THE PARTY IS OVER FOR BAIRD JONES

I got this news early yesterday, but the details were so small, that I decided to wait till today to publish. I am very saddened at the Death of Gossip guru Baird Jones. Having known him for around 20 years, It is very shocking to me and to the gossip world at his passing at just age 53. The cause of death was not immediately known, but police said there were no signs of foul play and no drugs were found in the apartment. A friend of his told the Daily News that Jones, the son of People magazine co-founder Cranston Jones, recently complained about being "sick as a dog." Having run into Baird at the Cutting Room a few weeks ago, he didn't look so good. His face was yellowing and he looked very run down. I spoke to him outside the club and he was asking me to put on a photo show at one of his events, something which he had been asking me to do for years. He was telling me that his e-mail list for parties was over a million people. I was sure of this, as one time I had sent him a invite to a party I was throwing and I forgot to blind copy all the people and he just copied every ones names and added them to his party list. People from my list in Chicago and up-state New York were contacting me and saying how did they get on his list. It was funny. Once you got on Baird's list you were there forever. He always had Items in The New York Post and The New York Daily News. Always said according to Webster Hall Curator Baird Jones and then there was some cool item about a celebrity he had ran into on his adventures. I'm sure Webster Hall paid him each and every time for the plug as no one knew why Webster Hall would have a curator in the first place. When I called Village People's Randy Jones yesterday to tell him the sad news, he told me a story on his relationship with Baird. He said; " Years ago I drew a picture of him in a nightclub and he loved it. Each and every time I saw him after, he would ask me to draw another picture". That was Baird. He collected art. He had put on gallery shows featuring paintings by the likes of Elke Sommer, Tony Bennett, and John Wayne Gacy. Hanging on the walls of his 2,000 square foot downtown loft, are a Warhol, a Harring and many other masterpieces. Baird also loved to promote up and coming artists. He had several shows with the talented Damon Johnson. At one recent Johnson show that Baird was promoting, he was excited that I brought along with me Sopranos star Joseph Gannascoli and Snapple spokesperson Wendy Kaufman. He went to work right away making sure I had the photographs to go along with the story. Publicity King R. Couri Hay told the New York Post; "He was always completely loaded, but he was always lucid. He's a guy who can't be replaced." As to whether Jones is watching all of the fuss over his passing from a perch in heaven, Hay quipped: "Heaven? He's lucky if he's in Purgatory!" Baird told friend W. Douglas Dechert that his sole heir is the fringe artist Steven Hooper, who is known for covering cars in plush fur and other esoteric materials. "Time Machine," his van covered in clocks is his best known work. He is survived by his sister Abigail Jones who is a lawyer living in Los Angeles and works for Steven Spielberg. It is another sad day in New York City Nightlife. The party is almost over !