Gay Talese

Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, a documentary-like depiction of the brutal Camorra organized crime regime that rules the southern Campania region of Italy, screened to a small audience—including Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci, Nick Pileggi, John Turturro, and Gay Talese—Friday evening, followed by a dinner discussion at Osteria del Circo. (Mr. Buscemi told the Daily Transom he found the film "beautiful," adding, “I’m still digesting it.”)

The film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, will be released in the United States in February. Mr. Talese had been asked to lead the discussion; his 1971 book Honor Thy Father is about the New York-based Bonnano crime family. “It’s a very depressing film, but it will show in New York at a time when everyone’s depressed about business, and it’s a business in the film of money," Mr. Talese told the Daily Transom. "You know how many times you saw someone counting money? The money in this film didn’t lead to anything. It was visibly detracting.”  read more »

After Clay Felker passed away Tuesday morning in Manhattan, The Observer spoke to some who knew him well.

 

Robert Benton

The first time I ever screamed “fuck” in front of a room full of women was when I got mad at Clay at the Esquire offices. We were having this argument that went up and down the hall and I reached my wits end; I just said, “You fuck!” It came out of my mouth before I knew what I had said. Clay could drive you crazy, but you never stopped caring for him.

 

Milton Glaser

We were once in Paris.  read more »

I’m getting married this summer and thought it might be a good idea to speak with some gentlemen who I suspected could give me some pointers.

It was raining on a Friday morning when I met Bo Dietl at his office on the 50th floor of One Penn Plaza. Despite some shreds of cloud, Mr. Dietl—a homicide detective turned security consultant and media darling—had a clear view of the city below and, off in the distance, in the middle of the choppy harbor, the Statue of Liberty.  read more »

At around 7:45 p.m. on Monday, April 28, writer Carl Bernstein was mingling at the cocktail hour before the PEN Literary Awards at the Museum of Natural History, Coca Cola in hand, looking very healthy. “I ride a bike and listen to a lot of music,” he said. “I mostly listen to classical but also rock.  read more »

Christopher Hitchens has some drinking advice for you: order by brand. [P6]  read more »

Freelance Fizzle!  read more »

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August author Gay Talese has reportedly figured out “what has fucked up journalism.” At the launch party on Wednesday night for a new magazine called Lapham’s Quarterly, which is under the control of erstwhile Harper’s editor Lewis Lapham, a New York reporter got an earful from the dapper scribe. Musing on the media’s apparent decline, Mr. Talese evoked the recently-deceased writer Norman Mailer. “"Mailer was out there mentally challenging, not worrying about anything that was contrary to prevailing thought,” Mr. Talese is quoted as saying. After moving on to everybody else in the industry, Mr. Talese apparently didn’t see the point in censoring himself just because he was talking to a fellow journalist. “Today people worry about being contrary to prevailing thought. They don’t want to be out on a limb, don’t want to be a contrarian, don’t want to be unpopular, don’t want to be unpatriotic. That’s what has fucked up journalism. No one speaks for dissent. Who's the face of dissent today? Give me one name of someone who personifies dissent. Period. Zero. Nobody!" he said. We won’t attempt to meet his challenge either, but it sure looks like Mr. Talese could be on his way to proving himself wrong.

Gay Talese Shames Us at the Launch of ‘Lapham’s Quarterly’ [Intelligencer]

 

On Thursday, June 21, The New York Times spent its last day at 229 West 43rd Street. Gay Talese returned to the gothic newspaper castle to say good-bye.  read more »

At around 11:30 last Saturday night, two men of equally modest stature—one in a gray suit, the  read more »

The ghosts of Frank Sinatra and Ed Sullivan may now rest in peace.

Owners and employees at legendary celeb-haunt Gino restaurant (commonly called "Gino's") signed a new employment contract yesterday, ending weeks of speculation about a possible strike and potential closure of the historic Upper East Side eatery.

Read our previous coverage here.

Longtime Gino waiter and union liaison Marco Dell'Aguzzo told The Observer that the two sides reached a compromise Monday morning which maintains workers' health care and pension benefits while capping wages and cutting back on vacation time.  read more »

Bottomline: The New York institution that author Gay Talese deemed "a time capsule" remains entact. Long live zebra-adorned walls and the Monday-night Osso Bucco special!

- Chris Shott

In today's New York Observer:

• The staff of legendary Upper East Side red-saucery Gino (a favorite of Gay Talese, Frank Sinatra, Wes Anderson and Woody Allen) are threatening to walk out over a contract dispute, according to our new guy on the beat, Chris shott--and the owners say they'll shut down before giving in to their demands. Says co-owner Salvatore Doria: "For not much more can you sell a dish of pasta, you know? This is it!" Talese says it's an "unhappy occasion."
• The Slope Opera continues, with Suzy Hansen writing about Stuart and Wright, the first really expensive boutique to open up in Fort Greene. This gives Brooklyn gals more ways (Butter! Bird! Diane T! Do these names mean anything to you?) to dress in $500 outfits while paying $1500 rents on $25,000 salaries. And a way to look like a real original in Manhattan--even if that black flannel dress is its own price tag walking down Smith Street.
• Michael Calderone breaks down the breakdown of the new newsroom being built for The New York Times: "For generations, the layout of the old Times Building has served as the physical manifestation of the organizational culture: From the back-of-the-newsroom clerks to the Sulzberger on the 14th floor, Timesmen have known their place by knowing their places." No more!
• After selling their 63-acre compound in Alpine, N.J. for $58 million about eight months ago, Emily T. Frick and Dr. Henry Clay Frick II, the grandson of the legendary steel magnate, have bought a co-op at the Old Family Names Only, Please address of 3 East 77th Street for $3.9 million.
• Painter Ryan McGinness has bought himself a "sanctuary" in the noisy, dangerous and now completely outre Meatpacking District for a shade under $900,000.
• And Andrew Heiberger, founder of CitiHabitats, solved a difficult political situation with his old firm by kicking back a little work to a dejected would-be partner.
- Tom McGeveran  read more »
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Honor Thy Writer of Talese   To the Editor:    read more »

Honor Thy Writer of Talese

To the Editor:  read more »

“Journalism is very serious, and when done well,” said the 74-year-old writer Gay Talese, “it  read more »

“Journalism is very serious, and when done well,” said the 74-year-old writer Gay Talese  read more »

On Monday, Jan.  read more »

On Monday, Jan.  read more »

Gay Talese was creating a scene. He said so, the professional watcher, watching himself.    read more »

Gay Talese was creating a scene. He said so, the professional watcher, watching himself.  read more »

It was only a small headline, buried deep in the Metro section of The New York Times on April 8-"Min  read more »

On a rainy night in October, Schiller's Liquor Bar was closed to the public.  read more »