Blogging on Meds

Left, she looks A-list to me. Right, Joshua David Stein. Note: Don’t send geeks who wear rugby jerzees and have cool spike haircuts to places they can’t get in or get interviews then expect true stories.

I don’t know if they have fact checkers at the NY Post’s Page Six Mag, but yesterday a story ran about The Box where the first sentence was a lie:

On a recent Monday, rounding past one in the morning, Simon Hammerstien sits at a booth at his nightclub The Box…

Whoops…The Box isn’t open on Sunday or Monday.

The story, which isn’t online, was written by ex-Gawker Joshua David Stein and is a hate-festivus that misses so much I’m about to get all Jack Shafer.

Let’s start with the story’s intro: “The Box has lost its A-list cachet.” Yet Sunday morning at 4am, just as the NY Post’s Sunday late edition was getting off the presses, I received a text from a person at The Box saying, “Ashley Olsen, Drew Barrymore, Eva Mendes, Josh Lukas are here…” I don’t know who Josh Lukas is, but the other three are A-list, no? And in the last month alone, Snoop Dog, Mos Def, and Raekwon have performed for free at The Box. No other place in NY could get those guys onstage for less than $5 g’s a piece.

Further in, Stein writes: “But barely into year two, bankers, models, and corporations are precisley what’s keeping the Box open.” Then Stein lists JP Morgan and JC Penny events being held there.

Some scoop, man. Oh wait, a year ago The Box was hosting these same corporate clients at a rate of $7-15k per during the early evening. And at night, despite what Hammerstein and co were saying, the crowd was a banker-model bonanza earning around $50,000 in table charges on Fridays-Saturdays.

Of owner Simon Hammerstein, Stein writes: “In 2004 he directed the off-Bway musical The Passion of Geroge W Bush. Yet he prefers the sexy, dirty, monied world that the thaeter didn’t offer.” Incorrect sir! When The Box opened, Hammerstein and co tried to offer a more topical show but fucked up people wanted sex and more sex. Originally they even planned to stage Jack Kerouac’s long lost play.

Stein adds that Hammerstien’s next door apt is where the after hours party occurs. There may be some truth to this, but it’s accepted that the Box itself is an all-morning-long party. I was there last weekend at 5am while Cee Lo and a hundred others ran wild.

More shoddy reporting: Stein claims from a “nightlife insider” source the show costs “20-30,000 per week” though the owners have been on record saying the cost is $60k. Google—try it, you can search for…information.

As for the death of The Box as an A-list destination, Stein’s main Box-insider quotes come from a former waiter. But a Box regular sent me this text yesterday: “despite the propaganda regulars include zz top, the schnabel kids, bono, mos def, kayne west, nas, countless socialites, sean avery, jeremy piven…” and on and on. ZZ Top and Sean Avery?

The story’s final quote is from Page Six reporter Corynne Steindler, which is like The New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny asking Maureen Dowd for an Obama quote: “Celebrity sightings have gone down and there’s been a change in the feeling of the crowd. It used to be young, gorgeous, and srty. It was a club for creative hipsters. Now anyone with money for a table can get in.”

But that’s wrong on almost every point. First, Page Six has printed more celeb Box mentions in April 2008 than this month last year (PS: Lohan was running wild in NYC this time last year). There has been a change in the crowd, yes. But if anything, the crowd is more arty and downtown now than last year, which I’ll explain below. Finally, anyone with money could always get into The Box.

Maybe Stein felt the need to hate because he was shut down by The Box owners. No one gave him interviews and his descriptions and scenes seem weak—how was he at a club on a night when they’re not open?—if not outright lies. Stein writes: “The Box’s PR flak threatened to splatter this reporter with base calumnies if he dared publish Richard [Kimmel, Box owner] and Raven O quotes.” Is someone feeling spiteful?

In truth, The Box is actually better now than a year ago. The owners have put together a more fluid show, one without boring filler acts. And the crowd is more downtown than a year ago. After Box-owner Cordell Lochin was locked up for drug trafficking, Serge Becker, another owner, hired Christian Alexander. Christian lives in the LES and is tied to downtown’s art, music, fashion, and media circles more than anyone who’s ever worked at the Box save Hammerstein. Lochin was known for his celeb-ties, whereas Christian is the guy celebs come to for a unique egalitarin NYC vibe. Now on any given night you’ll see a Supreme-type with a bartender from a local spot hanging with Ally Hilfiger and Robin Thicke.

It’s a shame that Page Six Mag would issue a bullshit takedown of the best nightclub in NYC (1Oak is cool and all, but it’s no Box), especially considering how many column inches nightlife provides P6. Stein is Jason Blair with a Judith Miller-esque agenda. Sure, nightlife reporting isn’t the Pentagon beat, but the NY Post shouldn’t be printing spite-filled stories with first sentence lies. Stein’s trying to destroy a great place to benefit his career after being denied access by the owners.

Christian Alexander and Zoe Kravitz…