Arrived late to Big Ang's launch party for her book Bigger is Better: Real-Life Wisdom from the No-Drama Mama (Gallery, $21.99) only to discover I'd missed a chance for a one-on-one with the reality sensation. The book looks like a breezy read. On the page I flipped to first was the header, "A Friend Today Could Be an Enemy Tomorrow."

Ang was holed up at the new Cutting Room on E. 32nd, surrounded by a, uh, mob of well-wishers. Everyone was grabbing her for photos. When it was my turn, she said no because she was heading out to smoke. Not being an avid Big Ang watcher, I miscalculated the near-total devotion she inspires in others, so I said something like, "Fuck her if she can't wait for me," only half-seriously. Two guys who were going to help me get the photo looked like I had just wished Kylie Minogue dead. Mea culpa! Fabulous publicist (aka fabulist) Chip Duckett introduced us and she graciously posed for the above shot between puffs.

I guess I'm easily shocked! Seen here with Joe Jervis.

Ran into some drunken friends, one of whom was sober enough to take the lovely photos, the other of which was feeling no pain so had no problem loudly saying things of the crowd like, "These people aren't putting it on...they're really like this!" His buddy—tall, strapping, bearded, in plaid—overheard an attendee saying, "Who the fuck is that? He looks like a lumberjack!"

But the best overheard moment was—imagine this shouted from a waiting white SUV—"Angie, get in the cahhhh, I'm stahhhhvin'!"