Ten years ago, someone tried to make a real-life Gossip Girl - this is what happened.
2006, they said, was the year of the socialite - “they” being the creators of Socialite Rank, a real-life Gossip Girl that documented the comings & goings of Manhattan’s latest batch of rich girls.
But it was far from being just another web PR-haven, rather, it was a high society ’Hot or Not’, with each couple of weeks welcoming a new ranking of the Top 25 socialites du jour.
But money wasn’t all you needed, instead, you needed to be the full package, which included:
1).Personal Styles & Designer Relations (1-20 pts)
2).Press Coverage in Major Publications & Gossip Columns (10 pts)
3).Appearances & Commitments to Events (10 pts)
4).Hot Factor - What makes each of the individuals sizzle with personality (10 pts)
And if you didn’t have it all, consider yourself dunzo - or, if you were lucky enough, you could squeeze into their “Don’t kill yourself, you almost made it,” an equivalent to Billboard’s Bubbling Under.
But with such strict requirements, could anybody be the ideal socialite? The answer is yes, look no further than the site’s 2006 ’Socialite of the Year’: Tinsley Mortimer.
From Day One, the site doubled as a hellish pit of narcissism & bitchery, and as a shrine to Tinsley Mortimer - a Virginia-born socialite who married into the uber-wealthy Mortimer family in 2002. Her popularity grew throughout the early-00s as she livened up the Manhattan social scene with her bright Eolise-inspired attire and Hilton-lite personality, and soon she was even walking runways alongside it-girls like Nicky & Bijou. She even designed a handbag line for Samantha Thavasa, which was so big in Japan that her face was plastered all over billboards in Tokyo.
While the Mortimer elders were far from approving of Tinsley’s avid search for publicity, the 10021 was charmed - especially Socialite Rank.
Following Tinsley at No. 2, and sometimes even swiping the top spot from her, was Fabioloa Beracasa, daughter of Veronica Hearst & armed with a Karl Lagerfeld internship & stint at Christian Dior under her belt. Her and BFF Tinz dominated the NYC social scene and could be spotted together at every gala, premiere, and Fashion Week show throughout the mid-00s.
Other society fixtures who found themselves ranking impressively high were Patty Hearst’s daughter Lydia, & cousin Amanda, Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, socialite-turned-designer Tory Burch, fashion-house heiress Margherita Missoni, jewelry designer Zani Gugelmann, fashion it-girl Genevieve Jones, cosmetics heiress Olivia Chantecaille, Damon Dash’s wife Rachel Roy, and bottled-water heiress Lauren Davis (now Santo Domingo) - who was so outraged by the site that she allegedly tried to hire a private investigator to expose the catty anonymous bloggers.
In the months following SR’s April 2006 debut, the media, too, started to pick up on the socialite craze. With the ’firecrotch’-laden brawling between Hilton & Lohan raging on in Hollywood, it seemed only logical to pick up on the glamour - and drama - of the girls who hadn’t yet made it to the paparazzi hub. By the end of the year, VH1 was developing an episode of The Fabulous Life Of… on New York’s glamour girls, and channels like MTV and E! were in talks to give SR’s elite - Tinsley & co. - their own reality shows!
As the popularity of the site grew, the socialites’ own fixation with it became unbreakable. When the sites’ creators asked for the girls to fill out a brief profile on themselves, nearly everybody returned the favor.
Lydia Hearst, especially, was rumored to have sent dozens of emails campaigning for herself in hopes of raising her fortnight ranking. But with everybody watching, paranoia grew.
The website’s bio read: “Next time you think about skipping that certain gala, wearing that unknown designer, dating some weird band member, beware. We’re watching. And your ranking is on the line!”
Distrust spread among the social elite as many feared something they’d say - even to a friend in confidence - would end up on the internet burnbook the following day, with a pack of ruthless commenters ripping them to shreds. The insanity of it all was soon heightened by the tale of one unlucky girl, an ambitious 20-year-old debutante who had begun catching the eyes of the gala circuit and Patrick McMullan: Olivia Palermo.
Olivia was a New School student whose rise began simultaneously with Socialite Rank’s. In the spring of 2006, she started making gala appearances alongside her friend, and fellow SR fixture, Byrdie Bell. But as Olivia’s popularity grew, high society retaliated. SR led the backlash by accusing her of being a social climber (~gasp~) and vying for Tinsley’s coveted spot in Manhattan’s hierarchy.
By early 2007, the virtual shaming of Olivia had reached an all-time high. When she sent out invitations to her Marquee-set 21st birthday bash - in a very Carrie move - the website parodied it by plastering Olivia’s likeness on a can of tuna, with a scathing question for its readers: “Is she a packaged can of tuna, a Chicken of the Sea?”
But the fishy diss wouldn’t hold a candle to what would happen next.
While many gossip hounds would’ve been busy catching up on the Anna Nicole paternity battle, or the daily Britney shenanigans, on March 27, SR readers received a scandalous blessing of Jamie-Lynn-pregnancy proportions. Earlier that day, the keyboard fiends behind the site received a letter, forwarded to them by not just one, but multiple people - a letter from none other than Olivia Palermo. Without hesitation, the SR team decided to share the gift sitting in their inbox with the world. Here’s the original post, screencapped/preserved by me for the sake of pseudo-celebrity history:
The story goes that the letter was sent to 70 socialites from an email supposedly belonging to Olivia. Immediately after it was published, however, Olivia declared that she never wrote it and that someone had impersonated her in hopes of besmirching her already negative reputation. As word spread of the desperate social plea, fellow Manhattanites labeled Olivia “white trash” and a “freak.” Quickly, she called daddy on her Blackberry and demanded that the family lawyer get their ass on the case and expose whoever wrote the ‘Scarlett Letter’ (as SR called it).
But the other socialites around town weren’t so sure it was a fake. Many theorized that Olivia wrote it, knowing it would get published, in hopes of scoring some much-needed sympathy points for herself in the press. Tinsley believed this too, and when the two girls had an encounter at a fashion show the following week, a Page Six report claimed an enraged Tinz elbowed Liv to the ground. SR, of course, praised Tinsley’s attack, but the act of it-girl warfare would be the site’s last bit of excitement.
On April 26th, 2007, a year after Socialite Rank had been founded, it was gone. The anonymous bloggers left a farewell message, promising a book titled The Year of the Rank, and a brief outline of the buzz the site had created since its inception, including dozens of interview requests (even one from Tyra - #bless her dedication to gossip), and reality show offers.
Many had speculated about the bloggers’ identities, some suggested it was Derek Blasberg, others Patrick McMullan, and some even suggested it was Tinsley’s brother-in-law Peter Davis. But a week after the site’s demise, New York Magazine outed - in its classic profile of the SR saga (which is 1,000,000x juicier than this lame post, READ IT!!) - that the bloggers were Russian socialite step-siblings Olga Rei and Valentine Uhovski.
Ten years after its creation, let’s take a look at where the site’s creators, and the many socialites they targeted, are now.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
(WARNING: Pictures of physical abuse are in the first section)
Tinsley Mortimer
Grab a box of tissues and start blasting Lucky by Brit Brit since you’re about to read a downward spiral.
The tale of Tinsley starts in her teenage years. While attending Lawrenceville, the Richmond native (and alleged descendant of Thomas Jefferson) met, and fell madly in love, with Topper Mortimer, a Standard Oil heir. The two became inseparable and eloped when they were only 18, but when his parents caught word of the union they shipped him off to the Dominican Republic to have it annulled.
But the annulment didn’t discourage the two; when Topper moved to New York to attend NYU, Tinsley took up refuge in Columbia. And in 2002, with their parents’ approval, they married again - and thus a society power couple was born.
During her early years in Manhattan, Tinsley had bounced from job to job. A beauty assistant at Vogue, an events planner, and eventually PR - but nothing enchanted her more than the idea of becoming a socialite.
A few committee positions later, and a borrowed dress or two, Tinz was on her way to becoming a New York it-girl. While most of her peers were much more demure, Tinz had a vibrancy to her. Her bright outfits, blonde hair, and carefree attitude slowly transformed her into Manhattan’s much-less scandalous answer to Paris Hilton.
By 2006, she was sitting front row at every fashion show, her comings & goings dutifully documented by Page Six, and SR crowned her ’Socialite of the Year’ - to which she responded by sending them a kind email of appreciation.
By 2008, she’d become Dior’s beauty ambassador, and a casting call hit the web for a reality show called “Society Girls” that many speculated was Tinsley’s TV debut. But a few months later, the project was scrapped and a source told Page Six that MTV “couldn’t use any of [the footage]. It’s collecting dust. She looked good but she just got dressed and went to parties everyday and didn’t have anything interesting to say.”
It would take a couple of years before Tinz got another chance at her own show, but in the meantime she appeared on Gossip Girl& made a cameo on Bravo’s Project Runway ripoff The Fashion Show:
As her fame grew, though, her marriage began to crumble. Topper told the New York Times in 2007:
“It’s not necessarily the type of goal that anybody should strive for, going out every night for the sake of self-promotion and getting their pictures taken.”
In early 2009, reports surfaced that the two had separated, the reasons being her love for attention - and his alleged affairs. For nearly two months, Tinz vanished from the spotlight, her visage stopped appearing on Patrick McMullan, and many speculated it was truly the end for society’s golden couple.
But finally she resurfaced - in the arms of Topper & life seemed worth living for a fleeting moment in time, but the reunion was short-lived. Tinsley began filming a pilot for her own reality show on The CW, and Topper couldn’t take anymore, so the two split for good and she ran off with a German prince named Casimir.
After a few months in Europe, she returned to New York to continue production on Empire State (which would later be called 'High Society’), but ran into a massive problem - none of her socialite friends wanted to be on it. Producers ended up paying randoms to play Tinz’s BFFs on the show.
When High Society aired in 2010, Tinsley’s it-girl status was demolished in one fatal blow. Between one of her costars casually admitting to using the N-word, to a load of staged catfights with Devorah Rose, Tinsley had reached Jersey Shore levels of desperation, and society shunned her as a result.
With her reputation in flames, Tinsley pulled a L.A. Candy and released a thinly-veiled novel about her experiences in society titled Southern Charm in 2012.
After a brief promo tour, she fled New York for Palm Beach where she sunk deep into alcoholism, struggled with an eating disorder, and embarked on a secretive relationship with Nico Fanjul, son of sugar baron Alexander Fanjul. The two kept their affair confined to late-night hookups at his home, due to his family’s disapproval of Tinz.
The relationship, though, was far from healthy. The first police report on the couple dates back to Christmas Day 2013. Tinsley was hospitalized that night for a “possible battery” that ended up requiring three staples in the back of her head. She told police she tripped and fell.
On New Year’s Eve, police were called again to Nico’s home, this time Tinsley had locked herself in his bedroom and cried that she was scared of him. After determining that she was drunk, the officers let her off with a trespass warning. The following day she came clean to police about her abuse, but refused to press charges due to Nico’s billionaire family’s hold over Palm Beach.
The following June, police were called to the home once again - this time Tinsley was found drunk & crying next to her mother’s car. She told police that she & Nico had gotten into an argument and he tried to smother her with a pillow. Nico chased her outside before keying her car, ripping off the windshield wipers, and the proceeding to break the windshield. When police looked inside the bedroom, they found blood stains on the pillow.
That December, police were called yet again, this time a neighbor reported seeing Nico tackle Tinsley and shove her head into the pavement. The most recent incident, however, was the first to make headlines. Last month, Tinsley was arrested for trespassing after she was found drunk & screaming outside Nico’s home, claiming he was in there with another woman.
Once her mugshot surfaced and stories of the abuse were finally made public, Nico’s mother claimed that Tinsley was a compulsive liar who was bitter Nico had left her, & threatened: “She’s going up against us, and she’s going down.”
Despite the threats, Tinsley recently told Page Six: “I don’t regret any of the decisions made. The one regret I have is that I stayed in an unhealthy relationship for as long as I did.”
Since her arrest, Tinsley’s returned to Instagram:
And she continues to work on her line for Pop Culture Living:
Hang in there Tinz! We’re rooting for you!
Olivia Palermo (or as Spencer Pratt says: “Palmero”)
While her former foe Tinsley has fallen from grace, since Socialite Rank’s demise Olivia has made the transition from Carrie White to Carrie Bradshaw.
As a child, Olivia attended the prestigious Nightingale-Bamford in New York, before returning to her birthplace of Connecticut to finish schooling.
Afterwards she started attending media classes at The New School (where she did nothing but sit and text) and interned at society magazine Quest. While interning, she was photographed at a charity auction by famed society photographer Patrick McMullan, and we all know what happened next!
Once SR shut down and she’d been left nailed to a virtual crucifix, things didn’t pick up for Liv. In August 2007, reports surfaced that her real estate developer dad had filed for bankruptcy. It wasn’t long after that she started blogging for Paper and rumors swirled that she was going to be part of the cast for Whitney Port’s Hills spinoff The City - rumors that she quickly shut down, claiming that she wanted to be a “serious actress.”
But a few months later the first promo for The City had been released and everybody realized Liv had been lying through her teeth the whole time. Shocking!
After its premiere, Liv’s presence in the gossip columns grew - and so did her family’s! Her cousin, and fellow City star Nevan, was exposed by Page Six in 2009 as a junkie who offered a prostitute oxy in exchange for a blow job. And it wasn’t his first offense either, it turns out he had a string of awry traffic stops, drug busts, and unpaid bills over the years - isn’t the Palermo clan classy?
But even as her dirty laundry was aired out in the press, she still held out hope that The City was just a stepping stone to a serious acting career, or “like, a jewelry line.” She explained that her commitment to reality TV was “a learning process,” and when news hit she was sticking around for another season, she explained that once she starts something, she doesn’t “stop in the middle of it’” - an inspiration to us all tbh.
Thanks to her icy demeanor and ability to make her costar Erin seethe (honestly the best part of the show), she became one of the most-searched names on New York Social Diary and other society websites, and most people tuned into the show just to hate-watch her as she bounced from fake fashion job (Diane von Furstenberg) to fake fashion job (Elle).
And while the serious acting thing never happened, she did sign to Wilhelmina to do some modeling alongside her boyfriend Johannes Huebl - whom she started dating in '08 after a split with Izzy Gold designer Brad Leinhardt earlier that year:
In 2014, the couple announced they were engaged in this hilariously over-the-top Insta video:
And that summer they got married!
Since The City went off the air, Olivia’s also followed through on her promises of designing a jewelry line:
And in 2011 she launched her own lifestyle blog (which I look at more often than I should). She’s also appeared as a guest judge on Project Runway and Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model. Nowadays, she travels the world, goes to fashion shows, and looks stylish with her husband, all the while her one-time socialite peers have become irrelevant.
It looks like things worked out for Liv after all!
Lydia & Amanda Hearst
It goes without saying that the Hearst family had long-dominated headlines before the arrival of Lydia & Amanda. Lydia’s mom, Patty Hearst, was a media sensation - for reasons I’m sure you’re all familiar with - and Patty’s sister Anne, Amanda’s mother, was another prominent society girl who ran into a little trouble of her own. In the '70s she got busted for meth possession and served several months’ probation.
Despite their parents’ wild pasts, the girls had a relatively quiet upbringing. After high school, both Lydia & Amanda both decided to pursue modeling careers, but while Amanda kept a low-profile, Lydia didn’t shy away from the spotlight.
After scoring a cover for Vogue Italia in 2004, Lydia quickly became a favorite of designers & photographers. She was a Heatherette regular, walking for their fashion week shows alongside Paris Hilton & Naomi Campbell:
And she was even dating Heatherette designer Traver’s brother, Matt Rains, for a hot second:
She also caught the eye of Page Six, even scoring a job as a columnist for its short-lived magazine where she talked about everything from the difference between an “heiress” and a “socialite” (according to her, socialites are women who marry into money), how she’s so much better than Paris, or how her and her friends put together a Warhol-inspired “Factory 2.0”:
And a picture of “Factory 2.0”, since I know you’re dying to see it:
But in 2008 she quit her writing position after they published a column, claiming to be written by her, criticizing the Hearst company’s decision to host parties during a recession. Page Six quickly countered her outrage by exposing her writing process: she would send her drunken rambling to a reporter via email and they’d organize them into cohesive paragraphs.
After her resignation, she went back to dining at Butter with Michelle Trachtenberg, making out with Aubrey O'Day for press, posing naked in ’tasteful’ magazines & appearing in random music videos.
And who can forget her delightfully wooden cameo on Gossip Girl?
She also went through a string of famous men around that time, from porcupine-haired ex-Simpson/Patridge/Tess Taylor boytoy Ryan Cabrera, to the less drugged-up Olsen Twin’s ex Justin Bartha (He allegedly screamed at Lydia at an Oscar party shortly after their breakup - calling her a “bitch”), Mischa Barton’s large-balled ex Cisco Adler (NSFW!!!), and even Jared Leto! I feel like I got an STD from just writing that last sentence.
After a brief internship for Blackbook, she got tired of Manhattan and decided to fly out to L.A. to pursue acting, claiming her childhood memories of John Waters’ film sets inspired her to pursue a career in movies.
Once she touched down in Cali, one of her first rumored film roles was a leading part in a Lindsay Lohan biopic. She immediately released a statement, though, that the rumor couldn’t be farther from the truth (and Dina threatened to sue, so I’m sure that helped kill the project). While she waited to find her big break, she struck up a romance with Jeff Goldblum, who was 32 years her senior (her family was not fond of the pairing):
After a year, the two parted ways and Lydia decided to send Tumblr into a tizzy by rebounding with that alien Benedict Cumwhatever:
But thankfully she cured her temporary blindness and moved onto someone with more humanlike features, Nicky Hilton’s ex Kevin Connolly:
And after another yearlong romance, she was back on the market - but didn’t skip a beat before romancing TV host/actor/writer/producer/guy Chris Hardwick:
(He was on Zoey 101 once, I can’t believe I remember this).
After a few overnight stays at the Hearst Castle & some joint TV appearances, the lovebirds announced they were engaged:
And I think I read in a recent Us Weekly that they’re aiming for a summer wedding with a possible ’horror’ theme - you know I’ll keep you guys updated! Their save the date card was a recreation of a scene from The Walking Dead - how romantic:
As for recent TV/movie roles, Lydia appeared in Cabin Fever 3 a couple of years ago, and she was a coach on The Face alongside Naomi Campbell and Anne V:
Amanda, on the other hand, was much quieter than her cousin. While she modeled for brands like Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, she attended college at Fordham, and refused to do any TV appearances like her socialite pals, claiming that rarely anybody comes off well on TV.
And unlike Lydia, her dating history has been a lot less colorful. Aside from canoodling with Chace Crawford at a party once in 2008, her dating choices haven’t really attracted the eyes of gossip columns. For a while she dated Lauren Santo Domingo’s brother-in-law Alejandro:
And after him she dated jewelry heir Luis Medina:
Job-wise, she interned at Spanish Cosmo for a minute before she scored a job as associate market editor of Marie Claire - owned by the family of course.
But her main passion these days is fighting puppy mills, alongside her team of super socialites (Fabiola, Nicky, Georgina Bloomberg, etc.):
Arden Wohl
Arden frequently ranked in SR’s Top 25, and many suspected that she enlisted her friends to write nice things about her in the site’s catty comment section, I mean, it’s all speculative, but with gems like: “She’s the only original thing out there”, “She has eyes with beautiful large lids which are a makeup artist’s dream”, and - the most cringeworthy - “She has a Warholian-like quality,” I’m sure she gave them a little coaching. Funny considering how she told a reporter she’d rather die than be lumped in with the Palermo set: “People have been telling me that I should get a publicist. I’m like, who am I, one of those girls? I hate those girls.”
Anyways, time for a little backstory on the headband-loving socialite: Arden’s claim to fame is being a Manhattan real estate heiress, and her sister once shoved her sober coach down a flight of stairs #LittleHeiressThings. Arden’s dad is a real-estate mogul, and her mom Denise, an ex-Marvel & DC employee, created a comic book series in 2007 called Seven, about fashionable Kabbalah-loving superheroes.
As for Arden, she graduated from NYU with a film degree, but she’s done nothing with it since, except brag about being besties with Sean Lennon, & Leelee Sobieski (who she founded the Art Production Fun Lab with).
In 2008, she got arrested in East Hampton for writing “Ralphy Lip-shits” in lipstick on a Ralph Lauren store (His real name is Ralph Lifshitz), and before cops arrived she tried snatching a few hand-held American flags that the store had on display for decoration.
*Not an actual picture of the arrest*
Since then she briefly attended the French Culinary Institute from 2009-2010, and had plans to start her own catering business, but these days Arden’s doing what any other socialite with zero aspirations does: fashion!
In 2014, Arden launched a vegan shoe-line, Cri De Coeur!
And for those wondering if she still wears headbands:
I’ll leave you with my favorite quote of hers:
“But you know, it just depresses me: Some girl named Peaches who lives in the Bronx—I don’t what she does—looks at this world and says, 'Oh wow.’ And I would never want to give off something that is an illusion, because you hurt people that way. And they’re already struggling so much—the people.”
I love people with no self-awareness!
Lauren Davis
Lauren was another semi-permanent sight in SR’s Top 25. Her claim to pointless fame is being the Poland Spring water bottle heiress, in addition to a short-lived stint at Network PR (I guess all socialites start out in PR?).
Eventually she just settled on Vogue like her other wealthy gal pals. She started off as a fashion assistant, and now she works as a contributing editor.
In 2008, she married beer heir Andres Santo Domingo in a Colombian wedding-extravaganza that Vogue called “the wedding of the year” in its March '08 issue. It even scored a whopping ten-page spread photographed by Gumby Elgort’s dad Arthur!
All of her socialite besties were in attendance, from the Tinz to Fabiola:
Nowadays she does what most other socialites do in the post-recession era, pose for obnoxious Insta pics with Derek Blasberg and show up to a charity event every now & then. In 2010 she launched the fashion retail site Moda Operandi:
And since then she’s caught the eye of Page Six on occasion, well, her family that is. In 2011, her hubby was busted for hitting someone with his Mercedes (accidentally, of course!) and scored a sweet $100 million lawsuit to go with it, and most recently, the couple tried to throw an engagement party for Andres’ brother in Colombia, but nobody showed up because guests were scared they’d catch Zika.
Fabiola Beracasa
If high society was Hollywood, Fabiola would’ve been the Nicole to Tinsley’s Paris.
A frequent Top 5-er & gossip column favorite, Fabiola’s stake in the society game came from being the daughter of Veronica Hearst (a Hearst by marriage). She attended boarding school in Switzerland, went to Boston College, and interned at Chanel’s Paris studio for several years. Yeah, the average childhood - nothing special.
Eventually, she decided to get an actual job. But rather than settling for PR - the standard gig for any rising social fixture - she decided to shake things up and work for a jewelry resale company named Circa, and eventually she became the creative director.
After her stint at Circa, she decided to pick up a job as a reporter for New York Magazine, a camera trailing her as she swayed her way to & from every fashion show and premiere in the 10021.
But just because she was stuck with fluff doesn’t mean she didn’t have a Peabody-worthy moment or two. Read her harrowing account of a 2007 trip to China:
“You felt the oppression there. I had a video camera and, you know, I was told by several of the media people from Fendi to be careful, that I may be questioned about it, and just like, the way the city is - these giant roads, these giant buildings - you feel the oppression! I can’t explain it in so many words, but you feel that people are very cautious about what they say… I’m going back in December for Christmas vacation!”
Katie Couric could never!
Fabi was even in talks to develop a reality TV show circa '08, but the project was scrapped. A shame since it would’ve been the perfect soul sibling to High Society. After all, with gossip items like asking a cop to check out your outfit when they arrived at your home over a noise complaint, or canceling all your social engagements for a week because your Chihuahua was hit by a car, I’m sure Fabiola would’ve been a fine fit for the small screen.
Anyways, around that time she also started dating Deutsche Bank money manager Jason Beckman. The two were inseparable for years, and one year for Halloween they dressed up as Di and Charles, except Fabi was Charles and J was Di - a match made in heaven:
In 2010, Jason put a ring on it while the two were in Cannes, and in 2014 the two married in a headline-making wedding set in Dubrovnik:
Guests included Vanessa Traina, Jessica Hart, Lauren Santo Domingo, and Margherita Missoni. Also, Snoop Dogg and Wyclef Jean performed:
Nowadays, Fabiola co-owns The Hole gallery in New York, in addition to producing a movie or two, like the recent MET Gala docu The First Monday In May. Here’s a recent pic:
Claire Bernard
Claire was a gala staple for quite some time in the mid-00s, rubbing elbows with Tinsley & co. Her dad Lewis served as the Chief Administrative & Financial Officer of Morgan Stanley, while Claire was just an aspiring writer taking classes at Colombia. She was also was rumored to be a little more desperate than the rest of the girls to improve her SR ranking.
Nowadays, she’s the Vice President of the Mariposa Foundation - a group aiming to spread education for girls around the world. She also ran a short-lived blog (only 2 posts) for the Huffington Post, and she’s also worked as a production assistant on a ton of films, ranging from An Inconvenient Truth to Garfield 2. Here’s a semi-recent picture:
Julia Restoin Roitfeld
Julia was born into fashion royalty as her mother, Carine Roitfeld, was the former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris. She was another semi-permanent fixture on SR’s Top 25, although some were surprised she didn’t rank higher.
While she isn’t as scandalous as some of the other girls, she’s definitely been in quite a few magazines as she’s landed campaigns for Tom Ford, H&M, & Lancôme amongst many others.
In 2011, she designed a lingerie line for Kiki de Montparnasse.
And in 2009 she began a long-term relationship with Croation model Robert Konjic.
The two welcomed a daughter together - Romy - in May 2012, but the following year the two split after four years of dating. Now she works as a graphic designer for several brands, in addition to running some motherhood blog/website/whatever.
Camilla Al Fayed
Camilla was a bigger name than most on the gala circuit. Her father, Mohamed Al Fayed, was the owner of Harrods, and her brother Dodi was a casualty of the infamous Princess Di crash. Despite the long family history, she was still able to make a name for herself as she was frequently spotted at clubs with tabloid favorites like Paris, Lindsay, Mischa, & Kimbo Stewart!
In 2006, she interned at British Vogue for a curiously brief four weeks, then rumors swirled she was hooking up with Brandon Davis/Greasy Bear - who reportedly bought a house in London to be closer to her.
But then Camilla had an epiphany. After a friend’s six-day-old baby died, she told a magazine that she wanted to devote her life to charity from that point on, instead of being known as the ’party girl’. The following year, she announced she was pregnant, but refused to name the baby daddy, and continued to maintain a low-profile until 2011 when she decided to purchase a 51% stake in Issa - a clothing brand that had soared in popularity after Kate Middleton started wearing it the previous year.
She continued to work for the brand for several years while raising her children Numair and Luna, but recently she’s turned her back on fashion and decided to open a “plant-based” restaurant called Farmacy in Notting Hill. And by recently, I mean last month.
Here’s a recent picture:
Ali Wise
Ali’s claim to society came from being Dolce & Gabana’s PR director & the girlfriend of hotelier Jason Pomeranc (who runs SoHo’s Sixty Hotel).
But scandal erupted in July 2009 when she was busted for hacking into the voicemail of interior designer & rival socialite Nina Freudenberger!
The story goes that Ali used Spoofcard, which lets you send fake caller ID info with your calls, to bypass the security features on Nina’s voicemail and spy on her from January to March 2008. Why? It turns out Ali cheated on her boyfriend Jason with Nina’s boyfriend Josh Deutch, and when Nina caught word she told Jason (So many names, try to keep up) and he told Ali they were dunzo. An enraged Ali thought the only logical thing to do would be to invade someone’s privacy for the course of months. But it turns out Nina wasn’t her only target! Right after Ali was charged with computer trespassing & eavesdropping, three other victims of her spying came forward, and they all seemed to have one thing in common - they’ve been with Ali’s ex-boyfriends.
But amidst scandal, Ali had her loyal defenders, such as Alice + Olivia founder Stacey Bendet who claimed that what Ali did wasn’t illegal in the slightest and the justice system is totally unfair. Another Ali apologist was Tobey Maguire’s wife, and jewelry designer, Jen Meyer, who claimed Nina was just lime green jello. But Dolce & Gabana didn’t agree with the girls and after the new surge of charges hit Page Six, Ali was given the boot. Lost, angry, and defeated, a fallen Ali decided to find solace in Twitter through such difficult times:
“when all else fails,find the humor in the situation. because really,it’s silly-though painful-how we let our egos get the best of us"Y.Berg
— ali wise (@aliwise) July 27, 2009
And she decided to make a return to the party scene, despite her tattered reputation:
But if we’ve learned anything from Lizzie Grubman, society is very forgiving, and it wasn’t long after the charges surfaced that Ali copped a plea deal which entailed: 2 years of probation, 300 hours of community service, and a $1,000 fine.
Since then she’s continued to make event appearances, work in PR, and now she’s found love with fellow socialite & snowboarder John de Neufville. They have a kid together, too:
Here’s Ali at Nicky Hilton’s wedding last year with Bijou and Sarah Howard:
Alexandra & Theodora Richards
Thanks to the fact their dad is Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards and their mom is Patti Hensen, the Richards sisters were a little more edgy than their socialite counterparts.
They made their fashion debut in 2002 with a Tommy Hiliger campaign, alongside fellow rocker spawn Lizzy Jagger:
And soon after they began covering magazines like Nylon& Elle:
In addition to working the runway for everybody from Heatherette to PPQ:
As the girls’ modeling careers took off, they became staples of the Manhattan social scene & were frequently featured on SR amongst their pals Genevieve and Olivia Palermo.
And they were cool enough to hang with the likes of Cory Kennedy, too!/p>
In 2010, Alexandra posed for French Playboy:
And despite their parents, the girls remained mostly scandal-free, well, until Theodora was arrested in 2011 for scrawling ”T ♥ A“ on the wall of a SoHo nunnery.
When police arrived, they found oxycodone and pot in her purse, causing her to blurt out: ”I hope I don’t get in trouble for this.“
She ended up being sentenced to two days of community service, but her problems didn’t stop there. In 2013, speculation arose over her thin frame:
And last October she checked into Silver Hill Hospital to get clean. She checked out in November, and has been looking much healthier since:
As for Alexandra, the past few years she’s picked up a hobby of DJing:
Byrdie Bell
Byrdie’s society status came from her father, Ted Bell, who was the Creative Director of Young & Rubicam - one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. Her mother also has some ties to the Norwegian royal family. Byrdie’s rise, however, began in 2006 when she started appearing at events with BFF Liv.
Pretty soon she scored a modeling contract with Ford, and started booking movie roles, such as a cameo in Mischa Barton’s 2009 classic Homecoming (See: Horror Movies With Your Tabloid Faves).
By 2007, she was so buzzed about that even Page Six did a profile on her! In it she described herself as the anti-Tinsley, with her interests lying in video games & French porn. Edgy!
Since then, she’s continued to land bit parts in movies, including a cameo in Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones docu Shine A Light, & most recently a recurring role in the Bravo series Odd Mom Out:
And while actively auditioning, she stated attending NYU in 2010. She even made the Dean’s List - you go Byrdie!
Picked up my NYU student ID #back2school#matriculated#itsofficial
— Byrdie Bell (@ByrdieBell) September 1, 2010
Here’s a recent picture:
Margherita Missoni
Despite her popularity in New York society, Margherita actually grew up in Italy, near her fashion house-founding grandparents. She moved to New York to attend college at Columbia where she decided to become an actress, while still promoting the family brand of course.
Despite the famous last name, she was only able to land parts in short films:
Shortly after SR was finished, she decided she was finished with New York, too. She moved back to Milan and decided to join the design team of the Missoni brand. In 2011, she got engaged to race car driver Eugenio Amos, and the following year the two married in Brunello:
She designed her own dress, in case any fashionistas reading this post were curious:
And now she has two kids!
Here’s a recent picture:
Zani Gugelmann
Zani’s rise to prominence began when she moved to New York from Connecticut in the early '00s. It wasn’t long before she started scoring modeling gigs, becoming the face of Bill Blass and Judith Leiber.
Around that time she launched a jewelry line - Filigrina by Zani - inspired by her Peruvian roots, and she had quite a few celeb clients too! Take a look at the website:
Anyways, she quickly became BFFs with Tinsley, Ivanka, & the rest:
And now she continues to do what she always did: show up at events, make jewelry, and look stylish:
Here’s a recent picture:
Rachel Roy
Rachel first hit the social scene when she moved to New York to work as a stylist at Rocawear in the early '00s. She quickly rose through the ranks and became creative director of the women’s and children’s divisions by 2004, in addition to meeting future husband Damon Dash.
That year she launched her own label, with backing from Damon. The brand became so popular that by 2008 she sold a 50% share to the Jones Apparel Group (now Nine West Holdings) - who controlled lines like Nine West and Anne Klein. Rachel’s mega-success as a designer made her a favorite of SR and she was a frequent fixture in the exclusive Top 25 from 2006 - 2007.
But with all of the success, she still ran into some financial trouble. In mid-2008, Eastern Savings Bank filed a suit against Rachel & Damon after they failed to make payments on their nearly $80K-a-month mortgage, and later that year things went from bad to worse when Damon’s Chevy Tahoe was seized after failing to make monthly lease payments.
In early 2009, Rachel slapped him with the divorce papers and the two called it quits. She continued to find success in fashion afterwards, and made several TV appearances, from Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model, to fellow SR alum Olivia Palermo’s The City (Sorry Whit, we both know she stole the show).
But in recent years she’s received quite a bit of negative attention after rumors swirled that she was Jay-Z’s other woman. A MET Gala showdown and lyrical diss later, Rachel certainly hasn’t made it easier on herself. On Instagram she recently posted a photo of herself with a caption admitting to being the elusive ”Becky“ mentioned in Beyonce’s Sorry:
Immediately, Beyonce’s fans swarmed the comments - well, the ones that didn’t get lost and stumble upon Rachael Ray and Rachel Zoe’s profiles. But Roy put the rumors to rest with a statement to People:
”I want to put the speculation and rumors to rest. My Instagram post was meant to be fun and lighthearted, it was misunderstood as something other than that. There is no validity to the idea that the song references me personally. There is no truth to the rumors.“
Others have suggested the past month that Rachel is probably on Bey & Jay-Z’s payroll & that this is all some smart publicity stunt to drum up attention and album sales, and most recently news broke that Rachel’s emails were hacked - yikes!
Ivanka Trump
As SR said, 2006 was the year of the socialite - and it was also the year of Ivanka.
As a teen, Ivanka had gained some recognition as a model, walking down runways for Versace & Thierry Mugler, in addition to posing for Elle& Glamour.
She didn’t stick with it, though, and after that her only notable media appearance had been a starring role in the 2003 documentary Born Rich, directed by Johnson & Johnson heir Jamie Johnson. The documentary basically focused on a bunch of rich kids saying stupid shit, with Ivanka’s costars including Georgina Bloomberg & Luke Weil.
Afterwards, she graduated from the Wharton School at UPenn and began working for her dad at the Trump Organization, quickly becoming the Vice President of Real Estate Development - obviously because of her hard work.
By 2006, she was even starring alongside her dad on The Apprentice, catapulting her to fame that most of her socialite peers could only dream of. Pretty soon she was scoring magazine covers left and right, and making appearances everywhere from Jay Leno to The View.
And with her newfound celeb status came some celeb boyfriends, such as Lance Armstrong & Topher Grace, whom she was both linked to that year (Her other exes include Greg Hirsch & 'Born Rich’ co-producer James Gubelmann).
But with the wave of newfound fame, she was anxious to distance herself from another headline-making blonde heiress, telling the London Express in 2007 that she’s ”nothing“ like ”party kid“ Paris Hilton, and that she works ”13-hour days“ and even has her own mortgage!
Forget the mortgage Ivanka, the real story is that you paid for a boob and nose job all by yourself! You go girl!
In 2007, she launched her jewelry line The Ivanka Trump Collection and got groped by Andy Dick:
That year she also started dating fellow real estate heir & Observer owner Jared Kusher.
Initially Ivanka told the press that the two were only ”friends,“ well, friends that fly to St. Barts and share hotel rooms together. But by 2008 rumors were swirling that she was converting to Judaism for him. The following summer she announced via Twitter that they got engaged:
That fall they sealed the deal at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey, with guests receiving complimentary flip flops with the bride & groom’s names.
2009 also welcomed Ivanka’s own book The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life!
She also tried to start a line of lunch foods at one point. It went as well as you think it would.
But not everything was business in Ivanka’s life. In 2010 she had her very own stalker - Justin Massler.
He often switched between loving her, and completely hating her. He set up an Ivanka fan blog in early 2010, including his own Ivanka poetry and comics:
But on Twitter he showed a completely different side of himself, going on long rants and threatening to ruin her brand:
After recording a video of himself threatening to kill humself in one of Ivanka’s stores, he was jailed for six months. But last November, Justin was busted again, this time for sending an email to Jared’s brother Joshua (who’s dating Karlie Kloss #funfacts).
Aside from that mess, Ivanka’s continued to expand her fashion line. Adding shoes and handbags to her collection, but not without controversy. In 2011, Derek Lam accused Ivanka of stealing one of his shoe designs - you be the judge:
And as recent as a few months ago, another shoe brand - Aquazzura - accused her of stealing one of their designs. No word yet if the company plans on suing. And in more bad fashion news, 20K of Ivanka’s Chinese-manufactured scarves were recently recalled due to being easily flammable. Yikes!
Aside from that, Ivanka’s also been by her father’s side throughout his campaign, even as she was pregnant with her third child. And if you’re wondering her stance on her father’s views, she thinks he’s a total advocate for women.
And probably the most important thing Ivanka’s done this decade was making a cameo on Gossip Girl:
I’ll leave you with my favorite quote of hers:
”I look at my brothers and myself and I’m, like, really proud of that fact that nobody’s a drug addict, nobody’s driving around chasing women, snorting coke.“
Yep, your family’s so much worse.
Jessica Joffe
Jessica started making the rounds in the early '00s. Her father was the publisher/editor of Germany’s Die Zeit& her mother was a writer, so Jessica was considered more of an intellectual compared to her socialite contemporaries.
She graduated from Stanford where she wrote for the Stanford Daily. In one of her pieces, she called Parker Posey ”one of the best actresses of her generation,“ in addition to writing she’s ”beautiful wry, and adequately aloof.“ Funnily enough, a few years later after article was published, Parker’s man dumped her for Jessica.
Yep. Parker’s long-time boyfriend Ryan Adams dumped her for Jess (who had just gotten out of a relationship with Johnson & Johnson heir Jamie Johnson). Immediately, Jessica’s fame skyrocketed, and by the end of 2005 she quit her job writing for the Observer and became a regular fixture in Vogue, in addition to being named one of Paper mag’s 'most beautiful people’!
In early 2006, she landed a Banana Republic fragrance campaign, helping her face get plastered all over NYC. She promptly followed it up with a stint doing videos for ShopVogue:
But then she hit a snag. She and Ryan split after 2 years together - he even credited her as having helped him overcome his drug addictions. But alas, by early '08 the couple was finished and he posted a grainy found-footage compilation video - titled ”Sad Days“ - including brief shots of Jess looking all Lana Del Rey:
I’m sure you’re wondering why the couple split in the first place, well, he ~allegedly cheated on her with Mandy Moore - who he started dating not long after closing the curtains on Jess. Ouch! Also, while we’re on this topic, some of Jess’ other exes included Joaquin Phoenix and Elton from Clueless. So random.
Since then, Jessica’s continued to star in artsy fashion campaigns, in addition to a movie cameo here and there (Does 'Saleswoman’ in Celeste & Jesse Forever ring a bell? Probably not), but fashionistas may recognize her best from her recent appearances on E!’s show House of DVF as Diane von Furstenberg’s Style Editor:
And a recent picture:
Annelise Peterson
Annelise was another New York party fixture that started out with an actual job. Originally she worked in banking, then worked as a publicist for Calvin Klein and a PR Director at Valentino in the mid-00s.
Then she began managing a boutique consultancy, Annelise Peterson Inc., while starting to record an album. Her producer said that Annelise had the ability to ”channel a big, black diva a la Gladys Knight or Nell Carter from Gimme a Break.“ Unfortunately, we never got to hear the proof. The one song she was working on, a ballad about masturbation called ”Alone With Me“, was never released. Now she’s the Director of Client Relations at Net-a-Porter, and she also got married and had a kid:
Oh, fun fact - she was the maid of honor at Rachel Uchitel’s first wedding. Yes, that Rachel Uchitel.
Melissa Berkelhammer
Unlike the other girls, Melissa never truly reached socialite status. She was just an aspiring socialite whose psychiatrist dad paid over $2,000 a month for a publicist to get her into parties - all the while Melissa was completely unemployed and pushing 30.
To make things sadder, when she was at parties, photographers didn’t even know who she was. That didn’t stop her hustle though, and by 2006 she was even in the running for a socialite reality show called ’Social’, her competition being Tinsley, Fabiola, Keira Chaplin, & Gillian Hearst. But then she disappeared, well, not missing - she just went back to being completely irrelevant. Years later in 2010, though, she resurfaced - this time with a much sadder outlook on life, resulting from the death of her father:
Worried friends immediately called the police, but after visiting Melissa they claimed everything was fine. She later posted to Facebook: ”I guess it’s a lot easier to 'send someone over’ than actually be a friend.“ The following year, a Page Six story claimed that Melissa had a 2 A.M. meltdown at a Southampton hotel after her mom brought her soups with lumps in it, when she specifically requested no lumps. Her tantrum was so loud that police were called! And if you’re wondering who the fellow hotel guest that tipped off Page Six was…
Kim G from The Real Housewives of New Jersey!
Once the story hit gossip sites, Melissa fired back at Kim, calling her a ”trashy press whore looking for attention.“ And Melissa’s streak of bad luck didn’t end there! In 2014, as she was filming a pilot for a show called Celebrity Buzz With Melissa, she was hit by a car while heading to a nail salon. The accident was so bad that Melissa spent weeks in the hospital, causing her show to be delayed, and then ultimately scrapped.
A couple of months later she hit Page Six again after she and her mom sued Park Central Hotel, claiming a valet swiped $80K in jewelry from their luggage. And the following year, she was featured in the gossip column once again - this time for pulling a Winona at Bergdorf Goodman’s. Reports claimed that Melissa stuffed over $4,000 worth of clothing into her handbag and walked out of the store. When she was stopped by security, she claimed that she was only looking for her mother, who had been in the store with her. When she was taken down to the Midtown North precinct afterwards, she was so distraught that cops classified her as mentally disturbed, and even took the shoelaces off of her sneakers.
During her arraignment, she cried that she would ”never get another job“ (her only job in the past had been blogging for Avenue & The Huffington Post), but not long after she was released, she found work: hostessing at a Japanese steakhouse. But the trainwreck didn’t stop there.
It turns out Melissa & her mother had been squatting in the apartment of actress Julianne Michelle for over a year, initially telling her that their house was being renovated.
~Pictures of the apartment~
After a while, Julianne tried to evict the two, realizing they didn’t plan on moving out anytime soon. She also complained Melissa would sleep in bed all day, hopped up on Xanax, only to wake up at night and scream at her mom. But Julianne’s attempts at evicting the two had proved unsuccessful for a while, causing her to take the case to housing court. Even when the court sided with her, Melissa & her mom refused to move out - until one day they were pretty much forced out, causing Melissa to take her anger to Facebook:
And then she begged for money:
Then her posts started to have suicidal undertones:
And then she straight-up threatened to kill herself:
Eventually she was sentenced to 10 days of community service, thanks to her lawyer Mark Heller, who picked Melissa’s case because she reminded him of another one of his clients: Lindsay Lohan.
Nowadays, Melissa claims she’s found shelter in an Upper East Side apartment, whether or not it belongs to her is a mystery.
Lauren Bush
While Lauren was not nearly as wild as her cousins, she still made her social debut amongst controversy. Lauren first rose to the limelight as a debutante in 2000, and quickly landed covers and campaigns for brands like Tommy Hilfiger & Abercrombie:
Around that time, her parents were going through a nasty divorce chock-full of affairs & messy business deals. Despite the highly-publicized chaos, Lauren quickly became a staple on the fashion scene, interning for Zac Posen alongside Ashley Olsen & hanging with the Hiltons & Hilfigers:
Around that time she started started attending Princeton, & dating Ralph Lauren’s son David (to her family’s disapproval - they didn’t like the age gap one bit!):
At Princeton she came up with the idea for FEED, a bag line with the goal of raising funds for the UN to feed children around the world:
For over a year she was spotted carrying her burlap creation at every soiree imaginable, but once her uncle Dubya fell out of favor, she did too. By 2007 her SR ranking was at an all-time low, and she was quickly slipping into socialite obscurity (which still involves millions of $$ so I wouldn’t shed a tear). The following year she launched another fashion line, dropping the ’Bush’ name and simply calling it ’Lauren Pierce’ - her Britney Jean moment:
In 2011, Lauren and David got married in a western-themed ceremony at the Lauren family’s ranch in Ridgway, Colorado.
Oh yeah, did I mention her married name is now Lauren Bush Lauren?
Anyways, since then she’s continued to work on FEED, which has evolved from the standard burlap sack to stylish backpacks & clutches:
And last November she welcomed a baby boy named James!
Genevieve Jones
The story of Genevieve Jones is a strange one. Unlike the other girls, her ascent to fame was virtually nonexistent. One day she was an unknown, and the next she was everywhere. When she was dubbed ”Girl of the Moment“ in the March '06 issue of Vogue, rumors swirled about her past - some believing she was a high-end call-girl, and others even suggesting she was the one behind SR!
Genevieve was a Baton Rouge native who moved to Manhattan in the late '90s to become a full-time party girl. Pretty soon she became best friends with Zac Posen and started being photographed at club openings and fashion events.
By 2006, she’d become close with fellow socialites Julia Restoin Roitfeld and Fabiola Beracasa, and even became a favorite of then-Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley. As her star rose, the speculation about her past quickly intensified.
But all was revealed in a September 2006 profile in The Wall Street Journal that casually exposed that she had been lying about her age (she claimed she was 27, but documents they dug up proved she was 31), and her family (she claimed mom & dad paid for her lifestyle, her friends said it was married artist Francesco Clemente).
After the article, the buzz around her started to die. While she still kept her socialite pals, her it-girl status faded. She decided to parlay her fashion expertise into a jewelry line in 2008, and began dating Oscar de la Renta’s son Moises.
By 2009 the pair was dunzo, and since then Genevieve’s continued to work on her jewelry line and mingle with rich kids.
Here’s a recent picture of her with Countess LuAnn:
Olivia Chantecaile
While Olivia had Chantecaille cosmetics to her name, she gained more attention as the girlfriend of furniture heir Eric Villency.
The two were regulars at Manhattan events, until he dumped her in 2006 to hook up with Kimberly Guilfoyle, a legal analyst with frequent stints on Fox under her belt.
Rumors swirled that Olivia was so devastated by the split that she even developed anorexia. One December '06 Page Six blind read:
”WHICH rail-thin socialite - who suffered this year when her ex-fiancé quickly married a gorgeous brunette after dumping her - is having health issues? Though her friends beg her to eat, her anorexia has caused the early onset of osteoporosis.“
But it wasn’t long until Olivia found love again! In 2009 she got hitched to hedge funder Warren G. Grady III in St. Bart’s:
And in 2014 she gave birth to a baby girl!
Victoria & Vanessa Traina
Victoria & her sister Vanessa gained notoriety as the spawn of novelist Danielle Steel and ex-husband John Traina. The girls were often referred to as San Francisco’s answer to the Hilton sisters, and they were frequently spotted arm in arm at hot fashion shindigs in the early '00s.
While Vanessa went to college in Malibu, Victoria opted for Parsons and became a SR fixture by 2006, even earning the site’s Chic of the Week award.
But many commenters weren’t as charmed with Vic, often calling her a fugly-wannabe-junkie-whore, and other names fit for a Burn Book.
Nowadays, Victoria continues to lurk Manhattan & LA alongside her sis:
Even weirder, Vanessa’s now married to Mary-Kate Olsen’s ex-boyfriend, millionaire photog Maxwell Snow (descendant of the de Menil clan):
And she launched a ~lifestyle brand called The Line - edgy!!
And they’re part of that Nicole Richie/Erin & Sara Foster/Rachel Zoe clique, too:
Plum Sykes
In the early '90s, Plum worked as a fashion assistant for British Vogue, before moving to New York and scoring a job as a contributing editor for American Vogue. Her stint under Anna Wintour helped solidify her it-girl status, alongside her sister Lucy who became a fashion director for Marie Claire. Plum even joked that the girls were ”Paris & Nicky without the sex tape.“
Eventually Plum ditched Anna to write a thinly-veiled fictional tale of high society life, titled Bergdorf Blondes. Many of the characters were inspired by Plum’s own socialite pals, including a character named Tinsley - an it-girl who can’t hold down a job.
The book was a success, selling a quarter of a million copies worldwide. The following year she got hitched to Toby Rowland, son of businessman 'Tiny’ Rowland:
And then in 2006 she released her second novel, The Debutante Divorcee. A couple of years later she scored to a deal with NBC to pen a sitcom about ”female tycoons“ called Mogulettes, but it failed to be picked up:
Since then she’s published a memoir titled Oxford Girl and spends her time raising her two children, in addition to writing the occasional piece for Vogue:
In 2014, she was embroiled in a mini-controversy, though, after she accused Cara Delewhatever of sleeping through meetings in a Vogue interview. Cara was not happy with such accusations and took to Twitter to defend herself:
Why do people in the industry lie so much???? They would rather see you fail than succeed. What happened to supporting each other
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) 25 June 2014
Embarrassing.
Aerin Lauder
Like Olivia Chantecaille, Aerin was another makeup scion. Her grandmother Estée founded Estée Lauder cosmetics, and her father served as the U.S. Ambassador to Austria under Reagan - and once tried to run for mayor of New York, losing out to Giuliani.
Aerin graduated from UPenn before joining the family’s billion dollar business, starting out in product marketing and quickly rising the ranks to senior vice-president and creative director of the company. Under her clearly unbiased direction, she made herself the face of the company’s 2007 fragrance line Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia.
In 2011, she left the company to start her own lifestyle brand, Aerin LLC, armed with furniture, fashion, cosmetics, and even candles!
Since then she’s continued to expand her brand, in addition to posing for Vogue& Bazaar once a year and serving as a MET Gala chairwoman. Here’s a recent picture:
Bee Shaffer
Like Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Bee was also born into fashion royalty - her mother being Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
After a glamorous childhood and mom-appointed Teen Vogue editor position at 17, Bee studied at Columbia. Around that time she started dating fellow SR target Plum Sykes’ brother Fred:
And she also had her sights set on journalism, well, until she decided that it was boring and that the fashion world wasn’t for her. In the 2009 documentary The September Issue, she said people who think ”fashion is life“ are lame and that she’d much rather be a lawyer. So logically she started to search for jobs in theater - with no luck - and settled on being the assistant to College Humor head Ricky Van Veen. Anything to piss off mom I guess.
There she met Fred’s replacement, comedy writer Jake Hurtwitz.
The two were an item for a couple of years while she took a new job as Ryan Murphy’s assistant.
After their split, she moved back to New York where she started working as a segment producer for Seth Meyers, and she briefly romanced film critic Ben Lyons.
Now she’s risen to supervising producer, and continues to appear at fashion shows and the MET Gala with mom:
Oblig:
Dr. Lisa Airan
Unlike the other socialites, Lisa Airan actually had a job (that wasn’t a two-week PR stint or acting as a contributing editor for [insert magazine]). She’s a top New York dermatologist - armed with the coveted Oprah Winfrey seal of approval:
Throughout the mid-00s she was a staple of Vogue’s Best Dressed lists and New York Social Diary, and frequently scored in the Top 10 of SR. She set up shop on Fifth Avenue and her socialite pals were her top clients.
These days she’s married to a plastic surgeon and continues to pop up at all the hot parties:
Here’s a picture of her sitting next to Lilo in Training:
Allison Sarofim
Billionheiress, occasional actress, and full-time plastic surgery addict, Allison was another name that often cracked the SR Top 25. She’s the daughter of Houston investor Fayez Shalaby Sarofim and used to be a popular party girl back in the day.
Her yearly Halloween parties were the talk of the season, with one year’s theme being ”Murakami Anime,“ and another year’s being the ”World of Picasso“:
She’s also had the occasional movie role, you might remember her as a centaur in The Chronicles of Narnia, or ”Eating Disorder Mom“ in The Nanny Diaries. If you don’t, neither do I.
In recent years she’s continued to host her annual Halloween bash, now with the help of her man, furniture designer Stuart Parr:
Last year’s theme was Gustav Klimt:
Helen Schifter
Helen started out as a New York fashion writer in the '90s before marrying then-vice president of LeSportsac & co-creator of Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B line, Tim Schifter. She continued to write for Vogue, and quickly climbed the SR ranks during its short-lived run, thanks to her unending hunger for attention and publicity.
But things didn’t pan out too well for Helen in the long-run. In 2011, she was slapped by fellow socialite Helen Marden, wife of abstract painter Brice Marden, at a Manhattan restaurant after Marden accused Schifter of sleeping with her man. Marden reportedly walked up to Schifter and shouted: ”Are you the whore that’s been fucking my husband?“ After the slap, the entire restaurant burst into applause.
Quickly Schifter issued a statement alongside Tim claiming that she was just Bruce’s ”muse“ and that no affair had taken place, but Bruce quickly countered the statement by admitting he did have sexual relations with that socialite.
Since then, Helen’s continued to work the New York party scene, but with a damaged reputation - and she’s still married to Tim, too:
You can just feel the tension.
Tory Burch
Tory was the blueprint all of the other socialites studied carefully. She’s the living equivalent of that Vine of Naomi Campbell yelling at those models on The Face: ”I have my career… you want what I have!“
Before starting her famed eponymous brand in 2004, she was just another society girl: working PR, attending galas - the typical. But then one day she had a brainstorm, she was going to start her own line (with her loaded husband’s money of course)! An Oprah endorsement later and she was a huge multi-million dollar success!
Her clothes quickly becoming the unofficial uniform of well-to-do housewives across Manhattan, and by 2008 she was named the CFDA accessories designer of the year!
But as her brand took off, her marriage fell apart. In 2006 she split from husband Chris Burch, and didn’t skip a beat before getting back into the dating scene.
She was initially spotted getting cozy with multi-billionaire Ron Perelman, but soon after she hopped into a relationship with Lance Armstrong. The two seemed like the perfect pair, until they split in October 2007 and he moved onto Ashley Olsen.
Since then she’s altered her brand’s image to appeal more to middle America, meanwhile she flies first class and tosses her kids in coach. She also briefly dated music exec Lyor Cohen, before settling on LVMH Fashion Group chairman Pierre-Yves Roussel. The two got engaged this year!
Also, like any true Manhattan social icon, she’s appeared on Gossip Girl.
#classic
Olga Rei & Valentine Uhovski
When it was revealed that Olga & Valentine had been the masterminds behind the site, some were shocked, and others felt vindicated - the occasional broken English tipped them off.
The step-siblings grew up as child stars in Russia, before moving to New York where they attended La Guardia High. After graduating, Valentine scored a job as a Fashion Week Daily reporter, helping him and sis Olga slide in & out of all the hot parties where they carefully studied their soon-to-be targets.
Shortly before the 2006 MET Gala they came up with the idea for SR, and the rest is history. Even as they ran the site, they didn’t shy away from the social scene. Their 2006 Halloween party was even attended by all of their top targets, from Lydia Hearst to Arden Wohl:
After the big reveal, the duo went on to partake in other web ventures. In 2008, they started an astrology website called Astro Crack, where Olga would post under the pseudonyms ”Lula“ and ”Luca“ and make guesses about TV characters’ astrology signs & other fun stuff - according to her, Blair Waldorf is a Scorpio because, ”she wants to be loved, but she loves to torture others with a sweet smile“:
After that, the duo created Art Ruby, a web journal dedicated to scouting new talent & art events around the world. Aside from their group projects, Valentine’s plowed through several side jobs - such as reporting for The Wall Street Journal and working as an editor for Interview’s Russian & German magazines. Currently he’s Tumblr’s ”Fashion Evangelist“ (that’s his actual title), where he links brands with the site.
And in a Clueless twist, the former step-siblings are now married! Cher Horowitz’s #Impact:
As for the infamous Palermo peace offering, Olga told New York Magazine in 2007: “We’re being honest. We did not write the Olivia letter. But whoever did it, they are even smarter than us.”
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Hope you guys enjoyed the post! We’re all rooting for you Tinz! Here are some of my other Where Are They Now posts:
- NYC Prep
Shoutout to furhag for gifs!
