"If you couldn’t get into the Chelsea Hotel, you came here (Gramercy Park Hotel)," so said British filmmaker, Simon Monjack, in a Jan 23, 2005 interview in the NYT.  Is that what happened to Ian Schrager?  He couldn’t buy the Chelsea so he bought the Gramercy Park.  In a recent interview with the London Financial…

Filming in the neighborhood has started for Lasse Hallstrom’s upcoming biopic "Hoax," a drama about Clifford Irving, the former Hotel Chelsea resident who wrote and sold a bogus biography of Howard Hughes to McGraw-Hill for a considerable advance.  Richard Gere stars along with Julie Delpy.  Friday night, scenes were filmed inside of the Capitol Fishing…

Last night I ran into Man w/Dog, glasses, and porkpie hat while he was walking his dog in the neighborhood.  I told him about your post on Craigslist and though he said he doesn’t turn on his computer very often he’ll check it out.  He did ask for specific details about how to find the…

Man w/ Dog in Chelsea Hotel: Glasses, porkpie hat, carrying record – w4m – 26 Hi there, We met on the first floor landing of the Chelsea Hotel tonight, just 5 after 10pm. (I was all in white.) I was trying to find the exit and you told me to stop at the 11th floor…

The crime rate on our block went through the roof last night.  At about 8:30, when I was coming home from dinner, I noticed more than the usual number of rubber neckers hanging out in front of the Chelsea.  Their attention was focused on Candy World directly across the street where the cops were bringing…

This is a hotel afterall and sometimes other bloggers check in and blog about their experience. Blogger Jen is Famous stopped by room 222 this week.  Unfortunately, she did not get any pics from inside the room where Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin knew each other well. Blogger Robert Paterson stayed in room 822.  A…

In a recently published interview, Brett Smiley, the subject of Nina Antonia’s book "The Prettiest Star: Whatever Happened to Brett Smiley?" divulges that when the going got tough, he went to the Chelsea. There was so much distrust and intrigue between the label at the time, Anchor Records, the distributors, and myself with Andrew. I…

The fashionistas over at Gawker "…want Nick to be less Chelsea Hotel and more Soho House…"  Frankly, Nick’s look screams Soho House to me. (Photo credit: Jake Chessum) The post did get me to thinking.  What is Chelsea Hotel style?  I conducted an informal survey in the elevator last night to see if I could…

In an interview with The Independent, actor Gene Wilder, who was born Jerome Leiberman, reveals that he chose the name "Gene" to honor Thomas Wolfe’s autobiographical character Eugene Gant. "…He spent a year in England, where he trained at the Bristol Old Vic and became the all-schools’ fencing champion, then he enrolled at Lee Strasberg’s…