwestern Girls...Remain Unemployed
This week, the New York Times profiled twins from Ohio who graduated from Rutgers with journalism degrees. They're 24, and can't get jobs in New York. How do you think this went? It went like this: they quoted Deadspin. Opening the questionably titled "Jobs Wanted, Any Jobs At All," we learn that Kristy and Katie Barry are from Ohio, have applied for 100 jobs, and haven't had an interview in a year. They're "not wishing on milkwood seeds." They have $39K in student loans to repay. Are they doing everything wrong? Besides sending Buckeyes out to prospective employers, emailing, Craiglisting, attempting to network in a softball league, an improv class, Facebook, and hanging out with people who are both sleeping in a museum as part of an exhibition (!!!) and spending $600 on an aptitude test to figure out what they're good at to start an online business? No. Forgivable things. Because big dreams require big chances. Their dream is to work together in sports reporting or have a TV show, but they are flexible. They talk of teaching piano, or inventing, say, a lipstick-case microphone...The other day, a brainstorm hit. They would devise a blog called Twin Town, write about their lives and invite guest material, somehow woo advertisers. Julia Allison's culpability aside, the Metro desk's just having a field day, now. The girls live with their brother and a friend on the Upper West Side. They've held down bartending jobs and dogwalking jobs. Except, "held down" might be overstating the case: She works as a bartender, three nights a week, at Dive 75 on West 75th Street, making about $800 a week. Katie had been working at another bar, but was fired in June after landing in Cancun to begin a vacation. Her boss said she played the music too loud. Forget the Cancun vaycay. $800 a week is $3200/month. There are writers working seven days a week who net about that. Ahem. Many young New Yorkers skim their taxes, but (read below) they don't: she's netting around $2200, presumably. Her rent on the Upper West Side in a pad split between her sister, her brother, and a friend is $725 (discomfort of a 2Br/1B aside, a great deal). That's $1475. Minus a monthly Metrocard, $80 for a smartphone bill, $30 for utilities (split between four, an over-estimation), and $200 for groceries (which, again: generous) leaves $1,083. And that student loan! Let's pretend Rutgers are Pound o' Flesh Shylocks. $500 a month. Fuckit, let's say you get mugged for $100 a week. That leaves you $183, and four days a week to bitch about not having a job. But instead, you're living like Oliver Twist? A guy who manages a tomato-canning plant gives them canned tomatoes, olive oil and coconut milk. An accountant ex-boyfriend of Kristy's does their taxes. He also sends gifts, like a CD to learn Russian, although Kristy has never expressed even tepid interest in learning Russian. They, in turn, rake the leaves at his New Jersey home and wash his car. Assuming this is true, "Will the guy who... MORE >>
Why Did Matthew Weiner Fire Mad Men's Kater Gordon?
Nikki Finke reports today that Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner has fired Kater Gordon, his personal assistant, turned writers assistant, turned Emmy-winning staff writer. But why? Gordon had a metoric rise to the top, peaking with an Emmy win. Finke offers one explanation from a source in the show... "One of the great things about Mad Men is the tradition that Matt has established of offering higher-level opportunities to staff, writers and artists in all of the various departments. From the beginning, Matt has fought to get people approved by the studio which almost always lobbied for him to hire more experienced people instead." "We think [Kater's] done a great job, particularly for someone whose career has progressed so quickly. Now, however, Matt has reluctantly decided that their relationship has reached its full potential. She'll be missed, but the series has consistently benefited from the influx of new writer talent, and there's absolutely no doubt that Kater will continue to have unprecedented success in her career as she spreads her wings. She leaves Mad Men with our love and respect and a well-deserved Emmy." ...that's clearly in Weiner's camp. Maybe this is the truth! Or maybe she might as well have placed an email from the show's flack in exchange for a better scoop later on. But the truth can't be this simple. Finke—who exercises a Machiavellian hand over the comments in her posts—left it to her commenters to speculate. And by speculate, we mean, speak for her. And I imagine someone at AMC is asking Finke why she's not deleting comments like she normally does on issues she wants to control. Let's look at some of the more interesting theories: Matthew Weiner had a strictly unprofessional relationship with her, or as the commenter put it: *cough*LETTERMAN*cough* Well, Gordon did have a very quick rise through the rankings of Mad Men. Again: started as Weiner's assistant. Became a writers' assistant. Weiner then let her co-write the last season finale with him, and now, she's a staff writer for the third season. Or was, until she got fired. Staff writing jobs are not easy to come by, obviously. Sure, it's topical. And maybe it's worth noting that this is the first show Weiner's ever been a showrunner on. I somehow doubt this theory. If something inappropriate took place, why would he fire her? Probability: unlikely. Jealousy Issues. Another commenter writes: There was a really weird moment during the acceptance where Matt kind of 'snatched' the Emmy from her...The photo gets at it but I remember it being uncomfortable to watch. I always [sic] trhought they worked with these relatively inexperienced people on this show primarily for financial reasons. Allows them to put as much money as possible up on the screen. I'm not sure I buy the "inexperienced writers" line so much as the one above: that Mad Men hires writers with low quotes because they can afford to do so by reputation, and allocate the money elsewhere on... MORE >>
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