I may be a day late on this story, but at least I'm not $60 short. It’s the Halloween that will never end. It lingers in the mysteriously disappearing stale candy in the mushy pumpkin by the door and a few sprinkles of glitter on my cluttered desk. It screams at me on Facebook as 1,733 (as of this morning) unhappy Facebook folk have organized a “We got scammed by Tavern on the Green 2009 Halloween!” group. Thousands of comments recall the true Halloween nightmare these people and many others endured. Many have asked me to weigh in on this, including my editor, so I made some calls.

First off I have known Alex and Leo Baskin for over 10 years; I can’t say we are friends, we have always enjoyed a friendly relationship. That is because I have never known them to be anything less than honest brokers. I rarely hang out with lowlifes unless I can tax them a lot of loot. I enjoy a very friendly relationship with Tavern operator Jenny Oz Leroy, and although we have never done business together, I do hope to work with her at one point. In the 10 years I have known her, I have found her to be the stuff that dreams are made of. Her honesty and desire to always do the right thing have endeared her to me. I make these statements because some of you out there insist that I disclose my relationships with the people I write about. I think that is fair. With that in mind the 1,734 (I just rechecked) angry Facebook friends can’t all be wrong, and many of them have asked me to address their grievances.

Tavern on the Green is as used to big events as a venue can be; for example, they hosted a monster event for the New York City Marathon just hours before the Halloween bash got underway. It seems inconceivable to me that they were not prepared to properly host 2,350 patrons at this sold-out gala. 2,350 is their legal capacity. The question arises whether the promoters, led by brothers Alex and Leo Baskin, oversold the event. An early press release from Tavern pointed fingers and toes at the promoters. It stated that Alex, Leo, and friends “irresponsibly sold anywhere from 4,000-6,000 tickets or more, putting people's safety in jeopardy for their own profit.” It got bad for a minute between the two parties, with Alex and Leo's phone number being forwarded to Tavern's lines, and the promo group blaming the venue. Then the two parties started talking smart and this release soon gave way to a new joint release, where regret and refund policies were laid out. It seems that someone might have printed counterfeit tickets with the wrong time on them, etc., etc., etc.

Tappy Phillips, Channel 7’s fabulous reporter, is no sappy. A ticket with a number in the high 4,000s was shown by her, and unless it was a fake or they started the tickets numbers at 2,500 instead of 0, something is fishier here than the coconut crusted shrimp with mango salsa that guests were to eat that night, washed down by torrents of free Grey Goose. Guests paid $60 a head, or $130 if they wanted to sit in a chair at a crowded table. 6 rooms, 12 DJs, plus a chance to win a trip to Paris or $10,000 cash, an extensive banquet menu, and free Goose all night long in the romantic Central Park venue made this an easy ticket to sell. Outlets for ticket sales were abundant, and the promoters Alex and Leo had sub-promoters who had sub-promoters; somewhere down this food chain, greed might have chimed in. I can’t believe it was the brothers Baskin.

With online sales as well as hard ticket sales and a package that sold itself, somehow way too many tickets got sold. It should be noted that Tavern did pack out fast, and many people had a great time even though it was shut down by the NYPD at 1:30am. Everyone agrees the police did the right thing. An estimated 3,000 people were near riot in the cold rain. Revelers didn't just lose their cash from the ticket purchase -- they lost their Halloween, plus the money they spent on transportation and costumes. They also lost their confidence in the promotional system associated with big nights.

With New Year's Eve -- the biggest night of the year for advanced sales -- looming large, Alex and Leo must step up to save their reputation. It seems that they have taken steps to refund valid tickets. I read hundreds of comments on the Facebook "Scammed" page. One bright lass asked:

What is the definition of "valid ticket"? Is a "valid ticket" a ticket sold by Alex & Leo themselves leaving the sub promoters to deal with their own refunding after they have been refunded by Alex & Leo? OR Is a "valid ticket" a ticked deemed to be genuine by Alex & Leo after reviewing the copies that we are supposed to attach via email? This makes a big difference so patrons know who to go after for their refunds. If this is a case is there any distinguishing factor on the "valid ticket" which would allow us to figure out if there was any chance of our ticket was a fake. If there are fake tickets it would be better for us to know now so we know to go directly after the individual ticket seller that we used.

The definition of valid ticket will be much discussed as the companies that sell mass tickets for New Year's must assure a public that they will end the year right. Halloween mass promotion is big business, but it's small potatoes compared to New Year's Eve. New Year's is Tavern's last night, as another operator will be moved in and Jenny Oz Leroy will find someplace new to make magical. With hundreds of thousands of events under her belt, this debacle won't hurt her rep. When I spoke with her on the phone, she said that Tavern hadn’t been paid most of the money owed to them either. She is working hard with the promotional entity in trying to make things right. My conversations with Leo Baskin were all about him doing the right thing. Yet thousands seemed to have been hurt here, and the Facebook group seems to be talking to law enforcement. Someone will follow the money trail, and questions will eventually be answered This Halloween won't end for quite awhile.

Speaking of another nightmare, I watched that video of James Gandolfini slap a Guest of a Guest photographer. Now in my order of things, it goes rats, roaches, leeches, agents, attorneys, paparazzi, mosquitoes, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. The young photographer was one of a gazillion people with cameras heading over to the Halloween parade when he spotted the ex-Tony Soprano. James came rushing over and slapped the guy down to the ground while a cohort -- presumably not Paulie Walnuts -- tried in vain to wrest the camera away. Now I’m not a lawyer, but I have watched Law and Order a lot and have stayed in Holiday Inn Express hotels, but this seems to be an assault and an attempted grand larceny. Earth to James Gandolfini, you are not a mobster or real tough guy, you just played one on TV. Getting your picture took comes with the fame, and without the fame you're just a fat ugly bully with no style or cool. You are not really the promised one. You should be ashamed.

Anyway, full press release about the Tavern fiasco on the next page.

VALID TICKET HOLDERS TO HALLOWEEN ON THE GREEN TO RECEIVE REFUNDS Event Ruined by Unanticipated Influx of Partygoers with Counterfeit Tickets

NEW YORK, November 3, 2009 - Event promoter Alex & Leo Entertainment, Inc. have established a refund procedure for valid ticketholders to the “Halloween on the Green” event held at Tavern on the Green on Saturday night, October 31, 2009. The event had to be shut down by the New York Police Department due to overcrowding conditions caused by the sale of hundreds of counterfeit tickets by unauthorized promoters.

Alex & Leo Entertainment will be responsible for organizing the refunds requested by valid ticket holders through the following procedures:

(1) Those who purchased valid tickets to the event online using either a credit card or PayPal may request a refund directly from the online ticket seller.

(2) Those who purchased valid tickets using cash should email their refund requests to Halloweenrefund@gmail.com. Each request must include a copy of the ticket(s) purchased, together with the place and date of purchase, as well as the ticket holder’s mailing address. Alex & Leo Entertainment will process each such request within four weeks of receipt.

The Halloween event was ruined when hundreds of partygoers - unknowingly holding counterfeit tickets - arrived two hours early for the event, creating long lines for admission and depriving many revelers holding legitimate tickets entry to Tavern on the Green. Fortunately, there were no reported injuries at the event, but the New York Police Department shut down the party at about 1:30 a.m.- before the situation became unsafe.

“We have promoted thousands of parties in New York since 1994, and this is the first time something like this has happened,” said Leo Baskin, president of Alex & Leo Entertainment, Inc. “With the advances in photocopying and Internet commerce, counterfeit tickets have become a real problem in the industry. We will be modifying our ticket sale policies to avoid such a situation in the future. We are truly sorry for the inconvenience this situation has caused our customers and our business partners.”

MEDIA CONTACT:

For Tavern on the Green Shelley Clark, sclark@platformcomm.com PLATFORM COMMUNICATIONS (646) 489-8582