Tonight, I sat back and watched as Jane Devin’s website, one of my personal favorites, closed up shop. Jane says she’s writing a novel, and while I’m sure she is, I also think that the Internet Crazies took their toll on what had to be one of the most intelligent and compelling writers in cyberspace.
I was introduced to Jane’s writing when I became engrossed in the story of Anna Nicole Smith’s death. While I was never a fan of Smith’s, and never understood how she made it to even D-List status in her post-Guess days, the story of her death, and Howard K. Stern’s role in her life, fascinated me. And I suppose that not unlike many Americans, I was titillated by the media’s constant coverage.
I soon found http://janedevin.com/ online, and it was like finding a gem in a pig pen. Jane sorted out the issues one by one and made sense of the senseless. Most of all, her writings made me really think about things, not just about the story at hand, but about bigger, more universal things and the logic behind them.
And then, just as Jane’s site was soaring, the first batch of internet crazies hit. In some convoluted multi-site drama that would leave Einstein shaking his head, Jane was sent a copy of an email, written by a lady named Rose, and copied to Stern’s attorneys, that called her a media whore, a “wannabe”, and accused her of plagiarism. Jane had no prior dealings with Rose; they were only both occasional contributors to another site, http://annanicoleandhowardkstern.com/, which is run by a lady named QV. The accusations were wild and untrue, and anybody that read Jane’s site would have known that.
Rose, it turns out, was leaving one site and starting her own. She wanted to be, and with Bonnie Stern’s (Howard’s sister) blessing was (it was later learned), the online “legal liason” for Howard. She and partner Havana collected research from QV’s posters and put it together for Stern’s attorneys. When Havana, Rose, and QV had a falling out, Rose and Havana started their own site, called Rose Speaks / Havana’s Home. (Weird title, really. It makes me think of a woman at a podium, and a little girl kneeling at her feet, finally “home” when Mama talks).
However, it wasn’t enough to go on an email campaign to destroy QV, their new enemy, they also decided to try to destroy Jane through their blog. Rose & Havana wrote a post that repeated their accusations. And Jane, who’d been silent on her own site about the issue, apparently trying to handle it through email, eventually blogged right back, denying the accusations and, in typical Jane fashion, pointed out how illogical they were. Rose then posted a whole bunch of things about the law of the internet, and in one of those posts intimated legal action was forthcoming:
Jane got blasted all over again, but she didn’t respond and eventually things seemed to die down. Until Bonnie Stern lied to her.
Jane was in email contact with Bonnie, and Bonnie knew about the accusations Rose & Havana had made. She even knew that Rose had misrepresented a letter of appreciation that was sent to her by Bonnie. In that letter, Bonnie said she was sorry that “so much greed had to come to this.” She was talking about the greed of O’Quinn and Vergie. Rose, trying to obliterate Jane, said that Bonnie was talking about Jane’s greed. Jane, the unpaid writer, who wrote dozens of articles about Howard’s unfair treatment by the media? It was outrageous.
Anyway, Jane did not want to have anything to do with Rose & Havana or their site. She dealt, instead, with Bonnie. One day, she wrote Bonnie an email and said she had some research to forward. . .who should she send it to?
Bonnie wrote back and said stormdncr@gmail.com, and told Jane this was the email address of “the legal liasons” for Howard K. Stern. Jane thought it was odd that legal professionals would have such an email address, so she researched it. She googled (as you can too) “stormdncr” and found the email address was attached to Rose and her husband’s D/s (Dominant/submissive) lifestyle. She also received a letter from that address, sent to an online researcher, that was signed “Howard K. Stern’s Legal Liason Team.”
Jane was not happy that Bonnie was dishonest with her, but more she was amazed at the short-sightedness of those involved in defending Howard. Jane basically said (again through emails) Look, I don’t care what kind of lifestyle people have, but don’t you think signing letters “Howard K. Stern’s Legal Liason Team” from an account linked with BDSM is just a bad idea?
Most people would have gotten that without further explanation. Most people, but not Bonnie. Not Rose, or Havana, and apparently not Ben Erwin from Lin Wood’s office.
And Jane, in trying to defend logic and propriety, ended up taking it in the jaw again. This time because others, who were also researching the connection between the email address, found evidence of several “lifestyle” sites owned by Rose and hubby, and posted them on Jane’s board. Jane removed those links and the info, but not in time to prevent another attack.
It’s been a few months now, but I was one of the ones who looked at the registrations for the four sites, all hosted at the time on one server, and all registered with Domains by Proxy, and I have to say that it definitely appeared at the time that they were all owned by the self-same people. (Some registrations have since been changed, so who knows?) Rose, however, denied owning the two that contained pornography. The other sites she does claim are a non-porn “fantasy-type” D/s site, and one that aims to support victims of abuse in the BDSM lifestyle.
In any case, Rose once again blogged about something that should have been kept to email, and her defense was really off the mark. Instead of addressing the issue of why a D/s email addy was being linked to “Howard K. Stern’s Legal Liasons”, she went on about civil rights and freedom and lifestyle, conveniently turning the matter into one of prudishness vs. sexual freedom.
But it didn’t end there. Nope. Rose then blogged about how she had won the support of Ben Erwin against Jane.
The same Jane who once received a letter of support from Howard’s mother. The professional writer who helped rally logical troops to fight the media that was convicting Stern in the press. Yep, this is the one who dug up the stepbrother of Anna’s no one else could find, and who painstakingly researched every article she wrote.
And who are Rose & Havana? Well Rose is a lady from Texas, who once said she worked for a telecommunications company, but who has been too sick to work for several years. Her side-kick, Havana, from Canada, also has no career.
It was sickening to watch, and it was soon after this that Jane decided she’d had enough. She would wrap up her Stern coverage and move on to other topics.
Very interesting read......
btt
well with all due respect to Jane Austin, gratis-hired-hand for Stern, iirc, it was our own RTE66 that came up with the geneological research of Virgie’s family. I distinctly remember cringing with each post ;)
Hum, where is this from?
Oh, I think I found it. Lord, is there not a decent being in that entire group? The phone call list is from page 215 of Rita’s book and this slob doesn’t even credit it!
http://annanicoleandhowardkstern.com/phone-calls-on-the-day-of-anna-nicoles-death/
Jane helped crucify Virgie and it bit her right in the ass. Apparently hurt can go out but boohoo when it comes back. She didn’t care about who she was hurting did she!
What a coward! Virgie took all the pain she helped dish out and never once whined about it. A few petty internet attacks and Jane runs like a whimpering dirty dog. If she can’t be queen for the day she doesn’t want to play. Aw! No play, try and profit of the deaths. Gee, who does that sound like?
Wonder why she didn’t spend her time digging up information on Howard the drug supplier. HE is the one next to two dead bodies. Virgie wasn’t involved in any sudden deaths! sssh, Howie’s family supported sites don’t like the truth.
Only so many hours in a day and she CHOSE to go with the ugly side. She CHOSE to crucify a mom, a grandmother suffering two losses. She hasn’t even begun to feel the suffering karma will bring her yet! All earned and well deserved.
A book. LMAO! Mental midgets. geesh. That is funny. As if tales of ‘bad Virgie’ will be read by more than Rose’s handful of crazies.
I smell EBook ‘Bad Virgie’ for 25 cents. What an original thought, use Anna for your own desires. Geesh Maybe it is about the mating season of blood sucking parasites? She just happened to pull the Stern case from her blog to write about Rosie O.