And you probably thought Restaurant Girl's writing was criminal.

To the left is the abbreviated version of the two page cease and desist letter we received yesterday from Danyelle Freeman's Beverly Hills law firm. It's a bit overwhelming to incur the wrath of the son of a partner with whom she graduated Harvard, but long story short, we have ten days to shut the fuck up about defaming her and using her name and likeness or we'll face severe criminal and civil penalties.

For what? Our actions on The Life Vicarious, The Gourmet Glossary and our fake Restaurant Girl Twitter. The Life Vicarious wherein we only ever highlighted her typos, The Gourmet Glossary which at best resembles an undergraduate creative writing exercise (and is just as popular,) and a Twitter which is labeled as parody, has been identified ad nauseam by local media as parody, and could not be removed from Twitter because it falls under their definition of parody. Do you know how Twitter defines parody? The standard for defining parody is, "would a reasonable person be aware that it's a joke."

That's right. Danyelle Freeman is prepared to sue us (for all the monies we have received in connection with this??) She is prepared to convince a jury of our peers that a reasonable person would absolutely believe she would say the following: "Everyone is off judging hamburglars. "Maid just walked in on me blogging in my robe. I feel like Meg and McCain on the campaign trail." "Good review to anyone offering up al fresco dining outside tonight." "Cereal milk is not for the lactose insolent." "Graydon Carter's new restaurant is NOT where the monkeys bring you hot towels." "I want to guest blog those Snickers ads." Governor of Texas raving about Secession on TV. Must be great word of mouth for Bouley!"

Can't she just take a fucking joke? It's a Twitter feed. It makes people laugh. Her own writers among them. And they're laughing with us. But really, if she really wants people to laugh at her instead this is the way to do it. Nothing says you're a competent blogger, future author and professional critic for a national newspaper than retaining a law firm to quash a reader's sense of humor.

Comments

[helpful lawyer]

Dont Cave
that cease and esist has no teeth

[Oliver Towle]

If you want to track a food writer whose prose makes pretty clear that she knows no Harvard lawyers from her days as a co-ed, check out the girl the Post has been publishing lately. http://www.thelunchbelle.com

[Bill]

Do you know that stupid restaurant girl recently said Greenwich Village is becoming a new Little Italy... even though Italians have lived there for... I don't know decades? She should be fired for ignorance I can't believe she works for the Daily News.

[George]

way to be an asshole. congratulations.

[Ande]

"Graydon Carter's new restaurant is NOT where the monkeys bring you hot towels." Waaay better than anything Restaurant Girl has come up with.

[JBL in Maine]

According to the Supreme Court of the United States, parody "is the use of some elements of a prior author's composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author's works."

Depending on how it's done, making fun of someone can be witty (e.g. Mad Magazine) or it can be childish (e.g. junior high school).

But apparently you aren't satisfied simply making fun of Restaurant Girl: you attach her name to your parodying, something Mad Magazine or Weird Al would never do.

I had never heard of with you or Restaurant Girl before visiting the NY Times online food pages, so I don't have a dog in this fight.

But I'm curious: have you ever considered how you would feel if someone you never met began twittering and/or blogging vile and hateful things and attaching your name to it?

Your lawyers may be saying you are within your legal rights to do what you're doing, and they may be correct.

But ethically you're acting like a junior high jerk. IMHO.

[TLV]

The difference is, 1.) She's a celebrity, I'm not. There's no public good served in parodying me. Critiquing a critic has its value. 2.) I've never written anything vile or hateful on my blog or Twitter. Everything said in her voice has been sweet, curious or cryptic but generally good-spirited. And nothing I've written has anything to do with Danyelle Freeman's personal actual life, it has to do with the character of "Restaurant Girl."

[Oliver Towle]

Restaurant Girl, a food writer with dubious expertise in food or writing, has been rewarded for her gross incompetence with a national platform to sell herself. Her column and blog are megaphones that amplify the idea that you don't need to be insightful, capable or even literate to succeed. A pretty face and a forgiving editor are all you need to be an opinion leader in America's most discerning culinary market. That, IMHO, is sad.

In as much as TLV can use humor, parody and satire to preempt the vortex of dwindling standards that RG represents, more power to him. If outlandish garbled grammar, poor writing and parody too closely mirrors her writing, perhaps she might want to question what she's doing selling herself as NYC's most visible food writer.

[the trademark troll]

I suppose it was inevitable. Now that Twitter is entering middle age(web years) it becomes vulnerable to main stream legal nonsense.
And when it comes to nonsense nothing can beat trademark law. Attempting to assert specious claims has become the weapon of choice for every thin- skinned person, corporation or law firm seeking to brow beat or bully their way around.

[Marc J. Randazza]

Come on, post the whole letter - including the abject fuckhead moron lawyer who signed that piece of shit.