• by Kelly Samardak , August 4, 2010

Bad Girls Club Season Five Premiere Party With Oxygen Social TV, Soho House, New York
August 3, 2010

Did last night really happen?  Was I sipping on fermented grapes with people with monikers like "The Frisky," "IMattMyPants," Pegshot, NewTeeVee, and OMGBLOG.com while watching other people tweet!? And not just any "other" people, these tweeters were the wild women of Oxygen's Bad Girls Club past and present, some chilled by time, others hyped by Oxygen's dime.  Wrapped in burning hair.

Oddly enough, the last time I was at Soho House was when I covered Oxygen Networks' upfront (which inspired cranky comments from grumplestiltskins).  In the two years since then, Oxygen has increased the social heat with Social TV, a real deal social tie-in that I witnessed in action last night. 

At a long table, I immediately spotted Tanisha of "Pop Off, Son!" fame. 

Wait, that may mean absolutely nothing to you. 

It's easy: "Bad Girl's Club" pulls together a house, up until now it was in Los Angeles, of previously arrested, alcohol-abusing, loud-mouthed, "keep it real," sometimes a little promiscuous, always hot-headed group of girls that either beat the crap out of each other or run away or "bond" at the end of the show. 

I see you rolling your eyes. Don't judge! 

It's one of the most ridiculously fun shows to watch.  Tanisha, as I was saying, had one magnificent episode where she was DONE with annoying roommate shenanigans and lurched through the house banging pots and pans while the other girls slept, singing "I didn't get no sleep cause of y'all, y'all get no sleep cause of me" alongside her signature phrase "Pop Off!"   

Where was I? Right, so -- at the table I found Tanisha, who had a glass of champagne ("only the girls get champagne," the bartender informed me) and a lobster roll perched in front of her. Sawing on a slab of meat next to Tanisha was Flo (Florina), who was by far last season's angriest Bad Girl.  Flo looked amazing.  Hair slicked back into a sassy ponytail and not a pore to be seen on that girl. 

As I was blathering with GigaOM/NewTeeVee's Ryan Lawler, and Buddy Media's Jenean Chapman, a taller-than-me, slender swath of black cocktail dress swooped over.  It was Brandi from Season 5 and she was beyond tipsy.  After dropping nuggets like "Do you watch 'Bad Girls'? Well, it doesn't matter, even if you don't, I benefit" she laid her eyes on the full-suited Lawler, oozed, "I like a white boy!," slipped her fingers into his hair and gave him a good over-the-clothes molestation -- like he was a human stripper pole.  Lawler's expression flickered between fear and giggly amusement.  After letting us know that she "kicked a bitch's ass" in the house, Brandi bounced away like a gazelle.

AttentionPR's Yuna Park returned to our circle, disappointed that she'd missed Ryan's getting "BGC'd," and later called Brandi "Danielle" to her face. True to her word, Brandi kept it real, freaked out, and stormed off.

Matthew Allen of IMattMyPants.com was one of many fantastic people finds who also included Jake Stavis of HollywoodLife.com and Spencer Cain of Paper Magazine.  Performance and video artist Erin McMonagle was there with Bennett Madison, who writes for gossip-snark-over-the-top-lifestyle-culture blog OMGBLOG.com.  We agreed that on a hot summer night, any sort of fishy-smelling "cake" at a party is no bueno.  This fishy smell was replaced by burning hair, as someone's locks made love to a candle and we ate our words.

I also met Patty Sidney and Nathalie Louis; Danielle Zilberstein from Sony Corporate Development and Robby Stein, a production manager at Google; Alex "The Trendrr Guy" Mann;  Samantha Barnes of FILTER Magazine; Jessica Scheli, who does biz dev for NBC Digital; Alexa Sordato from 2tor, an education technology startup; Porter Novelli's Heather D'Amico; Eb The Celeb; Aura Harewood from Asylum Records and The Examiner; and Marvelous Mo, who made me think I need a pen name like "Kelbohydrate" or something.  Savvyauntie.com's founder Melanie Notkin was also there, being her usual savvy and inspiring self.

I met fashion publicist Shy Winkfield in her emerald platforms; Shanel Lowery; The Frisky's Annika Harris; AOL Black Voices' Hayat Mohamed; Vallene Henderson of The AUDRA Catalog; Pegshot's Phil "I would play Bradley Cooper in his biopic" Di Giulio; and model/actor Drew Cashin, who is working on or has worked on "Legend of the Hidden Coats." I think Cashin said he's also a physical trainer and I agreed to a work-out, but we all know how that's going to end.

The quirkiness was never ended at this place with the likes of RichWierdo.com, Joe Mulligan of Mobile Meteor, whom I mistook for some writer type; and the BKBOYEEZ in their bow tiez.

We were there to watch the show, but no one stopped talking, including me, which should make our hosts happy -- everyone was schmoozing and boozing.  Before heading out into the night, I had to meet Flo, who was gracious, posing for pics even though she was jonesing for a smoke.  She even apologized to Yuna for Brandi's tantrum.  Tanisha even hung out after the official event, dispensing hugs left and right, reminiscing about walking STI, Tomik, from her season.

One common thread from the party? Natalie of "I run LA" fame was not missed.  In fact, the trash-talking was a uniting factor.  Which makes me think she'd be a great surprise guest in Season 5's Miami lair.

Thank you Oxygen for the indulgence in a not guilty at all pleasure!

A whole slew of photos are up (and more coming) on Flickr!

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com