Famous television commentator and Gawker punching bag Julia Allison live blogged with us today! Okay, not so much "live blogged" as much as "dove into the swirling frenzy of commenting and tried to keep herself afloat." She was asked many questions about fame, shame, and what, if any, blame she should take for the current state of the union. Was the experiment a success? How relative is the term "success"? Who knows. But she got everyone riled up and that's got to count for something. We've sifted through her answers and come up with a handy list of 7 Things You Didn't Know About Julia Allison. Edification, mystification, and infuriation await you after the jump.
1) The iVillage plagiarism scandal was just a simple case of misunderstood appropriation:
"December of my junior year, I wrote a column about gifts to give your significant other for the holidays - I had read a piece which I thought did it in a clever way on iVillage, and I appropriated a lot of those ideas into the column - in my opinion (and if I had time I would link to both of the articles), it wasn't even close to the p-word, especially given that there are only so many gifts you can give a boyfriend - iVillage wasn't the first one to come up with 'sweater,' or 'tickets to a sporting event.' But, you know, I was young and made the mistake of repeating gift ideas in a newspaper. If it had been a woman's magazine, well, then if I had copied it word-for-word, it would have just been another issue ;) (I'll let Jezebel support me on that!)"
2) Julia is hated for her perfect bosoms:
"Why do people hate me so? Um ... this is pretty easy. It looks like I have the cushiest job in the world, based upon no intelligence and even less effort. Also, I have perfectly symmetrical breasts which I like to display with v-neck sweaters. How could you NOT hate me??"
3) Choire Sicha is a pussy, Julia Allison is not:
"I've always had a thicker skin than most - Choire once said that I made him seem like a newborn kitten. But it's certainly gotten thicker in the last year or so - actually, ever since I got fired from my college newspaper. The first bad press you get is always the worst. When Gawker did the "field guide" to me, which accused me, amongst other things, of being a hussy who steals women's husbands, I cried all day. Now I tend to have the following reaction: 'eh.' I mean, I don't love it when people say nasty things, but I also realize they don't know me personally, so it's more or less inconsequential to my life."
4) She and Emily Gould are, in fact, (secret) friends:
"You know that Sex and the City episode about secret girlfriends that men take to out of the way places because they're embarrassed?
I feel like I'm Emily's secret friend. Well, I'm outing her. Emily likes me. We are friends. And we are friends despite the passive aggressive nature of her posts for the past year.
Emily knows I'll forgive her for just about anything, and have, in the past, done exactly that."
5) Ms. Allison is not so much a "gold-digger" as she is an "ambition-digger":
"Nope, don't consider myself a 'gold digger,' because I think, by definition, that has to be the primary criterion in one's search for a significant other. What I want in a boyfriend is fairly straightforward: are you fucking fascinating? Will you NEVER BORE ME? If so, sign me up. It just turns out that fascinating men are also frequently ambitious. And ambitious men - especially in New York - are frequently wealthy. So, there you go. It's more of a coincidence than anything else. That said, I've dated guys who aren't wealthy before. SO what??? It doesn't make a damn bit of difference unless you plan to marry them, and lord knows I'm not getting married ANYTIME SOON."
6) Julia is glamorous, does not like rape, has lots of old dresses, magazines, and computers:
"It *is* possible to like both being glamorous AND not being a shithead to your fellow humankind. I think it's more sincere to focus on charities that really get you going - for me, that's domestic violence and rape victims, as well as animal cruelty prevention.
It's a work in progress now. I've donated a lot of stuff to Dress for Success, and old laptops go to laptopgiving.org (I think that's the URL) [It is]. I would love to set up a magazine donation program for domestic violence shelters, but so far have only gotten to the point where I've contacted the shelters and asked them if they'd be interested."
7) Julia has dated a bipolar person whose name rhymes with Lakob Jodwick:
"It's true, he's bipolar. It's true, he doesn't believe in meds. I also care a lot about him. We broke up in the midst of a bipolar episode he had ... But how much do you excuse? How many chances do you give?"
How much indeed.
UPDATE: Julia Allison apologizes for mentioning her former boyfriend's bipolar condition.
I just liveblogged at Gawker, and I had forgotten how things can spin out of control. If I have one main flaw - and I know, I know, I have many - it's that I speak before I think. A lot.
I answered a question honestly when I should have said, sorry, this stuff is off limits. "Off limits" would be a good concept for me to consider in the rest of my life right about now. In any case, I am truly sorry for opening this Pandora's Box.
I didn't intend to hurt Jakob. I love him, and I want him to be happy.
I'm sorry.
