Ha, note to celebrities: request someone other than Dave Itzkoff, should your publicist force you to go on a night out with the New York Times. 22-year-olds as pretty as Penn Badgley do not belong in Mars Bar. They do probably belong at former CBGB retail outlet John Varvatos, where Itzkoff also walked him through–“At least they didn’t turn it into a bank,” Badgley remarks, sagely. And what better comedy than to repeat the whole “Other Music is a judgmental cred-test” ritual with a helpless TV star?:
Outside, he confessed that his acquisitions were mostly impulse buys that his “Gossip Girl” salary could easily finance. “That’s one of the greatest things about working in TV,” he said in a low deadpan.
One senses the hidden hand of an Itzkoff recommendation in there, somewhere. But good records! They’ll go well with that song that that band played on the show the other night.
A Night Out With | Penn Badgley [NYT]
This article from the Village Voice Archive was posted on October 19, 2009
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