As we reported yesterday, Candace Bushnell uses a character in her next novel to retaliate against the disrespectful new generation of journalists which has emerged since the Sex And The City creator gave up her relationship column in the New York Observer. The bogeyman of One Fifth Avenue is Thayer Core—"a blogger on one of those vicious new websites that had popped up in the last few years, displaying a hatred and vitriol that was unprecedented in civilized New York." But the thin-skinned author gives the gossip blogs far too much credit.
For instance, neither Gawker nor its counterparts have ever properly examined the extent to which Bushnell even penned those original Sex And The City columns—upon which the HBO show was based—during the 1990s. The name was the idea of Peter Kaplan; and the Observer editor said ten years ago that there was "blood on the floor" after some editing sessions. But veterans of the weekly say it went beyond that: the columns owe more to Peter Stevenson, executive editor of the Observer, than the rambling drafts that Bushnell submitted. One hopes she secured an equally competent ghost-writer for the blog-bashing new novel.
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Last night, apartments in what is known locally as the ugliest building in Greenpoint were seriously papered. Were they eviction notices? Utility shut-offs? No! Just a note from Candace Bushnell and friends.