I've just finished reading Toby Young's excellent memoir of working for (and not working for) Vanity Fair in New York, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, a thoroughly enjoyable and intelligent book filled with outrageous incident and scandalous muck-raking, peopled by characters not that far away from those I know in the world of television comedy. Highly recommended, even if he does go on about meritocracy rather too much.

Sadly, unlike the American edition, all the reviews on and in the book seem to be rather complimentary. The US version instead covered itself, A.A.Gill-style, with abuse. How Julie Burchill's opinion can go from 'I'll rot in hell before I give that little bastard a quote for his book' to 'The funniest, cleverest, most touching new book I've read for as long as I can remember' in the space of a re-printing, I don't know. (If you want the venom there are some pretty choice ones on the front page of Young's website.)

What began to intrigue me about the book though was the real identity of many of the characters, in particular that of Young's more successful friend, Alex de Silva who's career seems to soar all the higher as Young's begins to nosedive. I have to admit I was little stumped - the only information I had to go on was that he was a journalist and graduate of the screenwriting course at UCLA who, early on in the book, is described as working on a screenplay about the life of William Shatner. (For which Jim Carrey expresses an interest in playing James Doohan.) But then came a breakthrough. Alex sells a script:

________ ________ was a Welsh comedian who'd unexpectedly found success in an American sitcom. Alex had befriended him and they'd talked about collaborating on a screenplay... 'we've written this comedy about a gay Welsh dog groomer who comes to LA to enter this dog-grooming competition. It's called Woof!.'

My immediate feeling is that Woof! is actually the film The Big Tease about a Scottish hairdresser who comes to LA to enter a hairdressing competition. The Welsh comedian is actually Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson who went over to America and got cast as the boss in The Drew Carey Show. So who did Craig Ferguson co-write The Big Tease with? A man called Sacha Gervasi. So is this Alex de Silva? It all seems a bit obvious, a little poorly disguised. But there was one more piece of evidence that convinced me. Later on in the book is the following passage:

After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin in 1986 [Alex had] drifted into rock'n'roll ending up as the bassist for a band called The Dicemen. He also became a world-class junkie. He didn't decide to get clean until 1992 after he was thrown out of the band for passing out in the middle of a concert. By the time I met him a year later he was scraping a living as a freelance journalist in London but it was clear his heart wasn't in it. I think the thing that convinced him he was destined for greater things was the success of The Dicemen after they'd replaced him with a more reliable bassist. By this time they'd renamed themselves _____.

Sacha Gervasi used to be the drummer in Bush, or as they were called at the time, Midnight, the name change coming after Gervasi left the band in 1992. Ta-da! Proof, if proof be need be. Also, interestingly enough, in Gervasi's biog for The Big Tease, it says not only that 'Gervasi co-founded alternative rock group Bush' but also that 'in 1994, he was appointed film editor of The Modern Review', the magazine founded by Toby Young and Julie Burchill. I don't really have any doubts that Alex de Silva is Sacha Gervasi.

Still not sure who some of the other un-named characters are though. At one point de Silva is going out with a supermodel who, while they are having sex, says he's 'better than De Niro', which points me in the direction of De Niro's one-time supermodel squeeze Naomi Campbell, but I can't be sure. Also I haven't the faintest clue about the real identity of The Red Hot Chilli Pepper, the Chilean supermodel with the $20,000 breast implants. Perhaps some kind reader has also been doing some detective work and can enlighten me.

Molly says:
Speaking of Sachas, the NY Times had a piece this week on the new Sacha BC series that's starting on HBO this month, which left me in a sort of open-mouthed stupor marveling at how things change in ten short years.
posted by Molly on 7 February, 2003
 

Jon Russell says:
Despite what you say about Young going too deep into the "illusion of" meritocracy vs. the so-called "imprisonment of aristocracy," T. Young, and of course his father (who coined the term), are quite onto something regarding the 200+ years of "Marketing the American Dream."
posted by Jon Russell on 13 February, 2003
 

Owen says:
You star. Having just read the book, I'd been wondering who he was. Strangely I thought the (fictitious) name was familiar. Shows what I know. Thank you for providing the well researched answer. No news on the RHCP alas ...
posted by Owen on 9 April, 2003
 

says:
your gey
posted by on 20 July, 2003
 

Smudger says:
I am coming to the end of the book and coming to the end of my tehter with boredom at work so I decided to investigate Alex De Silva. I, too had a sense of familiarity with the fictitious name of Sacha. But that comes from the feeling that another character, one Anthony Haden-Guest, belongs to a family who are close friends of mine. On some personal investigation i discovered he is exactly as described in the book - socialite, alcoholic embarassment to many! On returning to the character of Alex, i too had the suspicion of Naomi Campbell being the model in question. My suspicion about the Red Hot Chilli Pepper was the woman who had Mick Jagger's youngest child - Lucia Morad??? i don't know, she is more than likely not even from the right country! and i certainly don't know about the implants though! The book is fascinating in its awfullness.when i started it and realised that he and Julie Burchill had a huge falling out i felt like he must be slightly likeable. i was sadly mistaken - i had ommitted from my mind that they were ever friends in the first place!!! I can't not finish a book so I can't wait to get to the end so I can throw it away!!
posted by Smudger on 23 July, 2003
 

brad says:
Yikes thats a bit harsh wouldn't you say!? I enjoyed the book quite a bit and even enjoyed the quick antropoligy chapter. I think that far too often we label the material we review based on other reviews. I don't know Sacha Gervasi or Greydon or anyone else up in muckedy muck land, but I can say that of all of them, Toby seems to be the one who through it all has the ability to look back on it and laugh. If more of us could do that there wouldn't be so many pissy old people going about all shouty crackers. I'll reccomend it but am curious what his next project will be.
posted by brad on 30 July, 2003
 

Mel Shapiro says:
Toby Young repeatedly compares NYC's snob class with British Royality. The Royals, because of a capracious boss or a twist of economy can't lose their "spot" in the Royal pecking order, whereas in NYC one can be down and out and back to "room one" in a New York second - and not ever recover. Of course snobs are ever insecure, watchful of those around them, keeping those below them down and ever currying favor to those above. Toby of course is the biggest snob, he simply played it all wrong, with a reverse and insulting snobism, snobism all the same. As an American, born and bred in the west, I was irritated by Toby's shallow understanding of Americans and of his confusing Manhattan with America. Manhattan is no more America than the shine on a slab of granite is the granite. His world is no more than that - an illusion, diversion, entertainment - it could all go away and would not make a particule of difference.
posted by Mel Shapiro on 8 August, 2003
 

Andrew says:
I think toby is onto something. being english and stuck in this hell hole of nyc, in a country run by a bunch of people with the collective intellect of an amoeba, and with women who always ask you ( after they've taken 15s to assess if you are suitable sex material ) how much you earn, where you work and where you live, I understand truly what he means when he refers to nyc as rat race city.
posted by Andrew on 25 August, 2003
 

Keith says:
Didn't Toby Young name is first child "Sacha"?
posted by Keith on 29 August, 2003
 

Muckraker says:
Alex de Silva is most definitely Sacha Gervasi. In fact, Young unwillingly allowed Gervasi to read the first draft and Gervasi was so upset he threatened legal action. What remains is rather a toned-down version, but still the two haven't spoken since. The supermodel was apparently Veronica Webb, the ex-Revlon girl, who mentions her affair with de Niro in her book "Adventures in the Big City."
posted by Muckraker on 7 February, 2004
 

George says:
That book is so funny...although I disagree with a lot of what Toby has done in terms of morality, I still think it is a very interesting look at meritocracy and aristocracy. I laughed and nodded all the way through the book, from the star-struckenness to the love-sick alcholism. Toby is uninhibited;I like it when people are willing to give others a laugh at their own expense.
posted by George on 11 February, 2004
 

sabbie says:
if Alex (or Sacha) was a friend of Toby how could he do that disgusting old woman gossip stuff about him in his book. it's like making love with your girlfriend and invite a dozen of your friends watch it with your bedroom door left open. in a friends' view he's a moron, a wanker! and his title "How to lose friends..." -- he never mentioned any friends in his book. maybe he never had really good ones. and this disgraceful loser's gossip maybe is just a way of winning his fetishized Hollywood over again. in one way i like this young, naive man, giving the same self-trained radio interviews....but on the other side, he really is a nasty wanker.
posted by sabbie on 8 June, 2004
 

Dana says:
I'm into the seventh chapter in this book, and after he mentioned Alex's ex-band, "The Dicemen" I decided to see if anyone had any info on it. I'm finding this book alternating between hilarious, boring and appalling. It's like reading a freshmen teenager's diary (with a well established vocabulary) about the upper crusts of seniors and popular girls. I dunno.. I'm gonna tough it out a few more chapters. Even if I hate it, I'll probly read the whole thing. Y'know, I can't leave it lie after starting it. After all, it was only 5 bucks at the "Border's" bargain shelf. :) I don't mean this to sound too harsh.. I may end up loving it.
posted by Dana on 4 July, 2004
 

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