The Sit-Down      11/24/2008  

Gael Greene Reflects on Her Exit From New York

We spoke with Gael Greene earlier today about her departure from New York, her current plans, and why the hell HBO or somebody isn’t making a movie about her days as a playgirl and restaurant critic in the swinging sixties and seventies. Gael continues to write daily at Insatiable Critic, and still gets a lot of stuff the rest of us don’t.

Gael, when did you find out you were getting released from the magazine?

Wednesday. I got a call asking me to come in to see [Editor in Chief] Adam Moss. I  knew that could not be good news. I toyed with the idea that he wanted to give me some complicated assignment.  But I knew.

What did he say?

You know, I don’t know what he said! It was so shocking, I don’t remember the words. It amounted to, you’re done, you’re finished, goodbye.

Adam would never say it like that though. He’s a really gentle person.

No, of course. It must have pained him. It’s very hard to be in that position. But that was the message.

Did he say why?

He said he had to reduce the budget because of difficult times.

What did you say?

I said, I have such a tiny salary, you’re not going to save a lot of money if you let me go. Why don’t you take away my teeny expense account and let me stay. Do you have any idea how old I am? Maybe I won’t last that long.

Oh no! Gael!

You know, also, I’m the only brand New York has since John Leonard died. Adam and Rob and Robin are very well-known in the food world, but I doubt the reader on the street knows most of our other writers besides me.

So what are you going to do?

I’m going to continue to write on my blog. It’s essentially a whole magazine there, and requires a lot of effort, as you know, to maintain. I’m going to continue to eat out and write about it.

Will you write for the magazine?

I don’t know. I did tell them to take my name off the masthead.

Why?

Because it’s worth more to them to have it there than it is for me to. Also, I own all the reviews I’ve done; if they want to have them in their system, they’re going to have to pay me, I think. I have to look into that. I own them; they might have to take them down. That’s a lot of reviews.

What’s going on with your book? Why aren’t various thirty-something actresses clamoring to play you in a TV movie about your high times and exploits?

I asked HBO the same thing! They’re not interested. It would be like Sex in the City at the table. Maybe you can write something about it.

Done.

Comments

One Response to “Gael Greene Reflects on Her Exit From New York”

  1. iEat: Restaurant News & Blog on December 1st, 2008 2:28 pm

    [...] THE NEWS: Dining Critic Gael Greene gets dumped from New York magazine and reflects on her four decades of reviewing. … Time Out gives its first-ever six-star review, to Chef [...]

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