Lloyd Grove Causes a Media Ruckus
Lloyd Grove sure is causing a lot of media ruckus, and I'm not sure I mean that in a good way. Allow me to explain: Just last week Our Man Lloyd was feuding mightily with Howard Stern, the self proclaimed King of All Media, (actually, the feud is only in detente, not over, why just yesterday he harshed on Stern's gal pal Beth Ostrosky, bringing forth a rain of insult and a cryptic, 'I've got something for Richard Johnson') and now, voila, he claims he cost Page Sixer Ian Spiegelman his job. Actually, it was a sissy move by writer Daniel Dechert, who sneaked Grove the story.
The Spiegelman-Dechert contretemps began with a Page Six story by Spiegelman saying, among other things:
"A PROMISING teenage writer is in the middle of an angry dispute with her ex-boyfriend on the eve of her book's debut.
"Abigail Vona, 19, details how she overcame being a 15-year-old drug addict with a year at a teen boot camp in her upcoming memoir 'Bad Girl: Confessions of a Teenage Delinquent' (RuggedLand). But she may have an even harder time overcoming a fight with her former boyfriend, man-about-town Douglas Dechert.
"Vona claims she dumped Dechert, 47, last Wednesday after a year-long relationship she now describes as 'pretty gross.' Dechert, Vona says, proceeded to throw her belongings into the street."
And things heated up yesterday when Grove wrote:
"In a toxic screed that the weekly New York Press plans to print next week, Dechert calls his ex-girlfriend - who dumped him last month - 'barely literate.' He adds that she has 'the heart of a mercenary and the soul of a hustler.'
"Yesterday, Vona told Lowdown: 'I'm excited about the book, but I'm worried about Doug. He just won't go away ... I got into a bad relationship with Doug.'
" ... New York Press editor in chief Jeff Koyen called Dechert's article 'a fun, entertaining indictment of New York publishing. I think people will enjoy reading it.'"
Does anyone still read the New York Press? Anyhoo: Dechert made claims that Ian Spiegelman courted Vona while writing the original Page Six article, a charge which was not substantiated. Plus, Dechert seems to be a jealous creep, so he would probably say anything. Spiegelman responded with an email:
"You're a lame and a pussy, Doug. And you should know better than to try and wage war on me. I'm better, stronger and smarter than you, you little Nancy. If I wanted to take your girl out, I would. You have nothing I can't take away from you, you non-man."
And, of course, as Nancy's and non-men are wont to do, Dechert ran giggling to share the contents of this private yet combative email with a gossip columnist, namely, Grove, who in turn shared the contents of the email with Post PR consultant Howard Rubenstein, who finally shared it with Post Editor Col Allan. You see where I'm going with this. In the end Spiegelman got fired, which is a shame, but with his solid rep it shouldn't be too hard for a man like him to land squarely on his feet in this town.
3 comments:
You mean, Lloyd Grove Invents a Media Ruckus.
Is the world of gossip in N.Y.C. so bereft of reasonably interesting material that now the gossip mongers are swiping at one another and that is news?
Have I got this right? The guy behind scandalmonger.com breaks up with a teen-aged girl,
whom he's been screwing for a year on the promise of fame and fortune as a "tell all" writer. The gossip scribes at Page 6 make note of the acrimony. The Daily News flak, trying to make a name for himself in the big
city, reports two unsupported "facts" provided by one of the parties. First, that the 47 year old abuser of the teen-ager has a hot item due for print in a nearly unknown journal, the NY Press. And, that item makes some caustic remarks about the girl and the Page 6
reporter. Also, the flak goes on to pass along the
unsubstantiated claim that the reporter is trying to date the girl. Both deny it. How is this gossip? Both points barely reach the level of innuendo. Some
how Lloyd Grove finds the entire episode news worthy.
Talk about creating the news, or should it more accurately be called instigating trouble in the name
of news? See what I mean, news about no news.
Unfortunately, the guy at Page 6 lets himself get fumed up over the unsupported non-news. Talk about
much ado about a moll hill. Of course, the biggest joke of all is the reaction at the NY Post, home of Page 6. Only Rubenstein could imagine that the Post has a level of editorial gutter that one can jump down from. If anything, Page 6 has been the only fact-based reporting carried out at that journal.
Grove could have paid a little more attention to detail
while cooking up this whole tea pot. He takes credit for instigating the reporter's ejection from the Post
after, "Lowdown shared his E-mail with Post PR consultant Rubenstein." Did Grove miss the cc: to
rjohnson@nypost.com on the original E-mail message? And, why would Rubenstein be the one to contact? Who
runs the NY Post? I guess the only important truth in this petty drama is that editorial decisions are left to the PR honchos. That's not news to anyone with a passing interest in NYC journalism. Alexander Hamilton must be spinning in his grave. And, at the Daily News the best that Grove can claim to be is a petty tattle-
tale.
Lloyd is a fine piece of human excrement. I want to beat the stink out of him. He stepped on a lot of people to get to where he was. He has done a lot of harm and he has a lot of bad karma to work off.
Thanks for this article, really worthwhile material.
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