New Inside Track Gal Finally Gets Some Trac(k)tion

April 29, 2017

The hardreading staff is first to acknowledge that replacing the Boston Herald’s longtime Inside Track diva Gayle Fee is a daunting task. And, all due respect, new Track Gal Olivia Vanni has gotten off to a largely undistinguished start.

But she kicked ass today.

 

 

Local Festers Shireena El Gallal and her sister Lamann dished all the gory details about the Bahama drama to Vanni, who totally scooped the Boston Globe.

We’re sure the Namesniks at the Globe will do their usual clip ‘n’ paste job in tomorrow’s edition. Maybe, instead of their usual M O, they’ll actually credit their sources.


Boston (Globe), We Have a Houston Problem

June 9, 2016

There’s a gossip gap regarding the late lamented Whitney Houston in today’s Boston dailies.

Start with this Boston Globe Names item about Houston’s parasitic partner Bobby Brown, who’s currently flacking a new book.

Brown: ‘I’ve had some crazy situations’

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Bobby Brown will say what he wants, weird as it may be. That’s his prerogative.

In an interview to promote his new memoir, “Every Little Step,” the Roxbury native and cofounder of the ’80s boy band New Edition told Robin Roberts on “20/20” Tuesday that he had sex with a ghost.

“I bought this mansion in Georgia. This was a really, really spooky place,” he said. “But yes, one time I woke up and, yeah, a ghost. . . . I wasn’t high.”

 

Uh-huh. Then there’s some other stuff in the item that’s entirely unremarkable, as Brown himself tends to be.

But it was a whole nother story from the Boston Herald’s Inside Track Gal, Gayle Fee.

Bobby book blames Whitney’s death 
on lack of acceptance for BFF lovers

Bobby Brown, the Roxbury R&B star who was married to the late Whitney Houston for 14 years, reveals that the mega-pop star had a lesbian love affair with her best Screen Shot 2016-06-09 at 1.17.33 PMfriend and longtime assistant Robyn Crawford, adding that if the two were still together, Houston might never have died.

“I really feel that if Robyn was accepted into Whitney’s life, Whitney would still be alive today,” Brown told Us Weekly. “She didn’t have close friends with her anymore.”

 

With grave robbers like Bobby Brown around, though, she’ll never really be gone.


Hark! The Herald! (Going to Ascot Edition)

February 28, 2016

This is rich.

We’ve long known that the writers at the Boston Globe are bow-tied bumkissers, thanks to relentless mocking by a certain Boston Herald columnist.

But check out Gayle Fee’s Inside Track item from today’s edition of the selfie local tabloid.

 

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That would be Herald managing editor/creative Gustavo Leon, if you’re keeping score at home.

So, what do we call the Heraldniks now? The ascotted asskickers?

Paging Howie Carr . . . paging Mr. Howie Carr.

P.S. Congrats to the Boston Herald photo staff, which “captured 13 awards in the Boston Press Photographers Association annual contest — led by Mark Garfinkel’s first place in the Spot News category.” The flashy local tabloid covers its awards here.


Ernie’s Bochanalia for Trump Drives Carr

August 19, 2015

The hardreading staff normally likes to ignore Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr(toon), but every now and again we just can’t help ourselves.

Herald Track Gal Gayle Fee has this update today on that fundraiser the autoheirotic Ernie Boch Jr. is throwing at his $30 million Norwood manse for Donald Trump.

Boch Trump-ets upcoming fundraiser

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Car czar Ernie Boch Jr. said the guest list for his Aug. 28 private fundraiser for Donald Trump now tops 700 and his office has fielded hundreds of calls from fans of the White House wannabe who want in.

“People are calling me who I haven’t talked to in 30 years!” Boch told the Track. “This thing is more popular than I ever imagined — and it’s pretty bipartisan. This is not a Republican gathering by any stretch of the imagination.”

Boch said he’s even heard from a handful of Democratic officials who want to come to the event but who can’t, for obvious reasons, write a check to the GOP presidential hopeful.

“That’s why were doing cash or check at the door,” he said.

 

Ha!

For your money you’ll get “cocktails, live music by rock cover band Fortune, a live broadcast by Herald columnist/radio yakker Howie Carr and food by chef Tony Ambrose.”

Carr’s presence in helping raise money for the bloated billionaire makes perfect sense since he’s a total Trump groupie, with today’s column Exhibit Umpteen.  Of course, Carr long ago surrendered his press credentials in favor of GOP fundraising, as the redoubtable Dan Kennedy has noted several times.

File under: Keep on spinnin’.


Track Whacks Globe Over Non-Disclose

April 8, 2015

Boston GlobeSox owner John Henry gets batted around in the Boston Herald’s Inside Track today, thanks to this Eric Wilbur piece on boston.com.

Boston is Still a Red Sox Town Even if Tom Brady is King

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Who rules Boston: the Red Sox or Patriots?

Ultimately, there is no clear front-runner in the debate over whether Boston has ultimately become a football town, or if it maintains its long-time status as a bastion of baseball devotees.

The correct answer is both. It’s a Red Sox town. And it’s a Patriots town.

 

And boston.com is a Henry town, although the piece never mentions that. Which led Track Gal Gayle Fee to mention this:

SURPRISE! GLOBE SITE CITES SOX #1

Stop the presses: “Boston is Still a Red Sox Town Even If Tom Brady Is King.”NEL_5931.JPG

That’s according to Boston.
com, the digital arm of the Boston Globe. But nowhere in the commentary by sports blogger Eric Wilbur does he mention that the Red Sox, the Globe and Boston.com are all owned by the same man — John Henry!

Which makes Wilbur’s conclusion — that without Brady, the Patriots would be chopped liver, fanwise — somewhat suspect, don’t cha think???

 

Full disclosure: The hardreading staff believes that any publication owned by Henry should disclose the connection every time it reports on the Boston Red Sox or the Liverpool Football Club or Roush Fenway Racing or Fenway Park or anything Henry has purchased since we started this post. Some people we greatly respect believe we’re over-fastidious in this matter (hi, Dan!), but we’ve learned to live with that.

Then again, some have learned to live without.

Boston.com editor Tim Molloy, who has been on the job just under a month, said he has not even met John Henry, let alone been told what to write by the Sox boss. And Molloy said he saw no problem in Wilbur’s not disclosing the boss’s mutual ownership in the piece.

“I think that’s pretty well known,” he told the Track. “It’s not anything we disguise or try to keep secret. And I’ve had absolutely no contact with Mr. Henry in terms of anything editorial.”

 

That last, of course, is entirely beside the point. Regardless, Molloy told the Track that “if Henry’s ownership of the paper, the website and the team were disclosed in Wilbur’s piece, it should be disclosed ‘every time we write about the Red Sox.'”

Exactly.


Different Cos and Effect in Boston Dailies

February 7, 2015

From our One Town, Two Different Worlds desk

The Boston Herald has been making hay-hay-hay over the Bill Cosby rumpus in advance of his two performances this weekend at the Wilbur Theatre. Yesterday the not-so-funnyman got front-page treatment in the feisty local tabloid.

 

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And today Cosby gets his say in Gayle Fee’s Page 2 piece:

Bill Cosby has defiant message for foes

Bill Cosby

Accused sexual predator Bill Cosby yesterday responded to Boston critics who plan to protest his shows at The Wilbur Theatre tomorrow, saying “Hey, Hey, Hey — I’m far from finished,” igniting even more anger from advocates calling for him to cancel the appearances.

“Dear Fans: GOD has Blessed me with a wonderful gift to share with all of you,” Cosby said in a statement released to the Herald. “For 53 years I have continued to master this gift, which heals the soul and warms hearts. Laughter! I thank you, the theatre staff (Wilbur Theatre), the event organizers and the Boston Community for your continued support and coming to experience family, fun entertainment. Hey, Hey, Hey — I’m Far From Finished.”

 

Oy Oy, Oy.

Beyond that, Herald scribe Joe Fitzgerald gives the protestors a bit of a dressing-down in his column today.

Angry mob wrong to try to go after easy target in Bill Cosby

While Bill Cosby is preparing for a couple of shows at The Wilbur Theatre tomorrow, a group of protesters is making its preparations, too, putting final touches on placards it intends to wave along busy, snow-packed Tremont Street.

They want us to know how very upset they are about violence toward women.Bill Cosby

Please. Who isn’t? They’re not the only ones on that high road.

But they could have made more of a statement and been less of a nuisance just a few days earlier when a Superior Court judge, E. Susan Garsh, had the audacity to lecture a mother — “Maintain your emotions. You are not to cry!” — when the latter was about to view a photo of her murdered son’s lifeless body displayed on a table.

 

Fitzgerald’s bottom line:

He’s been accused of bad stuff, but never charged, much less convicted, which doesn’t seem to matter to those who’ll gather to pass judgment tomorrow . . .

Cos has a right to be on that stage tomorrow, and those who still find him amusing and admirable have a right to enjoy the show.

What is so complicated about that?

 

Don’t even know where to begin . . .

Crosstown at the Boston Globe, meanwhile, there has been zero coverage in the print edition over the past few days.

 

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There is, however, this posted on the web:

Activists to protest Bill Cosby performance at Wilbur

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Activists are gearing up for protests at the two Bill Cosby shows at The Wilbur Theater, hoping to call attention to allegations that Cosby sexually assaulted more than two dozen women throughout his career.

“We plan on protesting as long as the show is scheduled to continue,” said Brandie Skorker of Boston, who began organizing the demonstration in January and now has the backing of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.
Cosby is scheduled to perform two back-to-back shows at the Tremont Street venue, beginning at 5 p.m. Tickets are still on sale. Wilbur officials could not be reached for comment.

 

Huh – ’cause theater owner and promoter Bill Blumenreich had plenty to say to the Herald’s Fee yesterday. We’ll see which paper gets the last laugh after tomorrow’s shows.


Just Desserts for Two Landmark Local Restaurants

October 28, 2014

Two legendary Boston boîtes that couldn’t be more different are getting appropriate sendoffs, each from the appropriate local daily.

Start with this Metro Page One Devra First piece in today’s Boston Globe:

More than just a good roast chicken

Last week I had the famous roast chicken with garlic, lemon, and parsley at Hamersley’s Bistro for the last time. After 27 years, the South End establishment closes its doors on Wednesday with a fund-raiser for the Boston Center for the Arts.

The farewell was already in full swing when I was there. People took photos outside and inside the restaurant, selfies, portraits with spouses, portraits with chef-28hamersleypic08owner Gordon Hamersley, who runs the place with wife, Fiona. After one last dinner, a regular tried to slide in for a second last dinner before regular service ended Monday: “Gordon said to ask you about the possibility of a reservation for three,” he wheedled at the host stand. (She made it happen.) There were silver-haired men in suits and coifed women with statement jewelry, the people who came up with the restaurant and now must say good-bye. But also here: South End eccentrics, the city’s foodizens, young couples on their first visit, so they could say they’d been.

 

But wait – we’ve got second helpings. Also saying goodbye to Hamersley’s in today’s Globe is Boston Baron David Mugar, who took out this quarter-page ad on A7.

 

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Crosstown at the Boston Herald, it was a very different local establishment getting the Long Goodbye: Legendary watering hole Daisy Buchnan’s. Inside Track Gal Gayle Fee has this sad tale of Daisy’s demise.

Daisy Buchanan’s sign plucked from beloved bar

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So the end is truly near, because someone stole the Daisy’s sign from the side of the soon-to-be shuttered Hub meet market Daisy Buchanan’s.

Bar spokesman George Regan confirmed that the sign disappeared from the Fairfield Street side of the popular jock hangout over the weekend.

“We’re offering a $500 reward for the return of the sign, no questions asked,” Regan said.

Bar owner Joe Cimino didn’t report the theft to the police because, Regan said, “They have bigger things to worry about than someone stealing our sign.

“But if they see someone walking down the street with it,” he added, “it’s probably suspicious!”

 

Right farewells, right papers, yeah?


Globe Eulogizes Karina Moreira Later/Better Than Herald

October 5, 2014

Sometimes, the knockoff is superior to the original. At least that seems to be the case in memorializing local fashion blogger Karina Moreira, who died last week at the tragically young age of 16.

From Friday’s Boston Herald Inside Track:

 

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Getting there first: Nice.

From Saturday’s Boston Globe:

Fashion blogger Karina Moreira, 16, dies after battle with cancer

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Karina Moreira, 16, whose blog “chic by karina” caught the attention of supermodel Gisele Bundchen, Taylor Swift, and thousands of followers on social media, died Thursday evening, according to her mother Daniela Xavier.

“I am so proud of [Karina],” she said. “With everything that she went through, she still had hope and faith in God. She never gave up or complained.”

 

Getting Karina’s family: Nicer.

Now say thanks to the Herald, Globeniks.


Hub Dailies Bid #2 Adieu

September 28, 2014

It’s Sendoff Sunday for Yankee great Derek Jeter as he says so long to baseball and the Fenway Faithful. So it’s not surprising that the local dailies have some parting gifts for the splendid shortstop who, as far as we know, never got a nickname.

From the Boston Globe, it’s a bouquet of stats – Jeter’s career relative to the Red Sox. (On the web here, but graphics not really working.)

 

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Close-up of Jeter’s numbers:

 

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Nice, but a little cold and calculating.

Crosstown at the Boston Herald, the sendoff is much warmer.

 

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And the feisty local tabloid goes into extra innings, as Track Gal Gayle Fee tracks Jeter’s dating average.

 

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Tip o’ the cap to the Herald on this one.


At Boston Globe, WBZ=We Bring Zilch

August 27, 2014

Big shakeup in the news department at WBZ yesterday, as Boston Herald Inside Track gal Gayle Fee reported.

 

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Crosstown at the Boston Globe, though, it was all quiet on the ‘BZ front (at least in the paper delivered to the hardreading staff).

Nothing on BostonGlobe.com either as of 2:45 pm.

 

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Take your victory lap, Gayle.