Sure, this was a couple weeks back, and it's not our regular beat, and it's not even a slow news week. Instead it's a Sloane news week: Sloane Crosley that is, who, along with one Christopher Tennant, celebrated joint 30th birthdays last August 14. There's neither time nor inclination to recap the entire incestuous genealogy represented by the New York media clusterduck at this party, but Crosley is a world-famous publicist and author of I Was Told There'd Be Cake; Tennant is a world-famous journalista and author of The Official Filthy Rich Handbook. Otherwise in attendance were Gawker people, BlackBook people, Radar people, and lots of other people. In fact, sources claim the party wound down -- after quite a long time -- among libation samplings at the home of BlackBook alumnus Steve Garbarino, after stops at the Spotted Pig, Lunetta, and Beatrice Inn. So check the gallery (hat tip, Zoe Turnbull) and ask why you thought you had better things to do that night.

Spend time in any exclusive watering hole and you’re likely to come across some colorful characters. Head to Europe, and you’ll meet a tribe of loaded riff-raff so faaahbulous, so eccentric, so inexplicably shady, that it’s imperative you be briefed before departure. Behold, the United Nations of ne’er-do-wells (and other all-too-real ‘types’) in this exclusive excerpt from Christopher Tennant’s The Official Filthy Rich Handbook.

Illustrations by Andy Friedman