2000 Zero Zero Party Almost Out of Time

Joe Fornabaio/NYT

"What is hip?" you ask the Sunday Styles section. J.T. Leroy, it tells you. Warren St. John profiles the "the de rigueur literary recommendation for a certain set of hipsters" who "has been embraced by established writers including Tobias Wolff, Michael Chabon and Mary Gaitskill, and by a cadre of celebrities with, as it happens, their own troubled pasts, like Courtney Love, Winona Rider, Tatum O'Neal and Billy Corgan." But although it's the publication of his new illustrated novella that's made NYT take notice, Leroy's been quite well-known for more than four years, since the publication of his first novel, Sarah. Of course, his popularity is pretty much among readers who, unlike the Sunday Styles target audience, don't need to be told who Billy Corgan is. Mind you, the deft and imaginative "baby celebrity" hasn't exactly escaped notice from the Times in the past, but (a) maybe the folks at the Review don't talk to the Styles people or there's nobody left at the Review who remembers those pieces, (b) the Styles people don't think they get the same crowd the Review draws, or (c) why pass up a chance to tell a good story one more time?

Now, if they could just do something about running these stories before the author's New York City readings...