Topless Diner Week in Review [NSFW]

Here's a little background about how a photo taken at an East Village restaurant apparently became "the topless shot heard 'round the world."

On Monday morning, Verso owner Labinot Baraliu told us about a woman who removed her top after walking into the Italian bistro on Avenue C and East Eighth Street the previous evening.

The folks at Verso asked the woman to put her shirt back on ... and after a brief protest, she and her dining companion, who was photographing the entire episode, left. For his part, Baraliu thought it was a funny little story that locals might like.

Probably so. Eater linked to the story on Monday morning. On Tuesday, Gothamist and Jezebel both linked to the post.

On Wednesday morning, we heard from a responsible party — East Village-based photographer Allen Henson. He recently moved here from Los Angeles. He had been out with model Cheyenne Lutek. He offered this background. "It was an impromptu photoshoot. We did two that night," he said. "The first establishment loved it and interacted, the other, well — we weren't there long."

Meanwhile on Wednesday, news of the topless diner had made it into the Daily News, MSN and The UK Daily Mail. The item was also seemingly syndicated to various FM radio station websites across the country... such as 94.5 "the Buzz — Houston's New Rock Alternative" and Dave and Chuck the Freak at 101 WRIF in Detroit. (Please keep in mind that we weren't sending this around to anyone to feature.)

Then a story on what happened appeared in The Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan. Someone told us that it was the paper's most-viewed article for the day.

On Thursday, the Daily News had a feature titled "EXCLUSIVE: Sexy Cheyenne Lutek goes topless at East Village restaurants."


[Allen Henson via the Daily News]

Then the UK Daily Mail picked up the story again with this breathless headline: 'I'm not ashamed of my body': Model who was kicked out of New York restaurant for exposing her breasts speaks out

There was, apparently, even more coverage. Per the Daily Mail:

It's the topless shot heard 'round the world. A picture of a comely blonde who took off her shirt at a trendy New York restaurant has become an internet sensation - picked up by publications from Italy to Russia to China.

Closer to home, the Daily News really liked this story, as it was the basis for a political cartoon on Friday.


[Via Crazy Eddie]

By last night, Lutek was posing with the NYPD on Avenue C.


[Allen Henson via Twitter]

In the end, that post from Monday became the second most-viewed in EVG history, far behind another post about a topless woman. All this maybe provides some insights about how the media works. Or maybe what's wrong with the media. (Or humanity?) And it's probably too late to put up a paywall ...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Female diner decides to go topless last night at Verso

Today in street art

Spotted on the plywood outside 51 Astor Place...





Others in this series had been ripped off the plywood.

Noted

EVG regular Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C points out this unfortunate juxtaposition from this morning's Groupon email for the area...

American Apparel celebrating 9 years of gratuitous butt shots on the Lower East Side today

The American Apparel outpost on East Houston and Orchard turns 9 today. (That's 2.3 in Nylon Spandex Micro-Mesh Bra Bodysuit Years.)

In honor of that, there's a big celebratory sale from 4-8 today. BoweryBoogie and The Lo-Down have more details on that. (And they have a coupon.)

Never forget!


Previously on EV Grieve:
And now, my collection of the newish American Apparel ads

Meanwhile, in Murray Hill

Well, outside our usual coverage area... But, a tipster sent along these photos from 4 a.m. outside Tonic East on Third Avenue at 29th Street, a three-level behemoth that Eater described as "a loudmouth bar."

We have no idea what happened. A fight? A fall?

Anyway, aren't you glad that we don't have bars like this in the East Village? Oh, wait...

[Updated: The tipster said that this was the result of a fistfight... this fellow got the worst of it, obviously]

Reminder tonight: Chicago Bliss vs. the New York Majesty

The New York Majesty kicks off their Lingerie League season at Nassau Coliseum vs. the Chicago Bliss...

This is going to be a difficult test for the Majesty. Chicago already has one game this season under their belts, defeating the Miami Caliente 29-19.

I'm imagining how the games might be covered in the press....

There are three things to expect from the Bliss. The first is for Saran Dunmore to play a big role for them. The best receiving back in in the Lingerie League should see a healthy amount of screen passes coming her way trying to neutralize an overly aggressive blitz. I also expect to see plenty of two tight end sets. Deborah Poles is a matchup nightmare for the Majesty. The third thing to expect is plenty of no huddle spread sets. The Bliss used these to great success versus Miami. It opened the middle of the field for Saran Dunmore to run for 62 yards. Anyway!

Noted

In search of cheesy (ballsy?) Super Bowl promos

I understand that NBC has a big Bruce Springsteen informercial planned for this evening. To coincide with the release of his new record, the Super Bowl will also be played before and after a Springsteen mini-concert.

Meanwhile, for no good reason, I was amusing myself by trying to find the cheesiest Super Bowl party special...So far, the leading contender is...




And has anyone ever been to Whistlin' Dixie's Texas Tavern? (WARNING: If you click on their link, expect to hear some Kenny Rogers...) It's at West 51th Street and 11th Avenue. See you there!

Noted ("high-end horn-dogs" edition)

From Page Six today:

THE world of ecdysiasts -- a coinage of H.L. Mencken from the Greek "to peel" -- is changing fast with the closings of Scores West last February and Scores East this month. Now, Las Vegas strip club Sapphire has opened its first New York outpost on West 23rd Street. The busty beauties there, with hearts of gold, have been collecting Barbie dolls to send to poor girls in Brazil. Word is Sapphire will also soon be taking over the much larger Scores East space on East 60th in an attempt to lure back the high-end horn-dogs who now patronize Rick's Cabaret on West 33rd.

Noted

On the Bowery near Prince.

Breaking: Model booty at the Cooper Square Hotel

Curbed has the first peeping-tom photo from a scantily clad photo shoot at the just-open Cooper Square Hotel. I'd post the photo here, except that this is a decent family-owned and operated site that wouldn't stoop to gratuitous butt shots to drive up our page views.

Eliza Dushku's nipples continue to show up all over the East Village

Posters for Nobel Son -- the dark-comic crime thriller that opens Friday with Alan Rickman, Eliza Dushku and Danny DeVito, anong others -- seem to be everywhere in the neighborhood. These were on Houston just a few hundred feet from each other.




However, for the full-on effect, you need to see the poster draped on the side of a building, such as here on Third Avenue and 12th Street.




For some reason I'm reminded of this scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation:

Week in Review: Bikini and underwear edition (with half-hearted apologies)

In dire times like these...

Wall Street on Monday (via Getty Images)



Jimmy Choo photo shoot on Fifth Avenue. Because no one would buy the shoes if she was wearing a dress or pants or something...? (Via Drunken Stepfather -- NSFW)



Amazin' Jane's Flickr page includes these shots...As AJ explains:
Tourists got an eyeful as they filmed the ridiculous reality show Make Me a Supermodel today at Fulton Ferry Landing. It was quite entertaining as they hoisted scantily clad models into the air by crane - inside a plexiglass cube. [Via Gothamist]

They're back!

Last week, the ads with the bikini-clad rum saleswomen were shredded.



Replacement ads went up almost immediately! Someone is hot to sell some rum!

"Honoring a great New Yorker" (aka This week's sign of the apocalypse)

Tonight through Sunday, the Empire State Building will be purple, pink and white in honor of Mariah Carey.

Why?

Says the ESB's Web site, it's "Honoring a Great New Yorker: Mariah Carey Breaks Records With E=MC2 Album Release."

She's from Huntington, Long Island.

[Via Gothamnist]

[This week's sign of the apocalypse line via Sports Illustrated's weekly feature. It was too fitting not to use.]