British author Sebastian Horsley wrote a memoir entitled “Dandy in the Underworld.” The book tells how he spent about $200,000. on various drugs and a similar amount on more than 1,000 prostitutes. (It makes Eliot Spitzer look like a cheapskate.) Harper Perennial has published Horsley’s book in paperback. He flew to the United States Tuesday for a book party and tour to promote his memoir.However, the dandy did not get past Newark Liberty International Airport. At the airport customs authorities detained him for eight hours and questioned him about using drugs, consorting with prostitutes, and being a male escort. Then they sent him back to England. A spokeswoman for the New York office of United States Customs and Border Protection said, “travelers who have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude or admit to previously having a drug addiction are not admissible.”
Rumor now has it that former New Jersey governor James McGreevey, former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, and current New York governor David Paterson will not be permitted to travel to the United Kingdom.
3 comments:
How convenient for his publishers. This certainly IS a gold mine for them, maybe they set the whole thing up?
This is for certain. Sebastian Horsley wasn't sent home to London for his "subversive ideas." Foreigners with prior convictions and histories of drug abuse get denied entry into the U.S. all the time. Sad but true. Most people have a much worse time of it, since they don't have a conglomerate behind them to further their cause.
And since it was probably the publisher who tipped off immigration, why do we care about this man or his book?
I smell a rat. This "scandal" was staged.
What a fantastic press coup for Harper Collins!
So, right before Easter they manage to get Sebastian Horsley denied entry into the U.S. for being an admitted and convicted criminal and person of "moral turpitude." A bit ironic for someone who once got crucified on a lark...
Harper Collins and editor Carrie Kania didn't waste a moment to get this story into the press, the widely repeated Reuters piece reads curiously like a press release. Maybe it's because it's based on this PR piece?
So, is this just a ploy for making sure Sebastian Horsley's book is noticed? Pretty desperate I'd say, especially after the spate of fake misery memoirs that have been exposed lately. There's an interesting piece in the New York Times about this event, which also casts doubt on the truth of Mr. Horsley's memoir:
"In interviews, though, he has been repeatedly coy about what is real and what is contrived. 'It’s better to be quotable than honest,' he told Time Out London in February. In an interview with The Independent last September, he said: 'I don’t speak, I quote. I am a fraud. I have cobbled together my personality from hundreds of little bits. I am simultaneously the most genuine and the most artificial person you will ever meet."
During the party last night, the upshot of Sebastian being detained and refused entry for being a sleazeball, wasn't lost on the publishers:
"Of course, the silver lining of the incident did not escape Ms. Kania. A big piece in The New York Times, the kind of Internet buzz money can’t buy …"
Harper Collins PR flacks certainly outdid themselves to promote this miserable dandy and his abhorrent views!
Dear Dr Perrin
It has come to my attention that you have used my image of Sebastian Horsley in your your blog posting of March 20th 2008. I do not have any record of having issued you with a licence to use this image. I would be grateful if you would provide me with any evidence that you have been issued with a licence by myself for such use.
This is a breach of my copyright.
I require you to remove the image immediately. If you would like to make use of the image for the future, any such future use would only be permitted subject to negotiation with me of a separate licence and payment of a licence fee at my rates.
Yours faithfully
Fiona Campbell
rubyslippersphotography@googlemail.com
Post a Comment