Gatecrasher

April 27, 2020
Widdicombe, editor-in-chief of luxury lifestyle magazine Avenue, debuts with a fascinating and punchy account of his more than 20 years reporting society and celebrity gossip for Vanity Fair, Town & Country, and the New York Times. For Widdicombe, being a gossip columnist is a serious job that “requires the skills of a critic, detective, interviewer, and humorist, all balanced like a tray of mismatched glasses”—skills he has honed since arriving in New York City from Australia in 1998. He admits that, “as glamorous as it may look, hanging out with rich people is mainly just stressful and expensive.” Among his many interviewees are Elton John (“We were being provided to the star as an après-show buffet”), Paris Hilton (“a rich person performing being wealthy for the purpose of gaining celebrity”), and Jared Kushner (“a nice-seeming, if somewhat wet, young man”). But most fascinating are his observations on how the nature of “celebrity” itself has changed. He highlights how gossip reporting shifted its focus from the “classic ‘New York Society’ ” of wives of wealthy men who eschewed publicity to a new generation of wealthy people who began to see how publicity could be used to brand themselves. This eye-opening account of a moment when “being wealthy was becoming embraced as a sub-culture" will delight pop culture enthusiasts.

Starred review from May 15, 2020
An Australian-born New York Times social columnist dishes on celebrities and wealthy elites while offering his take on the modern relationship between fame and money. In 1998, Widdicombe left Sydney to pursue a new life in New York City. By day, he sold hot dogs at a downtown kiosk; by night, he sneaked into celebrity parties where he learned "the three golden rules" of gate-crashing: "dress the part, act like you belong, and always be ready to sail with the tide." His early journalistic work involved covering--and sometimes gleefully skewering--the New York fashion industry. Widdicombe took another job at a photography gallery patronized by one of the Koch brothers, who discreetly propositioned him at a dinner party. As the author's network grew, so did his access to the rich and famous. When a British daytime talk show expressed interest in transforming a column Widdicombe wrote into a television show, the author was asked to meet with the show's production company head, Elisabeth Murdoch, at her father Rupert's penthouse. The show never aired; but the author's next gig landed him on the "Page Six" gossip beat at the Murdoch-owned New York Post. There, he had the opportunity to observe firsthand how "immense wealth was rebranding itself not as some arbitrary privilege...but as a bold lifestyle choice." His work there and at such entertainment outlets as Showbiz Tonight and TMZ led him to posit the ingenious theory that it was heiress Paris Hilton who, at the turn of the century, began the trend of "performing [wealth] for the purpose of gaining celebrity." This witty and insightful book suggests how the gossip journalism meant as entertainment has not only diminished "the impact of shame in public life." It has also led to a grab for celebrity among America's elites, who are using the fame they once eschewed to get "more of everything." A sharp-eyed and disturbing chronicle.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.