"A new stage play called The Future, imported from Britain to New York, deals with this question in a very personal way, via the most urbane of settings: the dinner party and its clash of personalities," says the review. Yes, very personal.

The review even mentions Mr. Denton's boyfriend. "Derrence Washington embodies all the potentials Senexate has to offer, as the lone brash American who likes money and fast cars." The Senexate is, apparently, the soma-like (remember Brave New World from high school?) drug that enables the characters to stay forever young and gives the play a plot.

Mr. Denton was so enthusiastic about the play that he hosted a cast party at his Soho home last Friday. Now that's commitment to the theatre!

Is this the future?

Nick Denton. (Photo from Facebook)

Nick Denton's  boyfriend, the actor Derrence Washington, had a new off-off Broadway play open last Friday. But apparently, the theatre didn't provide enough drama for Mr. Washington's ex, who has been harassing the couple. The love triangle has escalated to the point where the cops have been called, reports the Post.

While Mr. Denton is doing all the things that people in new relationships do--changing his Facebook status, introducing his new boyfriend to his friends, hosting parties to celebrate his new boyfriend's play, the jealous ex is doing all the things that jealous exes do (in movies at least). The caricature of an angry ex-boyfriend recently threw a brick through the window of the Gawker mogul's Soho loft.

Ah,  will the course of true love ever run smooth?

When the Post reached out to Mr. Denton for a comment on the situation, he used the opportunity to gin up some publicity and pageviews.

“After that Hulk Hogan sex tape on Gawker, I can hardly complain about intrusion into my private life!" he said in an email to the Post.

“Yep, love is messy," he added. Messy like a Hulk Hogan sex tape?

Last night, Gawker's Nick Denton was forced to entertain a group of about 30 reporters and editors who are in town for a Wall Street Journal organized digital training program all by himself because his expected co-star, Buzzfeed co-founder Jonah Peretti, was a no-show. On Twitter, Mr. Peretti had a rather interesting explanation for  standing up Mr. Denton.

“I didn't feel like talking to @nicknotned tonight, you really got to be in the mood for that guy," Mr. Peretti wrote last night.

When we emailed Mr. Peretti to inquire about the event this afternoon, he attributed his absence to a scheduling glitch rather than any distaste for Mr. Denton.

“Nick is great, who wouldn't want to spend time with him? The event host just made a scheduling mistake and the last minute fix was for us to do the talks on different nights which was the original plan,” Mr. Peretti wrote. “We are scheduling now, not sure if it is set yet.  And I was not in the mood for a surprise Lincoln-Douglas debate.”

Guess that makes Mr. Denton and Mr. Peretti the Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas of our time? Gawker and Buzzfeed are hardly the Illinois legislature, but we’ll let the comparison slide. Mr. Denton and Mr. Peretti certainly have way more twitter followers than either Lincoln or Douglas.

Mr. Denton ended up with an empty chair and, although he made the inevitable Clint Eastwood comparison, Mr. Peretti had some comforting words for the Gawker mogul.

“Clint Eastwood is a huge movie star, congrats,” he tweeted.

Luckily, Mr. Denton finds himself plenty entertaining. And at least he had WSJ editor Alan Murray to keep him company.

"Alan and I entertained the crowd--rather successfully I thought. Alan at least can handle me!" Mr. Denton emailed us today.

Naturally, Gawker published that legal threat (alongside an old picture of Bill O'Reilly with topless women, of course). Entertaining as it is, we've taken the liberty of annotating the best parts of Fox's legal letter to Gawker, right here:

1. Yeah, right. Adorable! But basically a sign that says—to Gawker, at least—"DON'T FORGET TO PUBLISH." These notices hold absolutely no legal bearing, and in the event the law firm would attempt to prove malice on the part of the publisher of said legal threat letter (Gawker), all Gawker has to prove is that the letter is newsworthy. If that. Judging by the six-digit counts on each of Gawker's Fox Mole posts, one could reasonably assert that this letter is, in fact, newsworthy.

2. Ronald M. Green, Litigious Legal Machine. If Ronald M. Green sounds familiar to followers of Fox's media troubles—or the troubles of Powerful Men in Media—he is! Green's page for the firm lists (boasts?) of his association to Bill O'Reilly as legal representation. What it doesn't note: Some of the cases Green has worked on for O'Reilly, including but not limited to the sexual harassment claim a producer filed against O'Reilly, which was settled out of court before the world got to hear the evidence in the case. He also represented Cablevision/MSG chairman James L. Dolan and The Garden in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders after she claiming she had been sexually harassed. A jury found in her favor to the tune of $11.5M, $3M of which came out of Dolan's pockets. Also noted on Green's bio page from his firm? A position he wrote for The New York Law Journal entitled "The Employer's 'Sue First' Strategy: In high stakes litigation, 'preemptive strike' has produced results." If you thought Fox News was calling up My Cousin Vinny from the bullpen, think again: Green is their "Lights Out" guy, and he will no doubt take this thing to some inevitable conclusion. Don't place your bets yet, though: Handicapping odds is contingent upon on what further action he has planned, if any. Then we'll open the pool.

3. Covered Bases. The funny thing about legal threats is how many copies you end up getting. New York City's bike messengers owe the litigious lawyers of their fair city a debt of gratitude for giving them, like, half their business.

4 and 5. Scare Quotes. In legal paperwork, scare quotes are often used to precede the paraphrasing of a term throughout the rest of the brief; this isn't that. This is just a funny use of scare quotes.

6. 'Likely.' As in, "we haven't yet figured out exactly what about this is illegal, but it's surely something" or "probably, so you should be scared." Pretty standard.

7. 'Should.' As in, "this isn't actually a cease and desist, though we're going to vaguely allude to some sense of obligation, whether or not there's a law against it." Pretty standard.

8. Niceties. These are always enjoyable to read; they always act as amusingly macabre punctuation points, like someone telling you to watch your shirt for blood immediately after having stabbed you in the gut.

In other words, get out the popcorn: This has nowhere to go but up.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

This one, released two hours ago, is already no different.

The Observer was just forwarded the memo, in full. It reads (favorite-parts-emphasis ours):

From: Scott Kidder
Date: Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 4:29 PM
Subject: 2012
To: edit@gawker.com

I'm sending this out on behalf of Nick, who is currently favela paintballing in Brazil:

***

“For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was fifty times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said they wouldn’t get along, they’d hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn’t like working with C players. At Pixar, it was a whole company of A players."

Sorry, yeah, that's from the most quoted man of 2011, Steve Jobs. And it's conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley. But I've got to confess: the Apple boss' homily inspired a more rigorous than usual review of editorial at the end of the year. Superior writers, videographers and other content makers want to work with their own kind and for their own kind.

That's you, in case you didn't realize. Look at the esprit de corps of Deadspin under AJ. It's the golden team of sports journalism. Look at the obscene array of talent at Gawker right now. Our sites have assembled the strongest collection of journalistic talent on the web today. Sure, we know how to play the web game like Buzzfeed and Huffington Post. We measure. We hone headlines. We sell stories. Sometimes we oversell. But -- and this marks us out -- we believe that the best web content optimization strategy is something as old as journalism itself: the shocking truth and the authentic opinion.

We'll spill the truths that others gloss over to protect their access to sources or to conform to political correctness. Original thought (or Campfire groupmind) is muffled less. Think of Matt Buchanan's stoned Friday evening truth bomb or Deadspin's reporting of the Penn State scandal (more 2011 scoops at the end of this memo). There's a new catchline on the media kit: Whatever we think. Whatever we know. That's what we'll publish. And that willingness defines not just our pitch to advertisers but our editorial mission.

Okay, enough institutional self-congratulation. This renewed recognition of editorial flair: What does it mean for you?

1. The annual review process. As I hinted above, a focus on extraordinary talent was key to the annual reviews. We looked not just at an individual's audience appeal but at their reputation among colleagues and contribution to the site's reputation. And these evaluations were more than the usual corporate kabuki theater. As part of the exercise, we have triggered some 20 promotions, reassignments and (yes) departures across the 8 sites. The latest change: Stephen Totilo is taking over as editor-in-chief of Kotaku, announced earlier this week.

2. Retention. The company has to appreciate talent with more than nice words. It's no wonder that new ventures such as The Daily look first to Gawker Media when staffing up. We should not wait for a poaching expedition to pay someone what they deserve. I apologize if that has been the case and will do better in 2012. During this review, we have delivered raises and promotions in recognition of achievement and ability, and we will continue to do so.

3. Career development. In the past, writers might have seen a stint at Gawker Media as a step toward a cushy job at a magazine or some other part of the journalistic establishment. But traditional prospects for journalists look murky now, and the old-line media look much less appealing. At the September all-hands meeting, one question came up often: what career path can Gawker offer? Back then, I said that people could grow their roles by growing their audience; Jessica's position at Jezebel is much more significant, for instance, than was her role as Gawker's lead writer in 2005. But we can also provide career development through internal promotion. When we've been looking to fill positions, it's been striking how much stronger our in-house talent pool is than the writers outside. We've never been ones for the big-name press-release-ready hire. We never will be. Three-quarters of our sites -- Kotaku, Gawker, Jezebel, Deadspin, Gizmodo, Lifehacker -- are led by editors who built their careers within Gawker Media. That's the career path.

4. Goals. Some people will note I've said little about individual traffic numbers. Don't relax just yet: the numbers remain important. But they've always been components of a larger goal: the site's sustained overall appeal to its audience. A site like Deadspin has long used a mix of contributors, some drawing the mass traffic with dong shots, some appealing to a smaller and more influential set of readers. That is a mix we'll see more of. If the site as a whole is growing in both audience and reputation, we can afford for some writers to take time off from the news grind to work on a story or opinion piece that will transform the debate or win the internet. It's more satisfying both to writers and readers that way. Relentless and cynical traffic-trawling is bad for the soul. Yes, I just said that.

5. Discussion. There's one big technical development that underlies this shift: Pow-Wow. The new comment system (coming in the spring) is designed to promote intelligent discussion. And there's no better way to spark intelligent discussion than by publishing an intelligent article. We plan to make the new discussion areas civil enough to encourage authors, experts and celebrities to come in for open web chats. But writers should feel the comments are a place that you can develop your points with your sources, tipsters and friends. You should be looking forward to seeing the reaction to your article, not avoiding toxic commenters. So we'll radically overhaul the comment system technically to keep interesting conversations from being derailed. And we'll reduce the pressure to churn out throwaway blog items. In return, you bring your best information and insight to the original article and the conversation that follows.

***

More big stories from 2011:
The DIY Wizards of San Quentin [Gizmodo]
Why Is China Building These Gigantic Structures In the Middle of the Desert? [Gizmodo]
How to Break Into a Windows PC (And Prevent It from Happening to You) [Lifehacker]
Facebook Is Tracking Your Every Move on the Web; Here's How to Stop It [Lifehacker]
Married GOP Congressman Sent Sexy Pictures to Craigslist Babe [Gawker]
The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable [Gawker]
Can You Tell The Difference Between A Men’s Magazine And A Rapist? [Jezebel]
Fashion Industry Salivates Over Creepy Photos Of 10-Year-Old French Girl [Jezebel]
The Modern Warfare 3 Files: Exclusive First Details on the Biggest Game of 2011 [Kotaku]
New Nintendo Console Debuting At E3 This June, Launching In 2012, More Powerful Than Xbox 360 and PS3 [Kotaku]
Why did your zodiac sign change? We asked the astronomer who started it all [io9]
10 Psychological States You’ve Never Heard Of — And When You Experienced Them [io9]
The Somewhat Romantic Story Of Mark Sanchez And A 17-Year-Old Girl [Deadspin]
The Truth About Race, Religion, And The Honor Code At BYU [Deadspin]
Exclusive: This is the 2014 Chevy Corvette [Jalopnik]
How The Detroit News Sold Its Soul [Jalopnik]
Lindsay Lohan's Playboy Shoot Leaks Online [Fleshbot]

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Brian Crecente— the longtime editor of the company's video game site Kotaku, and one of the longest-serving site-leads in the history of the company—is out. Mr. Crecente has been with the company for seven years.

He notes in a post today:

Much has changed from when I started more than seven years ago at Kotaku, two months after its launch. The site was an unknown, an unpronounceable off-shoot of Gawker Media with a readership of 10,000. I was a full-time newspaper reporter, spending those early days covering gaming for Kotakuand my afternoons and evenings writing about homicides, serial killers, gang-bangersand raging wildfires for the Rocky Mountain News.

Over the years, Kotaku's community grew to more than five and a half million readers.

Stephen Totilo, Kotaku's managing editor, will be promoted to Mr. Crecente's old job.

Meanwhile, Joel Johnson—previously placed over Mr. Crecente as Kotaku's editorial director, which was prior to a number of stints around the network, including the editor-at-large of Gizmodo and one as the founding editor of The Consumerist (back when it was still a Gawker Media holding)—is now going to be an editor-at-large for the blog network's auto fetishist site, Jalopnik.

Ray Wert, the site's editor, emailed to explain:

"Joel'll be bringing over his talent for feature and review development. In the new role, he'll be mixing his love of motoring with his love for gadgets and video games to help us build the next generation of auto enthusiasts."

Ideally, one would imagine, this building of enthusiasts will not involve publicly noting Jalopnik's readers as "very stupid." As he once did with Gizmodo's.

We've also heard from multiple sources that Mr. Johnson was a leading candidate for another job that almost poached former Deadspin editor A.J. Daulerio before he decamped to the top spot at Gawker.com, the editor gig over at ANIMAL NY.

A source explained that Mr. Johnson turned down the prospect in favor of his new role at the company, which includes working on "special projects" for the blog network (to which we might add, that's what Oppenheimer said).

Mr. Johnson responded, confirming his role in the "special projects" without giving away any specfics:

Bucky [Turco, Animal NY founder] is a pal and I've talked to them about their plans for Animal, but I actually made [Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton] a promise I'd stick around for a full year when I came back, so I'm not making any decisions about anything in life until March. (And I may actually stick around Gawker another year? Who knows.) This is actually the one time when Gawker put someone on "special projects" that doesn't mean being put out to pasture.

Cheery! Also, emphasis ours. Know any more about Gawker Media's special projects? We'd love to hear it.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Ms. Morrissey (née "Slut Machine") took to her Tumblr on July 6th to describe the agony of sitting next to Mr. Scocca:

I don’t know the name of the Deadspin writer that sits next to me now, but in my head I call him Personal Space Invader. Do you see that silver line all the way to the left next to his keyboard? That’s where my desk is supposed to start. Do you see all those papers and that clutter jammed behind my monitor? Not mine. When he’s operating his mouse his arm is so far up my junk that he could shake hands with my unborn child.

Gawker hasn't been that unsanitary since back when everyone used to work from home! Either way, today, Choire Sicha of The Awl (where Mr. Scocca's writing has appeared) then chimed in to help introduce the two:

Since people are apparently unable to speak to each other in this day and age, Tracie, meet Tom Scocca, who works in the Gawker office five days a week. Looks like the Gawker office ethos tends more toward “let’s write a belittling Tumblr post as a welcome to a new coworker,” instead of saying, I dunno, anything? In other news, you two have a lot in common! You may be the first to exercise Gawker Media’s maternity leave; he may be the first to exercise its paternity leave. (Does that really exist or is that just a joke I tell myself?) LOTS TO TALK ABOUT. Or not, because after that, who’d want to really.

On Monday, Deadspin editor A.J. Daulerio unrolled a fairly epic foray

Mr. Daulerio used a video game and two doses ("hits") of acid for his own attempts, which were wildly unsuccessful. Mr. Daulerio did, however, successfully eat some pizza, despite being skeptically eyed by the foodstuff in question.

As far as Deadspin is concerned, let alone stunt journalism, even for Gawker Media, this certainly represents a new extreme. While the dangers of small-time LSD use appear to be non-lethal ("may release latent psychosis or exacerbate depression"), long gone are the days when Gawker employees don't have employer-subsidized health insurance plans (or health insurers to answer to). Next Monday, the company's new VP of sales—Andrew Gorenstein—starts. Some advertising buyers could be wary of a publication that allows this kind of thing to happen! It's certainly nothing like what Mr. Gorenstein would ever have to sell at Conde Nast, where he's coming to Gawker from.

Did Gawker Media owner Nick Denton know about the post beforehand?

Mr. Daulerio responded via instant message: "I believe I told him," he explained. "He had no idea about the backstory or the reason I was doing it (I don't think) which is pretty refreshing, editorially speaking."

And how did he get this cleared? "I checked with legal and volunteered to do the disclaimer just to let people know that it was a 'stunt' (for journalism!) because, you know, I don't think it's necessary to brazenly condone this type of behavior."

"But," he added, "it was important to me and for the site to couple it with some of the background research we did for it. At the very least so readers don't think I orchestrated this whole thing just so I could drop acid on a Tuesday."

Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton declined to comment when asked about his editors dropping acid.

Yet: This is not the first time Gawker Media has engaged in stunt journalism or discussed the imbibing of drugs in a candid, familiar manner; in fact, precedent for the latter started when current Observer editor Elizabeth Spiers interviewed an East Village yuppie on the quest for the perfect cocaine dealer (a torch then carried by the next editor, Choire Sicha, who interviewed a Manhattan mairjuana delivery dealer).

Gawker websites have often been a place where taboo topics (such as drug use) are given the illumination of first-hand experience ("Writing on drugs is my drug," "Cocaine is cheaper than its ever been, and let us just tell you that we think that's really great"), yet treated somewhere above the lowbrow regard of  High Times or VICE.

The site was an early adopter of recreational Adderall usage and bemoaned the loss of their beloved drug dealing networks. They have delivered important verdicts in matters such as Xanax vs. Kolonopin and the question of whether or not everyone they know pops pills.

More recently, Adrian Chen wrote about a website where you can buy drugs with digital currency BitCoins, Silk Road (thus provoking an intense interest in BitCoins, obviously) while Deadspin writer Emma Carmichael was sent to the Cannabis Cup to turn in a full report on a candid excursion into what is essentially the World Series of Marijuana.

As for stunt journalism, it's nothing new, either: Gizmodo writers have experimented with a sex toy and been permanently banned from CES for shutting off all the televisions.  Slightly more highbrow ventures into stunt journalism have also occurred: investigative reporter John Cook once trailed Bill O'Reilly's ambush journalist Jesse Waters for a week until ambushing Mr. Waters himself. Though, this is the first time any Gawker Media writers have admittedly "dropped" acid for work on the site.

As for attempting to expense the acid to the company, Mr. Daulerio confessed: "I didn't even think of that!"

fkamer@observer.com | On Twitter

Writing for the real-life Jezebel, Irin Carmon implies that the site is aware of its faults, calling Jezebel one of the "websites with their share of earnest feminist commentary that also have bosses and bills to pay." Carmon claims "We're honored!" but gets a dig in, perhaps too veiled to make much of an impact: the episode's subplot features a teenybopping heiress who, in the show's final minutes, expresses a will to power, and "she's wearing makeup now." Nick Denton's universe, and NBC's, are both governed by men--but, cosmetics choices aside, at least 30 Rock doesn't play into it with a recurring section inviting commentary on outfits and appearance!

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_

After the place had reached critical mass, Denton dimmed the lights and rallied the troops. 

He thanked everyone for handling the Tsunami of twitter hate that came along with the redesign. He called out Rex Sorgatz about their pageview bet and announced to his editorial team that he would give them his winnings from the wager as a motivational bonus. 

>> The 100 Funniest Tumblrs ... Ever

Special thanks went to Congressman Chris Lee and all the pervy policiticians who make Gawker tick.

And then came this sort of emotionally wrought video montage that recapped Gawker's year. By the end, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. 

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper

A Day in the Life of Gawker Media - FINAL from source/record on Vimeo.