What’s this now? A group of burlesque dancers protested outside Barnes and Noble on Broadway and 82nd street last Thursday night because the store wouldn’t allow them to perform in the windows? The burlesque performers held signs proclaiming “Puritinacal Rule is Soooo Yesterday” and no one sent us a picture? And we had to read this in the Daily News?
We’re told the scantily clad sirens had been booked for weeks to appear there as part of a book-signing for “Goddess of Love Incarnate: The Life of Stripteuse Lili St Cyr,” a biography of a legendary burlesque queen by Leslie Zemeckis, the wife of “Forrest Gump” director Robert.
Insiders say organizer Kelly Cutrone of PR firm People’s Revolution had been in talks with the store’s managers for two months and had done multiple walk-throughs at the space to go over plans in detail. We’re told that there was never any intention for the performers to be nude.
But on Thursday, after seeing pictures of the outfits the pin-ups — including Jo “Boobs” Weldon and Coney Island’s own Bambi the Mermaid — planned to wear, blushing store managers said they would have to stay fully clothed and could only appear in a room safely inside the store, rather than the windows.
“This is way too revealing for a family store and after speaking with the store manager, we cannot proceed with the performances as was discussed,” a senior staffer, Paul Trinidad, wrote to event organizers in an email seen by Confidenti@l, “The window space is no longer an option as per the store manager. We would be able to accomodate (sic) the dancers, fully clothed, exclusively in the event space.”
C’mon tipsters! West Side Rag needs to know about the truly important stories!
Not my beat.
Talk to the Entertainment Reporter or Books. Or try Politics, Men’s Issues…
Re: “…The Life of Stripteuse Lili St Cyr,”
STRIPTEUSE ?!?!
W-T-H ! (this IS a family site, ya know!)
So WHAT is the PC name for a MALE stripper ??
🙂
“So WHAT is the PC name for a MALE stripper ?? ”
A Hollow Wienie.
or perhaps delete an “i” for an “e” — Hollow Weenie.
Stripteur!
You say that with such enthusiasm!
Well, it follows that if a female stripper is a “Stripteuse”, then the term “Striptease” is now available to refer to the men.
Don’t know if that would be PC, I’m no expert.
Stripteuse/stripteur … masseuse/masseur … danseuse/danseur, etc. (Though I doubt that you’ll find the first pairing in your Cassell’s.)
So:
(1) “stripteur” is a male stripper?
(2) is the term PC?
Curious minds want to know, and google gives me lots of French citations and a headache.
Also, I misplaced my Cassell just now. Is it possible that I may have lent it to you, perhaps?
Oh shoot! Sorry WSR. I’m a bad neighbor. I have pics for you. And a video. Email me if you want them.
Paige, I gotta know…
…what parts were “semi-nude”?
The upper parts 😉 Covered by pasties of course, so they could dance in the street topless without…being topless.
wow wee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This does make sense. The UWS does now have the character of a suburban town. I can’t imagine another B&N location for this event since the target audience is the oldsters who still live around here. Wo else would even know who this stripper was?
i kinda agree.
Do this insight that “The UWS does now have the character of a suburban town” put an end to Commentors shouting each other down with: “If you don’t like it, move to the sburbs!”
Because we are all already there.
Re: all the ridiculous cwap that the UWS is ‘just another suburb”!
REALLY! And what exactly makes it ‘suburban’?
Would it be:
a) the frenetic activity of any major intersection like W72nd/Bdway, W86th/Bdway, or W96th/Bdway with their endless streams of pedestrians, delivery trucks, MTA buses, yellow and green taxis, etc. etc.;
b) OR maybe it’s the quirky shops like Fairway with its 24-hour outdoor produce bins OR one-of-a-kind Zabar’s OR Symphony Space OR restaurants like La Caridad on W78th offering Chinese/Cuban food OR the many, many eateries on Columbus and Amsterdam offering outdoor tables;
C) OR the stunning re-done public plazas at Lincoln Center OR the quirky-but-quintesentials ART HOUSE that is Lincoln Plaza Cinema;
OR…oh, for all you UWS-HATERS, try this:
Go spend an hour on some suburban main street, and when you’ve recovered from your boredom and nausea come back to the UWS. It’s okay…we accept all types, because we are part of a WORLD-CLASS CITY !!
ScooterStan,
I only latched on to the analogy as a last hope for arresting the constant insult hurled here on WSR: “So move to the suburbs”.
Clearly I know the difference between the UWS and the suburbs. I always know when I am in the suburbs, 100% accurately.
Fairway is not a quirky little shop. It is a chain of supermarkets. The location on the UWS is the original store and no matter what they may do it remains a very unpleasant experience.
Nope. What makes it suburban is the lack of real activity after 10pm on Broadway and other Avenues. There are exceptions. There is a strip of restaurants in the 80s on Amsterdam. Lincoln Center is not characteristic of the UWS. The area at W72nd St. is a transportation hub. The UWS is now pretty much over 50 on one hand and your families on the other. That is the suburbs. Broadway Avenue is morphing into a suburban strip mall.
We’re trying as hard as we can to bring the city back to the neighborhood, 72nd and 96th streets look good. That area around Barnes is starting to look pretty 1987 again, but that one block with the book store. We’ll have to try harder, I’ll call some crust punks, you bring some winos. We’ll blast the radio and smoke like it’s 1984, that’ll show em!
Are those crust punks on 96 Street?
Also, what’s a crust punk?
Oh, man. I can fully understand Barnes & Noble balking at this, especially up here on 82nd Street. But Kelly Cutrone is just the coolest. I seriously think she’s my favorite New Yorker. Wish I’d been there to watch this!