The Buzz

Volume Number 1 Issue Number 11 / December 6 - 12, 2006

The Buzz

Conservation is sexy: Reverend Billy, the performance-artist preacher, has waged many anti-consumer battles with a lot of heart and humor, but he hasn’t won too many. In fact, none. Until now, that is. The good reverend, real name Bill Talen, called to tip us off Monday night before Wednesday’s announcement that Victoria’s Secret and ForestEthics had reached an agreement under which the lingerie giant will use recycled wood pulp for much of its catalogs. Reverend Billy became the media face of ForestEthics’ campaign to pressure Limited Brands, Victoria’s Secret’s parent company, to stop using paper made from wood clear-cut from Canada’s pristine Boreal Forest. Under the agreement, Victoria’s Secret’s main catalogs will be made using either 10 percent recycled paper or at least 10 percent certifiably sustainable forest products, while 80 percent of its clearance catalogs will be made with recycled paper. “It’s amazing. They have settled — they will use recycled pulp for their famous semi-porn catalogs,” said Billy. During the last year and a half, Reverend Billy has tirelessly invaded Victoria’s Secret boutiques from San Francisco, to Falstaff, Az., to Soho, with his Church of Stop Shopping Choir in order to “exorcise the chainsaws” from the cash registers. Printing 1 million catalogs a day, Victoria’s Secret is one of the country’s biggest catalog producers. The hope is it will now lead the way for other catalogs, like JCPenney and others, to become eco-friendly. On a personal note, speaking for himself and his choir, Reverend Billy marveled, “What this might be is the first time we’ve finally encountered a success. We cannot say that we’ve really slowed down Wal-Mart or Disney or Starbucks or other corporations that we’ve identified as devils. This feels like a miracle.”

Hosts with the most (coffee): Starbucks may be the devil to some, including Reverend Billy, but the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting teamed up with the pricey coffee chain on Tuesday morning near the Meat Market on Gansevoort St. between Greenwich and Hudson Sts. to hand out free coffee to local residents to thank them for, in the words of Kara Alaimo, a M.O.F.T.B. spokesperson, “hosting,” a film shoot. The shoot was for “P.S. I Love You, Again,” starring Hilary Swank, Kathy Bates, Harry Connick Jr. and Lisa Kudrow. We hope the coffee helped soothe those jangled nerves.

Crossed the line: Last week’s letter to the editor in Chelsea Now by Christopher X. Brodeur, we realize now — albeit it a bit late — was not exactly a very polite way to welcome Jennifer Falk as the new executive director of the Union Square Partnership business improvement district. Falk, formerly Mayor Bloomberg’s first deputy press secretary, doesn’t even start the job until Jan. 3, and she certainly doesn’t deserve anyone taking potshots at her before then. On the other hand, Brodeur just got out of jail after a several-months’ stint for some seriously disturbing freaky phone harassment; his past targets have included his former landlord Paul Stallings, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler and New York Observer reporter Ben Smith. Brodeur’s harassment of the City Hall press department is well known in press circles. We believe he’s under some sort of ban from doing phone harassment now — but evidently that doesn’t stop him from writing nasty letters. Chelsea Now definitely likes to have an open and lively letters page — but, well, there are limits. Somewhere there is a line. Brodeur’s letter slamming Falk, over the top and uncivil as it was, crossed the line. To Jen Falk, we wish you good luck and are confident you’ll do a great job leading the BID. To Chris Brodeur — please, don’t harass us for writing this! Thanks!