Mr. Johnson-Calderon said he had just been to a Brooks Brothers party for True Prep, the new sequel to The Official Preppy Handbook you may remember from your days at Choate. "At the True Prep party, a lot of the old people that were there, like, my friends' parents, were like, 'What? Who is this person?!'" Mr. Johnson-Calderon said. "And everybody else was like, 'You look rad!'"

"But my close friends were like, 'Get that nail polish off, you look like you're from Milwaukee,'" Mr. Johnson-Calderon continued. "I'm like, 'I'm from California. That's very different.'"

But to get back to that bow tie -- it was an awfully cute one, in a distinctive toile pattern that looked just the tiniest bit familiar. Paul, who makes the tie?

"I make this bow tie," Mr. Johnson-Calderon said. "The line is called Mauvais Garçon, which is 'bad boy' in French, and they're the original curtains from the Beatrice Inn. So this is the Beatrice tie."

Wait, wait, wait. The original curtains? How did he -- how can we put this delicately -- acquire them? (Does the name of the line provide a clue, perhaps?)

"Ages ago, before it closed, I got them, and I had them up in my apartment because they're beautiful toile curtains," he said. "But then I was like, 'How do I make this something for everyone, you know?' Not for everyone, but for the people that used to go to Beatrice, it's a little piece of history."

Very Sister Maria! "Thank you, yeah! I think my inspiration was Gone with the Wind," Mr. Johnson-Calderon said with a flourish. We're still unsure how he got the curtains.

But we also learned some things. For instance Ms. Mortimer finally admitted on camera that Topper's family had a problem with her self-publicizing antics. "Topper, his family just hated that I was out there getting photographed all the time," she said. "Because in the old world of New York society you were only in the newspapers when you were born, you got married, and you died. And that was it." Topper's face is blurred out during his brief appearance on the show, which makes him look like a headless, walking suit. We also learned that much of the drama will be created by Dale Mercer, Ms. Mortimer's mother, who will try to get her daughter and Topper back together; that in socialite land, getting a drink thrown in your face sometimes requires calling the ambulance and the police (such was the unfortunate fate of Alexandra Osipow, who got in the way of Ms. Kirby and Mr. Johnson-Calderon's fight.); and, judging by Harvey Weinstein's non-blurry appearance on the show, he actually agreed to sign the disclosure agreement!

All-in-all the show was not-good in that very specific way that might actually bring in audiences. (Socialite Tatiana Platt posted to her Facebook last night: "Tatiana Platt was pretty horrifed by High Society last night.")

At the end of the episode Tinsley suggests that the audience check out some extras on the CW's website to learn interesting things about her, like whether she "eats Street Meat." We went, we tried to find out, and alas could not locate the answer.

"We realized early on there was a story being told with Tinsley leaving her husband, filing for divorce and dating this German prince," said a staffer from the show, which premieres on the CW Saturday, March 10. "But after we shot a presentation with her, we realized we wanted to supplement her with interesting personalities because she alone was ..." Not that interesting? we asked.
"Exactly!"  

Enter socialites Paul Johnson-Calderon and Jules Kirby (close friend to Ms. Mortimer's sister, Dabney Mercer; former girlfriend of Nevan Donahue, Olivia Palermo's cousin; and daughter of lawyer Roger Kirby and former model Irene Kirby. Both have had some legal troubles: Ms. Kirby was charged with petit larceny after allegedly trying to steal an American flag in Southampton last summer, and Mr. Johnson-Calderon was infamously accused of stealing a purse from the Eldridge. (He wasn't charged.) "The stuff that comes out of Jules' mouth is really unfiltered," our source said. "She says she likes to use the N-word and thinks it should be O.K. and that she doesn't really hang out with black people, Jews or homosexuals."

Meanwhile, Mr. Johnson-Calderon's alleged vandalizing of the apartment of a woman named Cleo Vauban in Union Square will also appear in an episode. Ms. Mortimer's troubles are comparatively ordinary. "She dates the prince and then she meets Constantine [Maroulis, former American Idol contestant], and that's still going," said our CW source. "So the prince was eighty-sixed, but he was crazy-he checked her voice mail and kept her from having a relationship with her mom. Meanwhile, the mom really wants her to get back together with Topper. Tinsley is likable but you don't get any outrageous behavior from her. The others are abhorrent."

Mr. Johnson-Calderon would not comment on any of these incidents, but wrote to the Transom: "I had a wonderful time filming the show, and I look forward to seeing it succeed in a genre known mostly for produced contestant shows and lackluster 'glimpses' into the lives of randos."

Kristen Vadas, the senior vice president of alternative programming at the CW, said the network had planned for an ensemble cast from the beginning.

Who can claim the title of 2007’s most socially social New York society clan? In a major year-end party wrap cobbled together by Style.com, the aesthetically-inclined Web site asks—and, thank gawd, answers—that very question.

On one side of the party divide is the Peter and Minnie Davis/Tinsley Mortimer team. (Mr. and Ms. Davis are, for those who didn’t know, Ms. Mortimer’s siblings-in-law.) On the other: Ann Dexter-Jones and her three party-hardy kids—Samantha, Mark and Charlotte.

As Style points out, it’s been quite a year for both clans: Topper and Ms. Mortimer’s wedding got a major write-up in the Times; and Ms. Davis tied the knot with Syriana director Stephen Gaghan. (What they don’t mention, however, is that 2007 was also the year society scribe Mr. Davis found true love in a certain young social, Paul Johnson-Calderon.)

Meanwhile, Mr. Ronson’s single, Stop Me, climbed to the number-two spot on the British charts—no small feat, to be sure. What’s more, Samantha Ronson was, for a while anyway, queen of the tabloids, soaking up the buzz as her friendship with Lindsay Lohan continued to heat up. And then there’s their younger sis Charlotte, who we caught up with not long ago at her Nolita boutique, where she was introducing her 2007 Resort collection. Ms. Dexter-Jones, too, told us all about her new lease on life post-divorce, loving the high-thread-count sheets at her new digs in the Bowery Hotel.

In the end, though, there can only be one winner; (as Heidi Klum might say, “You’re either in or you’re out.”) And in this case, Patrick McMullan must pick the winning bunch—“that ultimate litmus test of social visibility.” While the Dexter-Jones/Ronson squad racked up an impressive 422 photos credits on the social shutterbug’s Web site, the Davis/Mortimer clan reigns supreme. The trendy trio said "cheese" for Mr. McMullan’s lens a whopping 732 times.

First, responding to Mr. Johnson-Calderon’s insistence that the pair’s reality TV show was canned because of his work at Vogue, Mr. Laliberte explained: “The reason the show is not happening has nothing to do with Vogue and everything to do with a project that I’m working on. I can’t discuss it, but it’s 100% going forward,” he said.

(Mr. Laliberte then indicated that the Daily Transom might want to contact Vogue in order to find out if Mr. Johnson-Calderon was, as he purported, actually on staff at the magazine. We did; they said he used to be an intern assistant in the features department, but no longer works there.)

Mr. Laliberte was equally aghast at the suggestion that he ever tried to hit on Mr. Johnson-Calderon's current boyfriend, Peter Davis. “The first time I met Paul was when he pushed me at a New Yorkers for Children benefit and said that I was hitting on Peter. I didn’t know who either of them were at that point!” Mr. Laliberte said. “I am glad that I’m friends with both of them, and I think they make an adorable couple. I have no doubt in my mind that at some point they’ll probably get married. I think Paul would make a wonderful father,” he said, before adding: “I mean, personally, I like guys who are my own age.”

Wrapping up his case with little-diminished fervor, Mr. Laliberte explained that he’s glad he no longer spends a lot of time with his onetime frenemy. “I’m just not into the late night scene. I think its great that Paul is young and having fun, I just have to get up for work every morning.”

Paul Johnson-Calderon, the social butterfly and assistant to Vogue contributing editor Lauren Davis, wants to set the record straight about his failed attempt to star in a reality TV show with publicist party-boy Kristian Laliberte. (“It’s going to be The Simple Life meets The Hills,” Mr. Laliberte reportedly said.)

“There’s no more show. It’s no longer happening; Vogue won’t let me do it,” Mr. Johnson-Calderon, 24, told the Daily Transom last night at John Allan's Habitat for Humanity benefit in Stone Rose, a jazz bar on the fourth floor of the Time-Warner Center. “The only way I’d be able to do it is if the show is, like, for MTV, because of The Hills, and I think Condé Nast…I don’t know what the deal is,” he went on, “Lauren was just like, ‘I don’t want you to associate me with this, I don’t want you associating yourself with it,’” he recalled his boss saying.

Mr. Johnson-Calderon went on to explain that he definitely wants to stick with his gig at the fashion glossy, because “I’ve worked hard to get where I am, and I’m happy where I am. I want to work for Vogue [in the future]. And I’m still working on my degree.” He takes classes one day a week at Sarah Lawrence College.

As reported in The Observer last June, Mr. Johnson-Calderon and Mr. Laliberte (the dynamic duo have called themselves “frenemies,” a working title for the now-cadaverous show), were at one time quarreling over the hot pash of Avenue society columnist Peter Davis. In the end, Mr. Davis snubbed the Unruly Heir and went with the Vogue staffer. (At one point during our conversation with Mr. Johnson-Calderon, Mr. Davis called his boyfriend. The call ended with a super-gooey “I love you!”)

Also a guest at the party, Mr. Laliberte’s ears must have been burning, because a few minutes later, he came flying over to Mr. Johnson-Calderon, who was wearing a natty Balenciaga-Yamamoto combo, and planted a kiss on his cheek.

“We’re no longer frenemies,” confided Mr. Johnson-Calderon after Mr. Laliberte had danced out of earshot. “He claimed to be dating my boyfriend Peter Davis, so it’s not really about the friendship thing as much as I’d like it to be. It’s more about Vogue, and I think I used that as a clutch, and you can quote me. I love it; I don’t care anymore. It’s over!”

When not toiling at 4 Times Square, or hitting the books in Bronxville, he said that much of his time is taken up by his work designing a spring/summer line of belts called, of course, P.J.C.

“I’m just sort of glad to be in a very Zen place in my life right now. I cut out the people who,” he stopped, looked around the space, then added: “People who I’m no longer friends with know what they did and that’s all that needs to be said.”