How I became the ‘femme fatale’ of New York gossip

Lizzie

I hope Ms. Floethe has many more affairs with married men and is not put off by gossip-a-go-go. If women start behaving, the terrorists win.

floethe you

I'm sorry, in what society was it that homewreckers got a pass? Having fun with "interesting" older men is fine--just make sure they're divorced already. good grief.

Mr Strong

don't floethe away on your own fumes, miss vicki. you may be from the south but you have the morals of a moron and the manners of a seductress. your friends in park slope may simply be reacting with decency to someone who behaves like a wild cat. worst of all, you seem not only to have poor morals but bad taste in men. With all the good available men downtown and especially in the east village, there is no shortage of Viagratude of which to take advantage--but you chose Michael Wolff? Ohhh Miss Vicki, you could have done so much better than that. What you need is not a good old fashioned romp with a 54 year old (going on 60) but some good old fashioned psychotherapy to help you straighten out why men of power are so much more important to you than building your own self esteem. Sadly this will take years to get over--by which time Mr Wolff will already have a foot in the grave.

Emily

What I think is interesting is your lamentation of internet gossip and how hurtful it is. If you are so opposed to and offended by the media attention and ridicule you are now the subject of, why did you display your opinion at length via an INTERNET publication? It seems you're doing everything you can to make your 15 minutes of fame last a little longer.
And stop trying to fool yourself into thinking you're just the victim of all this. You entered into a relationship with a married man (not for the first time). You had to know this would blow up in your face at some point. So grow up honey, and stop trying to blame everyone else for what happened. And think about how this is affecting someone other than yourself (like your family) when you are baiting the media with your ridiculous, self-righteous opinions.

reader

Did I miss the part where she took responsibility for sleeping with a man who has a wife and kids? Also, the TV show's title is "Sex AND the City." Good research!

Sebastian Gunn

She who lives by the pen will die by the pen. She who lives by the slippery chemise will die by the slippery chemise... Miss Vickie knows that all publicity is good publicity. It's the way we live now.

Sebastian Gunn

"Undisciplined romantic life." Is an ambitious journalist-courtesan advised to lead a "disciplined romantic life"?

Gail Bowen

Definitely stay put & wait for it to pass!

Christopher D. Scott

Victoria Floethe did a bad thing when she had an affair with her boss and now she is writing about the fall out. I just googled her and I found an article discussing how unhappy she is with her parents' conservative political views. She strikes me as an immature young woman who is rebeling against her parents and is making bad life choices in the process.

All of this stuff is too personal. Except fro prurient interest, nobody other than the people in Ms. Floethe's office, her family, and her boss' family cares about their affair. Her paramour should be ashamed of himself for taking advantage of this gullible girl. This whole thing has the odor of Geraldo Rivera about it.

MindyHC

You slept with a pretty well-known man who is married and has children, then stoked the fires of gossip by writing about it in the very medium you criticize. So yes, you are a bit of a sleaze. Fast forward 20 years and hope you don't end up in his wife's situation -- and that if you do, the girl in question will have the sense to fade away quietly.

FLTom

Pompous, oleaginous, precious, self-absorbed, phony, grammatically challenged, unjustifiably self-absolving, shallow drivel.

McGehee

Scandal? Don't people have to know about something before it's a scandal? I think rather than call it a scandal "in America," The Spectator ought to have called it a scandal *among the handful of pissants and dilletantes who've heard of either of these people.*

teledu

Shouldn't this have been in "Hello", not "The Spectator"?

sarah

This is the worst thing I have ever read. On several different levels.

Lydia P Troyer

As an aspiring NYC journo you should already be aware that the Internet clique of gossipists is a poor sort of Algonquin Round Table, although I'm sure even those stalwarts of wicked wit would have luxuriated in the glow of a laptop screen as well, but then they wouldn't have met at the hotel or become a "group" Do you think Dorothy Parker would be as chastened as you initially? this from the woman who uttered "You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think."; NYK has always been sharp-edged, sharpen up or go home, luvvy. And, Yes, they were axxxxles to out your private life but that's what sells to the mungs today.

Fleurdamour

There is no "new, scourge-like puritanism" and no "new sanctimony" about the social disapproval you are receiving. You slept with your long-married boss, a man who has children and who is a public figure, at least in NYC media circles. And you slept with him to further your career. There is nothing whatsoever defensible about your behavior. You made your bed, now lie in it.

Liz Foss

I wouldn't worry toomuch about any Murdoch related gossip pages. You should hear what goes around here in Australia re Rupert and his past.

Abigail

Unfortunately, I couldn't help but read to the end - the feminist in me wanted to give Ms. Floethe the benefit of the doubt. Her poor writing, worse ethics and absolutely slovenly behaviors made it a waste of my energy. Here's to all the women out there who are succeeding without writing tell-all scandal stories and building careers out of their own merit. And to you, Ms. Floethe, I hope that someday soon you will come into your own and not need you sex life to get ahead (truly pathetic).

Jack

Candace Bushnell has already done this character, see Lola in "One-Fifth".

Right down to the Atlanta background and the East Village apartment.

Truth following fiction or vice versa

Mary Jackson

Oh yes, the publicity is so awful, isn't it? And how wicked of the Spectator to publish your piece so that even more people know about the affair you so wanted to keep secret.

Pedro

Murdoch has been publishing private scandals since he started here in Adelaide, Australia in 1953 with The News, a now defunct tabloid. Screwing married men was sleazy then and it's sleazy now. Murdoch hasn't changed and neither has what's sleazy.

A. MacAulay

I'm waiting for the headline, "Unknown couple have sex in private". It has become a "man bites dog" novelty!

David Short

A comment I made the other day was not published, so presumably any comment overly critical of the new ownership and vulgarising management is not guaranteed to be seen.

How cowardly.

Phil

So marvelous that the author is going to take a "principled" stand against the new-puritanism and stay in New York, and I guess keep sleeping with married men instead of going back to Atlanta and getting a man of her own and starting a family. The courage it takes to remain a serial mistress in the face of public criticism! Well sweetie, if you ever do get around to getting married, I hope that you will have the "principle" of objective judgment needed to applaud similar "courageous" behavior in the unfortunate event that your future husband takes a mistress.

A. MacAulay

Yes, David Short, I too have have made comments that were not published and did assume that this was because they cut too close to the bone. Obviously, mad or obscene comments should be deleted to spare us all the head shaking and boredom. But I suspect the perusal of comments is left to a wannabe T. Lightwater, strong on PC but new to joined up writing who is too afraid to ask a grown up when confronted with sharp comments.

Farfromgruntled

Is it just me or has The Spectator gone shit?

David Short

It seems that the Comments box has disappeared in the latest version of the magazine. Possibly just a c++k up.

Nicholas Storey

First - David Short - there is nothing remotely taboo in the term "cock up" to justify asterisks in place of letters - even though the subject matter of the article is full of the repercussions of a sexual liaison - "cock up", meaning a blunder, just derives from trying to discharge a flintlock gun with the cock up instead of down. Accordingly, the chap involved in the story may also very politely be described as a participant in a cock up. As for the author - to you I say that you may consider yourself fortunate that your unusual name is now known widely enough to assure you at least one spot in this [ital]organ[ital], which has allowed you to [ital] grind out[ital] an old and rather commonplace tune. But, hey! it's all good PR for a gal who was formerly a harmless research drudge and is now a Fleet Street scribe.