Late last week I received a cease and desist letter in an effort to quash my parody of Danyelle Freeman aka Restaurant Girl, the New York Daily News restaurant critic.
Unlike her faceless peers, Danyelle Freeman has more in common with social critics, political pundits or campaign reporters who immerse themselves in the media they cover. Rather than dining out incognito, she shuns false identities and disguises, posting a photo of herself beside her reviews. Her mission statement claims she does this to remain "as personable as humanly possible" to chefs and restauranteurs but denies it clouds her judgment and that her ultimate responsibility is to the reader, not unlike embedded reporters who feel so close to the campaigns they cover, they forget what's their purpose on the trail. If this approach to food criticism wasn't ripe enough for parody, there are also the two years of incidents since the NYDN first hired her, how her blog posts and newspaper reviews are littered with factual, grammatical and spelling errors.
When this behavior earned her a book deal, I saw an opportunity for parody. Now I'm paying the price.
I parody her on Twitter. At twitter.com/restaurantgirl and I've been doing so since February 20th, four days after it was announced by Publishers Weekly that Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins bought the rights to her first book, Danyelle Freeman's Gourmet Glossary. I thought this ripe for parody since she's long had a difficult time expressing herself in both her reviews for the NYDN as well as through the supplementary posts on her own Restaurant Girl website. Two years as a professional critic hasn't changed the fact she embarrasses herself and the newspaper on a daily basis, not unexpected from someone who in her bio states she seeks "oral adventure around every corner."
If it's supposed to be a boon to her audience that chefs recognize her, it's sad she can't recognize them. In a recent review of the NYC restaurant Shang, she misidentified chef Susur Lee as a woman, Susan Lee. More than that, she misidentifies restaurant's locations, placing famed Brooklyn cheesecake factory Junior's in Queens and when she does get a story right, she tells it all wrong. In a recent round-up of Valentine's Day gift and dining options she and her staff of four (who only write four to five posts and one review a week) made this many mistakes:
"As has become tradition, we've sorted through the tsunami of Valentine's Day gifts and found a sweets for anyone and everyone." "If you thought you couldn't stomach one more rose, you'll happily submit to just one more." "Buy something different this year crazy this year." "Jacques Torres is always comes up with something unique for Valentine's Day, but I'm stuck on his trademark chocolate -- The Kiss." "If you're in the Each piece is covered in dark chocolate spiced with Ceylon cinnamon and ancho and chipotle chile powder... At $20 for half a pound, it’s truly worth, and hot enough to raise temperatures for Valentine’s Day." "If you're someone you love celebrates every holiday with cupcakes, Sugar Sweet Sunshine has got your back on Valentine's Day... For February 14th, they're offering a "Sassy" and "Sexy" red velvet cupcakes." "Whether you're looking to seal the deal, hopelessly romantic or something casual, there's a restaurant that fits the part..." "Since you can't make reservations, no one else can either."
As her book was announced in the shadow of this, I decided to join the Twitter fray. And while the first few weeks I did not identify what I was doing as parody, I made sure my posts were so absurd no one could confuse them with her work. That people did confuse them is a testament to the general low opinion of her as a respected critic.
While she was attending the South Beach Food & Wine Festival, I tweeted with typos intended:
"Everyone is off judging hamburglars." "Underdressed at somalier seminar, blush in my stemware more ways than once." "Maid just walked in on me blogging in my robe, I feel like Meg and McCain on the campaign trail."
Eventually word got out to her in the local food press on sites like Eater, New York magazine's Grub Street blog, Citysearch's The Feedbag blog, and Time Out New York's The Feed blog who highlighted the fact that, along the way, the dining editor of The New York Times described my work as more fun than the original. Once I then outed myself I assumed everyone would have a good laugh for a while and eventually the Twitter would tire out. I kept up the Twitter account but began to identify it as a parody unaffiliated with her so I fell within Twitter's TOS policy regarding parody. But since then my following has doubled in size with tweets like this:
"Am I the only one who thinks protesting teabags today is dumb? The biggest problem facing tea is when the water's way too hot, not the bags." "I want to guest blog those Snickers ads." "Good review to anyone offering up alfresco dining outside tonight."
The press has asked her to comment on it over and over again but she long refused which is smart. It's a joke. It will get old. And everyone will move on with their lives. But late last week she contacted the powerful Beverly Hills law firm Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown and her lawyer Dan S Pressman sent me a cease and desist e-mail that I have posted to my blog, threatening me with civil and criminal penalties for trademark infringement and defamation of character. So now I'm up against a powerful law firm and a national newspaper despite writing a small reaching blog audience and just a few hundred Twitter followers. I know political bloggers and websites like Wonkette, even the morning humor here on Daily Kos, parody reporters and columnists and I wondered if anyone can provide me with any comfort or advice and if everyone reading this can help me get my story told.
Newspapers wonder why their readership is dwindling and it's one thing not to see their missteps by surrendering their credibility with hiring stunts like Restaurant Girl, whose only credentials were a degree from Harvard and a small role on The Sopranos, but it's even worse to think they would go after their readers for being vocal in their criticism of these actions.
UPDATE: I just want to note to answer some commenters that my Twitter profile states: "This Twitter is an unaffiliated parody of Danyelle Freeman, the real Restaurant Girl who can be found at restaurantgirl.com. She's not this clever or ambitious." It's been identified upfront as parody for more than a month before her lawyer sent me a cease and desist letter. And to reiterate, even Twitter refuses to remove it from their site, their own legal department defines it as parody. I don't see what the difference is between this and Will Ferrell playing George W Bush in a Broadway show except that was funnier.