That’s Helene Luchnick, executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman and the sales director for waterfront condos on Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg and a loft-like building on Berry Street.

That’s meant to be a good thing.

“There will be parks along the water,” Ms. Luchnick said.

Indeed, renderings of what developers have planned for Williamsburg’s first waterfront luxury development, Schaefer Landing, make the slide from scruffy loft-chic to the manicured Tower in the Park aesthetic of Battery Park City seem inevitable. The glossy brochure includes drawings of future residents chatting outside the sleek building, with Manhattan skyscrapers in the background.

There are also headings like “The Good Life,” “Inventive Eateries, Intriguing Shops,” and “Cool Galleries, Hot Clubs.”

The 210-unit luxury condo project will include an esplanade and lush greenery that will take shape in an area that still has the gritty feel of post-industrial abandonment, the Mad Max–like qualities of urban decay. No bother: The coming real-estate boom in Williamsburg will surely wipe all that away.

But what about the cool galleries and the hot clubs? The inventive eateries and the intriguing shops?

“I’ve done a lot of new developments in the East Village, and I had mothers in front of the building saying where are they going to stop at a grocery store? There are no cabs here; there are no flower shops. And I said, ‘First the people will come, and then the shops will come,’” said broker Linda Rubin, Ms. Luchnick’s partner at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

And others, inevitably, will go. Occupancy for Schaefer Landing’s 15- and 25-story towers is slated for December 2005 and September 2006, respectively. The prices for the apartments range from $640,000 to $1.9 million, averaging about $750 to $800 a square foot.

Anxious buyers have snatched their future residences quickly off the spec sheets.

“I’ve always dreamt of having a waterfront property,” said Camille Evans, a design director at a hip-hop clothing company. “I always liked Battery Park when I lived in Manhattan. It feels like cleaner air.”

Three years ago, Ms. Evans—who had previously lived in the East Village and Soho—moved into a new construction for $325,000 at Bedford Avenue and South First Street in Williamsburg. The property value nearly doubled, and Ms. Evans is trading up from her one-bedroom into a 1,175-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment on the sixth floor of Schaefer Landing’s taller structure, at the cost of $740,000.

“The idea being able to go up on to the 25th floor and look out on views of Manhattan, and read a book in the garden or walk down the esplanade, is really a dream for me,” said Ms. Evans.

Although confident that buying early is a smart investment, she understands that the full realization of the waterfront, as so glowingly depicted in the renderings, will take time.

“I think it will probably takes five years or so to see the change. In small increments, you will see special grocery stores moving and recognizing the needs of the community.”

While the ritzy building—filled with amenities like a fitness center, full-time concierge and library—was certainly attractive to Ms. Evans, the ex-Londoner also loves the artsy environs for their “Carnaby Street vibe.”

“I think Williamsburg is still the early days into development,” said Ms. Evans. “It still maintains a lot of character. Hopefully, it won’t push all the artists out.”

Rampant construction is bringing in a wave of luxury condo buyers, young professionals who have become the present-day pioneers, according to high-end brokers. Many of the affluent transplants resemble the creative-class prototype popularized by economist Richard Florida. Although working in creative fields, they tend to seek more out of life than proximity to contemporary art galleries or dimly lit cafés frequented by shaggy-haired hipsters. They want Fresh Direct produce shoved into a Sub-Zero refrigerator, polished granite countertops, skyline views, jogging along the river and a water taxi to Wall Street.

For a fashionable neighborhood that has been declared officially over more times than one can count, Williamsburg is in the midst of a housing boom. Current constructions aside, the future Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront redevelopment will transform 75 blocks from industrial to residential use.

Last March, the Sunday Times real-estate section heralded a “Williamsburg Reinvented.” A large corresponding map was spattered with orange, red and black dots pinpointing condos for sale, buildings being converted, and residential buildings planned or under construction—over 130 buildings total.

“The thing that has put Williamsburg on the map and made it more desirable to a lot of people is that there is this artistic culture out there,” said Robert Lanham, the author of The Hipster Handbook and founder of the arts and cultural Web site freewilliamsburg.com. “By diluting the culture, by putting up all these cookie-cutter condos and trying to attract upper-income people, then ultimately you are going to kill the desirability of the neighborhood.”

Mr. Lanham moved to Williamsburg in 1996, paying just $900 a month for a two-bedroom apartment near the L train’s Bedford Avenue stop. Because of rising rents, he’s moved a few subway stops down to the more affordable Graham Avenue.

“Now it’s just become a cross of homogenous trust-funders and bridge-and-tunnel people that are coming in for the weekend. I think Williamsburg is in the Fodor’s guide now.”

Anything but Fodor’s! A Lonely Planet guide might be acceptable, if only to increase the chance that a handful of Berlin backpackers show up rather than American rubes. “You see these people that have read in their local paper in Idaho that Williamsburg is hip, and they put on their mesh baseball caps and retro T-shirts and head on out,” continued Mr. Lanham.

Ms. Luchnick also mentioned that Williamsburg could follow the trajectory of Soho or Dumbo, which is a plus for developers. In both areas, artists were eventually pushed out in favor of high-end residential units, and Mr. Lanham has witnessed people “moving to Greenpoint that long for what Williamsburg was like 10 years ago.”

It seems like a natural New York progression, where real-estate values influence the burgeoning neighborhoods, sometimes forcing out the onetime gentrifiers.

“When you hear that over 100 condos [are going] up in about six months, that should be a warning light that the developers aren’t really thinking about maintaining the culture that is out there,” said Mr. Lanham.

Even some condo buyers are concerned about the effect of development on the community.

“My opinions about Williamsburg are pretty mixed. It’s kind of ironic that I actually bought into sort of a yuppie building, since it’s not really the kind of work I do,” said Derek Wang, a 30-year-old art director for independent films.

A Connecticut native, Mr. Wang moved to the city in 1998 and will be relocating soon from midtown to Williamsburg.

After being outbid on a 15-foot-wide Fort Greene townhouse, Mr. Wang signed a contract for a third-floor apartment at 55 Berry. The 35-unit converted manufacturing building at the corner of Berry and North 11th streets sits near Beacon’s Closet and the Brooklyn Brewery, popular local haunts, but unlikely to draw many of their now-rich neighbors. The one-bedroom apartment cost $825,000 and will house both him and his girlfriend.

Mr. Wang was attracted to the high ceilings in the loft-like building, where prices reach almost $1.4 million, and not so much to the nightlife offered by nearby clubs.

Although residents of Schaefer Landing will have a shuttle service during the rush hours taking them to the L, J, M and Z lines, Mr. Wang found that he would have only a few minutes’ commute from the Berry Street condo—at least for now.

Mr. Wang will soon have a chic, modern spread, but he might lose his workshop, which is located along the waterfront in the Bayside Fuel Oil Depot, a site that has already been discussed for future development.

So, not surprisingly, he has some reservations about the changing neighborhood, a position echoed by some current residents.

“I have lived here for 14 years, and I have had a gallery for about 10, so I’ve seen it go through a lot of changes,” said Lisa Schroeder, of the Schroeder Romero gallery on North Third Street, and currently the secretary of the Williamsburg Gallery Association. “The one thing I can say is that the newer people moving into this community do not support the arts. Not at all.”

Ms. Schroeder moved to Williamsburg in 1992 from the Upper West Side and rented a 6,000-square-foot space with some friends for $1,750 a month, constructing a gallery and residential space in the palatial, formerly industrial space.

“This was mainly a manufacturing, working-class neighborhood, and these warehouses sat empty for many years,” said Ms. Schroeder. “And the artists discovered them after Soho had become out of the question.”

While fortunate to have a supportive landlord who has renewed her lease every three years, Ms. Schroeder is aware that many artists and fledgling gallery owners over the past decade haven’t been so lucky. “It’s all over this neighborhood—fighting with landlords and just hideous things.”

She is wary of developers trumping up Williamsburg’s arts scene while advertising million-dollar condos.

“Once a developer gets the tenants in that they want, the arts organizations are kicked out of those spaces and they’re rented to something like Whole Foods,” she said. “It doesn’t surprise me that they’re using [galleries] in their brochures.

While Williamsburg residents like Ms. Schroeder are understandably skeptical of brokers coming into town seeking high-priced commissions, at least one broker put her money where her mouth is. Sharon Held of the Corcoran Group recently purchased one of three apartments built on the roof of the Gretsch Building, a 130-unit building that was once a factory for the musical-instrument manufacturer. After that, for many years, it was a commercial space crammed with artists’ lofts—a sort-of giant Art Dorm. Those residents were evicted to make way for the new Gretsch People.

“As a broker, I get to see a lot of spaces all over town. When I went to the area first, I was very excited about what was going on, what Williamsburg was about, and what it was going to be,” said Ms. Held, who has worked with high-profile clients like Mets catcher Mike Piazza and New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson. So she’s no stranger to opulent residential living, and has decided to leave the Upper East Side for Williamsburg.

“I currently live in a prewar building,” said Ms. Held. “This certainly is prewar, but it has been renovated and refurbished for today’s lifestyles.”

Although her main focus is still Manhattan, she has sold one other unit in the Gretsch and recently shown a few other apartments.

“The views were amazing, and the price per square foot was more competitive than you could get on the other side of the river. You’re facing the Manhattan skyline, with the Williamsburg Bridge at your door going one way and the Statue of Liberty at the other.”

And celebrity buyers have also arrived. The rapper Busta Rhymes picked up three units, proving that South Williamsburg has come a long way. However, the increase of celebrity buyers and wealthy professionals doesn’t sit well with the Hasidic community, which has mounted protests decrying the very unaffordable housing right in the middle of their community. Despite these protests, the lavish units went quickly when they were offered at the end of 2003, with prices averaging close to $575 per square foot.

And Ms. Held maintains that developers have been very transparent in the entire process, and the improvement to the neighborhood will be felt for years to come.

“They are actively involved in the community,” she said. “I think there has been and will be a concerted effort to continue and maintain that. I think that at the end of the day, development’s a win-win for everyone.”

In Big Sweep, Investor Buys Versace Mansion for $30 M.

Since it went on the market almost one year ago, the late Gianni Versace’s 64th Street townhouse has been one of the most closely watched properties on the Upper East Side. In October 2004, it was initially listed for $32 million with Deborah Grubman and Carol Cohen of the Corcoran Group.

Last June, The Observer reported that the 12,000-square-foot property had gone to contract for “slightly above the $29.9 million asking price,” and now the deal has finally closed. The five-story mansion was recently purchased by investor Thomas Sandell for $30 million, according to deed-transfer records.

That sale marks a steep price increase over the past decade.

In 1995, Versace purchased the doublewide mansion for $7.5 million and then reportedly dropped another $10 million to transform it into his own lavish palazzo. The renowned designer was murdered two years later outside of his Miami home.

Mr. Sandell didn’t return calls for comment, so it’s not known whether the palatial home was sold for a personal residence or as an investment. Over the past year, Mr. Sandell, a real-estate investor and portfolio manager at Sandell Asset Management, made headlines after purchasing another well-known property: Last November, he signed a contract for billionaire Lily Safra’s full-floor condo at 838 Fifth Avenue for $13.6 million, with the deal closing two months later. In August, the savvy investor put the ninth-floor condo back on the market (“delivered new”) for $19.75 million. He could pocket a quick $6 million in profit if the apartment is sold at the asking price.

The 4,165-square-foot condo includes three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a library with a wood-burning fireplace, and a private entry foyer.

If the interior details aren’t lavish enough, there is also the 822-square-foot terrace providing exceptional Central Park views.

As with the Versace mansion, the luxurious condo is currently listed with Ms. Grubman and Ms. Cohen.

Met: Spring 1998

Engaged: Aug. 15, 2002

Projected Wedding Date: Sept. 20, 2003

We hear the ominous rumble of S.U.V.'s on Bedford Avenue: Longtime Williamsburg "rez" Robert Lanham, 32, author of The Hipster Handbook (Anchor Books) and creator of the four-year-old irony-laden Web 'zine FREEwilliamsburg.com, is succumbing to tradition and walking down the aisle with Amy Brown, 28, a producer at documentarian Ric Burns' Steeplechase Films, who likes to make shag rugs and paint her intended's fingernails with Sharpie pens to keep him from biting them.

Just how hip is this pair? Ms. Brown went to Oberlin ("a student body that is 94.6 percent hipster," according to page 95 of the Handbook ). Mr. Lanham, who has long blond sideburns and dimples, attended Virginia Commonwealth University ("Hipness grade: C-plus" he said), wears plaid and drinks water with a straw. They enjoy reading Don DeLillo and Haruki Murakami, listening to retro country music and watching "bad TV" like For Love or Money . "We're addicts," he said, adding, "I'm more an anthropologist or a satirist than a hipster." Somewhere, Margaret Mead and Jonathan Swift are quietly weeping ….

They met at a party thrown by mutual friends who'd gone to Vassar (apparently the Harvard of hipsters). Attracted by Ms. Brown's thick dark-golden hair, bonny blue eyes and big smile, Mr. Lanham made sure to show up at a Blonde Redhead concert she was attending the next night at Tramps. "I stalked her," he said.

Months of shows and movies and dinners followed, but there was no liquid , as they say. "Neither of us were sure if the other one was thinking it was just a platonic relationship," Ms. Brown said. "We were both very shy."

"I think we were dating the whole time, and didn't really know it because neither of us wanted to make the first move," Mr. Lanham said. "But I was falling for her and she was falling for me, and then one night we went back to her apartment and talked about how we were falling for each other, and we kissed and took it from there."

Alas, that apartment was in- gawsp -Park Slope. "There are a lot of baby carriages," Mr. Lanham said with the air of a man who doesn't quite grasp what he's getting into. "I felt like we were having a long-distance relationship."

Eventually he persuaded her to move to his Berry Street two-bedroom, where he brought up the charmingly retro idea of marriage one night as she was preparing for a nap on the sofa (a velour sectional with a floral design in purple and orange). They celebrated with "Bronsons," a.k.a. beers, at the Blue Lounge.

A half-carat diamond in an undulating platinum setting was secured from her parents, Back to Eden farmer-jeweler-artisan types who live in Maine (the wedding will be there, on the blissfully ungentrified Bailey's Island). There's an e.e. cummings poem on the invitation-"His work really speaks to me," Mr. Lanham said-and Ms. Brown has selected a white-and-crimson 1950's-inspired silk dress. But apparently the hipness stops there.

"Everyone expects us to wear, like, mesh baseball caps at the wedding, but it's really going to be pretty traditional," said the groom. "There will be no Vespas."

Caroline Carson and Tyson T. Halsey

Met: December 2001

Engaged: April 17, 2003

Projected Wedding Date: Sept. 20, 2003

Financial analyst Tyson Halsey, 42, a descendant of the Halseys who settled Southampton in the 17th century (ooh, fancy! ), is marrying Caroline Carson, 32, a sales associate for American Silk Mills and former South Carolina debutante. "I'm not the typical New York woman, just looking for cha-ching ," Ms. Carson said over tea at the St. Regis. "I was just happy to meet a nice, normal, mature guy for whom alcohol wasn't the main thing."

Mr. Halsey, a brawny, gap-toothed teetotaler with a penchant for goofily printed Burberry ties, was sipping tonic water when he spotted the slender, full-lipped Ms. Carson at a dinner party for the Junior Members of the New York Philharmonic at the Racquet Club on Park Avenue. "There was another man at the table bidding for Caroline's attention," he said. "At one point he said, 'Well, I'm an investment banker,' and he just smiled from ear to ear, and I thought that was nauseating . I couldn't believe someone could be so crass !"

Perhaps the nausea was sharper because Mr. Halsey's hedge fund was doing "horribly" in the post-9/11 bear market. "I was devastated about it," he said. "I told her I was feeling broke. I don't know what about that could've attracted her to me. But I thought the fact that she spent the rest of the evening talking to me instead of to the other guy seemed a clear sign she wasn't interested in any money I had."

Unlike her pursuer, whom she says "never loses his cool," Ms. Carson likes to hit the sauce on occasion. A month after they began dating, she had a few too many martinis while out with friends and fell face-down in the lobby of her Upper East Side apartment building, breaking her nose. "She was all black and blue," Mr. Halsey said. "The kisses had to be very gentle, because God knows I couldn't touch that nose! It was a real test of the relationship." There were other tests: "I went over to her apartment when we first started dating," he said, "and she had on The Man Show ."

Ms. Carson countered that her swain likes to eat Ben 'n' Jerry's Half-Baked by the pint, straight from the container-a habit that The Love Beat assures her will grow even more grating once they commence their post-nuptials cohabitation, near Washington Square.

An endlessly practical fellow, Mr. Halsey proposed when they were buying some secondhand furniture. "I just said, 'Caroline, since we're making all these decisions about furniture, I might as well ask you to marry me,'" he recalled.

The ring was a close copy of one they had chosen together at Tiffany: a round brilliant-cut diamond set between two yellow sapphires in yellow gold-four carats all told.

After the ceremony at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue, 250 guests will be shuttled by double-decker bus to a lavender-and-chocolate-brown-trimmed reception at 37th Street's Union League. Ms. Carson will wear a white satin Tomasina gown with mermaid styling from Saks-which should deflect attention from her still-swollen proboscis. "It's a little crooked now, and bigger than it was," she said mournfully. "He told me that if his business picked up, he'd pay for a nose job."

"And it has picked up," Mr. Halsey said. "But not that much."

Arthur (Chip) Behal and Jo-Anne Sutton

Met: Jan. 28, 2000

Engaged: June 5, 2003

Projected Wedding Date: Sept. 18, 2004

Jo-Anne Sutton was single and in her 40's and happy , goddamnit. "I traveled the world for nine years and hadn't found anyone I connected with," said Ms. Sutton, an Australian native with Lana Turner hair who believes her current numerical age is not fit to print. "I was on a journey of self-discovery during that time, and I got out of it the realization that there's more to life than what you see. I believe in fate, and that the universe will bring you where you need to be."

In June 1999, the universe brought her to Manhattan, where, following a career as a hotel consultant, she founded Performance Development Solutions, a feel-good consulting firm that helps teens and businesses develop leadership skills. She was set up on a blind date at the York Grill with a friend's sister-in-law's friend's cousin, Chip Behal, a security specialist at Verizon with a graying, rather studly goatee. Like Ms. Sutton, he was 5-foot-8 and had managed to hit the Big Four-O without getting hitched. "I was always hopeful that I would meet the right person and it would lead to marriage," said Mr. Behal, who's entirely comfortable admitting his current age, 45. (Ah, patriarchy!) "I always kind of thought it would've happened sooner than it did, but I also always thought there was no sense in trying to force it."

Ms. Sutton found him dapper. Thoughtful. He took tin-whistle lessons, for God's sake. "I thought he was a real gentleman," she said. "He was nicely dressed in a suit and everything. But it took me a little while to know . He was so different than other guys I'd been out with. I was used to going out with guys who were more aggressive and self-centered. And then I thought, 'Well Jo-Anne, the guys you go out with never work out anyway, so why not try something different?'"

That first evening ended at an Irish-music jam at the Village's Blarney Star. She swooned at this sudden influx of cultural stimulation. "American men are so much more sensitive and considerate," she said. "Australian men just want to hang out and drink beer with the boys."

Mr. Behal, a sophisticate who prefers port or Coke to beer, was also turned on. "She seemed like someone who knew what she wanted, and she wasn't going to put up with anything less," he said. "I just liked the way she carried herself."

After an intensive two-year courtship, he cajoled her from the Upper East Side to the Manhasset manse where he maintains an extensive rare-coin collection. "But Jo-Anne is the one who fills the empty spot in the coin album of my heart," he said. He popped the question at the Italian restaurant Mad 28, handing her a mushily inscribed card and a ring that had belonged to his late mother: a 4.3-carat mine-cut yellow-tinted diamond set in platinum. Talk about coin! "I was quite delighted that she said yes very quickly,'" he said. They're planning a wedding on the water somewhere in Long Island.

Recently, Ms. Sutton's grateful family gave Mr. Behal a mint silver Australian kookaburra for his treasury. "It's a lovely collector's piece," he said. "There's a real thrill in finding an elusive coin."

"I propose to share for the first time my life story, including the minute-by-minute account of the events of September 11, the rescue effort that followed and the recovery that continues today," Mr. Von Essen writes. "I have maintained detailed notes, calendars and diaries of my career, particularly during the last few months, trying to sort out the horror and bravery, the awful depths and incredible heights."

But Mr. Von Essen's proposal comes at an awkward moment, submitted in the same week that soon-to-be-former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik did a blitzkrieg bop of the press to promote his own memoir, The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice . Though praised for its heart-wrenching personal revelations, Mr. Kerik's book has faced criticism that it exploited Sept. 11 by rushing in a late chapter about the attacks and publishing 16 pages of police photographs taken at ground zero. (Said Mr. Kerik's publisher, Judith Regan: "The photos are available to the public, and he would have been remiss not to address one of the more important moments of his life. And anyone who criticizes his writing about that is an idiot.")

Mr. Von Essen himself is not unfamiliar with scorn from his own firefighters, especially during the past few weeks, after he supported Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's move to scale back firefighting personnel at ground zero. That conflict ended with the contingent of firefighters being restored to past numbers, but not before Mr. Von Essen briefly left the news conference weeping when a retired firefighter whose son is still buried at the site pleaded for more firefighters to aid the search.

Mr. Von Essen's agent, Rebecca Kurson–wife of writer Ken Kurson, the co-writer of Rudy Giuliani's upcoming books–said it was too early to comment on the memoir, and no closing date for the proposal has been set.

How big could Mr. Von Essen's book become? One editor who has seen the proposal thinks that despite Mr. Von Essen's heightened profile, finding an audience might be challenging. "He is a very sympathetic figure," says the editor. "But I don't see this as being a big book at all."

Mr. Kerik's book, meanwhile, is ranked No. 32 on Nov. 20 on the always fluctuating, mostly random and sometimes meaningless Amazon sales chart; it was No. 3,994 on BarnesandNoble.com.

Like Mr. Kerik's book, Mr. Von Essen's as-yet-unwritten memoir will span the length of his civil-service career. According to the proposal, Mr. Von Essen will write about his time at Ladder 42, as delegate and later president of the firefighter's union; about his battles against budget cuts; and about his appointment to the fire commissioner's job in 1996, which prompted substantial grumbling from rank-and-file colleagues.

"Some firefighters still see my switching sides from labor to management as a betrayal," Mr. Von Essen writes. "That's ridiculous. I would never go against my conscience, I'd never betray my men …. I've taken a lot of criticism from the union, and while it hurts, I don't back down."

The commissioner's memoir would join a legion of recently acquired titles that address the September events in some way: Gail Sheehy is following a group of bereaved families affected by the attacks for a future Random House book, for instance, while a photography book, In the Line of Duty: A Tribute to New York's Finest and Bravest (featuring forwards by Mr. Kerik and Mr. Von Essen), was just published by HarperCollins. Basic Books recently signed Observer city editor Terry Golway to write a history of the NYFD to be published late next year, and Dennis Smith, a former firefighter turned author, is writing Report from Ground Zero for Viking. Mr. Smith's book is due next month.

–P.J. Mark

Rod Dreher, the film critic turned conservative columnist at the New York Post , has taken his Ray Kerrison act across town. Picked to replace Mr. Kerrison after he retired in 1999, Mr. Dreher is joining National Review , where he'll write his column three times a week for National Review 's Web site as well as pieces for the magazine.

Reached for comment, Mr. Dreher told us he was making the move partly out of concern for the safety of his 2-year-old son. "One thing that affected this decision was the anthrax attacks at the Post ," said Mr. Dreher, who was on Cipro for a few days after a co-worker was found to be a victim of an anthrax attack. "What would I do if I got this stuff and my wife was left alone with our son?"

Mr. Dreher, whose last day was Nov. 16, plans to stay in Park Slope for now, but he said he was considering getting away and moving to the suburbs of Washington, D.C., some time next year.

But a Post source said that Mr. Dreher wasn't exactly a perfect fit with new editor Col Allan's depoliticized Post . His column was appearing less frequently; it ran on just 10 days this October, compared to 17 times in October last year. A spokesperson for the Post would not say whether Mr. Dreher's column would be replaced.

Speaking of National Review , William Buckley Jr. managed to work himself into a tizzy in the Nov. 19 issue about how pervasive porn is in modern life. Exhibit A in his case: the February issue of Esquire . Ticking off all the references to sex he found in its pages–the crotch-level photo of Bill Clinton on the cover, a mention of "backseat action" in a car review, a discussion of morning erections and the like–a titillated Mr. Buckley concluded, "Is the Esquire given over to erotomania unique? Of course not, but it isn't just one more girlie magazine. It is a sign of the times, the day of pervasive presence. Eros is crowding at us on all sides, as the erotic and pornographic merger."

So what does Esquire editor David Granger think of the charge he's putting out a porn mag?

"Oh, hell," Mr. Granger said. "Does this mean that I have to open up National Review –two copies of which arrive unbidden at my office every month–for the first time in my life?"

–Gabriel Snyder

Since 1999, Robert Lanham, a 30-year-old Web-site designer, has run a site called Free Williamsburg devoted to the très cool Brooklyn neighborhood. Last September, Mr. Lanham assigned a story to his friend Grant Moser about the music scene there, and Mr. Moser, in turn, wrote about a recently released compilation of Brooklyn bands– This Is Next Year –and profiled clubs in the hipster hamlet: Northsix, Galapagos, Warsaw and Luxx. The latter club, Mr. Moser said, "reminded me of a Coney Island bumper car ring. Reflective wallpaper, clear plastic tubing, lights and a smash of colors came from all directions."

The piece ran with the headline "A Scene Grows in Brooklyn," and Mr. Lanham forgot about it until two weeks ago, when he saw The Village Voice .

What Mr. Lanham found in the Nov. 13 edition of The Voice was a piece by writer Chris Parker. Mr. Parker wrote about the This Is Next Year compilation and described the edgy new atmosphere for bands in Williamsburg, focusing on Northsix and Warsaw and Luxx, which, Mr. Parker wrote, "has–with its crush of colors, reflective wallpaper, lights and tubing–been compared to a Coney Island bumper car ring." The headline for the piece? "A Scene Grows in Brooklyn."

Did The Voice rip off Free Williamsburg? "The framework for the article is pretty much the same," Mr. Lanham said. "It even had the same headline."

The following day, Mr. Lanham wrote a letter complaining about the matter and received a voice-mail message from a Voice staffer. Then Mr. Lanham sent another letter, charging them with copyright infringement and asking them to pull the piece from their Web site. After Mr. Lanham's first letter (which also appeared in the New York Press ) ran in the Nov. 20 edition of The Voice, Mr. Lanham spoke with Voice managing editor Doug Simmons. Mr. Lanham said that when they talked, Mr. Simmons cursed at him and was "unprofessional and rude."

For his part, Mr. Simmons, while admitting he grew curt with Mr. Lanham, considers the issue over. The Voice ran the letter and added a link to Free Williamsburg on its Web site. He also said that after conferring with the paper's legal counsel, any legal claim against the paper was "absolute bullshit."

"How did we damage him?" Mr. Simmons said. "By giving him a plug? Usually when we reply to a letter, it's a silly-sarcastic reply. No reply is good."

Mr. Simmons considers it this way: If you're going to talk about new music in Williamsburg, you have to write about these clubs and this CD. The Voice also had a longer piece with different sources.

"If I feel bad about anything, it's the bumper-car line," Mr. Simmons said. "We should have given him credit for that line. If the writer had just done that, none of this would have happened. It's a matter of simple attribution. But I see one line and a terrible headline from a tired editor. I bet 'A (Blank) Grows in Brooklyn' has appeared in The Village Voice a dozen times. It's clichéd and never should have run."

The tired editor responsible for that terrible headline is music editor Chuck Eddy. "It was a shitty headline," Mr. Eddy said. "It sucked when Free Williamsburg did it, and it sucked when we did it, too. "

Mr. Parker, for his part, said he came up with the story idea after attending a show at Northsix. It was only two weeks into his reporting, he said, that he saw the Free Williamsburg piece. "There's no copyright on trend stories," Mr. Parker said.

–Sridhar Pappu

If it's six months after a new editor in chief took over, it must be time for shake-ups. Wired editor Chris Anderson has announced a raft of changes for the tech-fetishist's magazine. Some veterans have been trimmed from the masthead, and a redesign is in the works.

Early on, the fluorescent-and-metallic-hued magazine built its reputation largely on its visual style–but nine years later, the title has become a bit more subdued, and the shock factor has also diminished as other magazines borrowed from its aesthetic devices.

"I don't think Wired 's visuals have the impact they had in the beginning," Mr. Anderson said. So he's bringing in Darrin Perry as creative director. Mr. Perry did much to shape the busy look of ESPN magazine. The redesign is targeted for the May issue.

"We love our logo, we love the stripes on our spine, and fluorescent will always be part of our palette," Mr. Anderson said, adding, "It was time for a new aesthetic."

Mr. Anderson is also planning to revamp the "editorial architecture" of the magazine. As of Nov. 16, he let go of several editors and writers: Senior editor Paul Boutin, section editor Paul Spinrad and senior writer Chip Bayers, who had been at the magazine since nearly its founding, were all pink-slipped. Also, senior editor Tom McNichol will give up his title, but will go on contract as a writer. Mr. Anderson is bringing on Mark Robinson, who was most recently at Industry Standard as senior editor.

–G.S.

It's bad enough that lovelorn reporters have to compete with lawyers and doctors. But competing with firefighters in today's New York? Forget it!

The other night, at an after-party following the Financial Follies–the annual song-dance-and-booze festival thrown by the New York Financial Writers' Association at the Marriott Marquis–a posse of firefighters arrived and quickly stole the thunder of the tuxedoed journalists on the prowl. "They're so hot," said one female business writer. Said a male colleague: "How do we have a chance with those guys around? It's unfair."

–S.P.

Last week, this column noted that Warner Bros. was unlikely to use a blurb from Time film critic and AOL Time Warner employee Richard Corliss in its ads for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone after Mr. Corliss pasted the film as "stodgy, humorless." But it was interesting to see that AOL T.W. did dig up some Harry Potter superlatives from a previous Time feature by Jess Cagle, who gushed that the movie had "eye-popping grandeur, dazzling special effects and sumptuous production values." And unlike Time , which whenever it writes about a corporate sibling dutifully notes that they are both owned by AOL Time Warner, the ads don't mention that Mr. Cagle and young Harry are on the same payroll.

–G.S.