New York Knicks owner James Dolan has never been accused of being the most rational or universally loved owner in professional sports, nor has the New York Post’s Page Six ever been declared the home of journalistic integrity. So this past weekend’s story about a riff between Dolan and one of the Knicks’ most recognizable celebrity superfans, Woody Allen, should be taken with a grain of salt. But it’s also definitely worth discussing, because it just seems like it could be true.
According to Page Six, Dolan has banned Allen from Suite 200, which is the VIP lounge at Madison Square Garden and pre-game home to the team’s biggest celebrity fans, including Spike Lee and Matthew Modine. However, unlike those two fans, Allen reportedly won’t worship at the altar of Dolan, and now he’s paying the price for his blasphemy.
“He got a call from someone at MSG saying they had bought the rights to air several of Woody’s movies on the MSG channel and wanted Woody to go on the air and talk about his movies or introduce them,” a Woody source told me.
“Woody said he would not be comfortable doing that. He has never done that for any show or network. They then said that this was a ‘reciprocal arrangement’ and that if Woody couldn’t go on TV for them, he should not eat in their VIP restaurant anymore. Woody said fine and thanked them for the many years he had enjoyed the space there.” (Via Page Six)
So does this seem like something that was drummed up for no reason other than to pour some more gasoline on the PR fire that has been Dolan’s tenure as Knicks owner? Absolutely. But does banning a guy as famous as Woody-f*cking-Allen from a VIP lounge because he won’t kowtow to this fabricated “reciprocal agreement” seem like something Dolan would do? Absolutely. So if there’s a decline in the complaints about “that old, pervy dude in the hat” in Suite 200, then we’ll know this story is true.
*Alternate captions for that banner image:
“And in this Suite 200, are there babes? Hot babes with huge knockers?”
“So tell me how that nailing your wife’s adopted daughter thing goes again?”
“Wanna know what I ate last night? *burps* Punani.”
I love the caption game.
(Banner via Getty)