Toby Young Nuzzles Hand That Once Bit And/Or Fed Him
Huh! Toby Young, writing on Gawker-and billed as a "friend" of Gawker. Who thought that day would ever come? The former New York Press columnist and current Top Chef judge filed his Emmys report for the august webzine… which was published on Tuesday afternoon. This tardy report, thoroughly amusing, revealed little. Maybe if Top Chef won an Emmy, he would rush the stage! Maybe if it didn't, he would pull a Kanye! Neither happened. Most amusing: the sidebar of "related posts" on Gawker, in which Young is referred to as "vaguely annoying" and a "professional annoying person." (Disclosure: I can't even remember why I dislike Toby Young! He took some needless swipe once? He is probably a swell fellow, and God bless him for torturing Graydon Carter. (Although! Flashback! "One of the things that struck me about Toby Young's book on his experience at Vanity Fair was that all the best lines were Graydon's."))
Oh ALSO http://gawker.com/5078331/white-brit-schools-america-on-barak-obomas-race
Christ, that still makes me want to punch him as hard as I wanted to the first time I read it. What a dick.
My spot would be reeling from the force of that particular blow.
Right. I believe he was tossed to the dogs once or twice on Gawker.
And Toby Young is very much aware of what Josh Stein wrote about him in Gawker.
In fact, here is Toby Young quoting Josh in Young's own column in The Spectator last January (http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/all/3234006/status-anxiety.thtml):
"‘It is unclear why the producers chose Mr Young whose main claim to fame is f***ing over Graydon Carter, being an EPIC FAIL and who maintains an entirely deserved reputation as a self-serving whiny drunk pissant,’ wrote Joshua David Stein on Gawker, a New York gossip site."
I have resisted opening his post in hopes of low pageviews. I only hope there are no comments, or people are calling him our for being a twatwaffle.
I think this was rather cleverly timed. On tomorrow night's episode of Top Chef, Young returns to the judging panel for the first time this season – and I was all set to mercilessly ridicule him on the Gawker Live Blog, like we did during TC live blogs last winter.
Then Young wrote this cute and funny piece for Gawker, and suddenly I don't really have the heart to make fun of him again.
This sort of thing can makes the process of creating "reality show linkbait" a confusing one.
OH MY GOD I just remembered something. Nick Denton is a pal of Toby Young's, I think. At least, I know that Nick co-hosted a party for Toby – the very same party where the infamous "Ian Spiegelman-punching-Doug Dechert" incident happened.
In fact, it was Toby Young's wife who broke up the fight!
That was a book party was held in honor of Toby Young's "Sound of No Hands Clapping." It was hosted by Nick Denton and Jared Paul Stern!
See: http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/books/nearfight_breaks_out_at_toby_young_book_party_40122.asp
I know this is all insidery as hell, but I find this kind of stuff fascinating.
Innneresting!
I'll always remember Tom Colicchio's "Are you fucking kidding me?" look when Toby said "The fennel tastes like licorice!"
I met Toby Young. I hate to take Graydon Carter's side on anything, but he really is an annoying prick.