Where in the World is Olivia Nuzzi?

Musso & Frank answers that and more

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NUZZI SPOTTED: Westward post-rainstorm, sans umbrella, Thursday night—destination: Hollywood’s oldest restaurant Musso & Frank Grill, where a Substack-hosted dinner honored Jessica Reed Kraus’s three years on the platform.

While Olivia may have successfully evaded the press since late September, staying away from HIH has proven far more trying. Details of their rekindling are said to be unveiled in due time, along with how she’s been spending her time in exile. For now, all that’s been offered is a snippet from her table introduction, where Ms. Nuzzi allegedly identified herself as “Jessica’s muse and sometimes ghost collaborator.”

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THE SETTING: A dimly lit dining room in Hollywood’s storied steakhouse (reportedly suggested by fellow dinner guest Justine Bateman) set the stage for an evening of sharp opinions and even stronger cocktails. Filet mignon, Atlantic salmon, and rigatoni in vodka sauce gave way to chocolate mousse cake and key lime pie, served as provocative musings—scrawled anonymously on branded notecards—were read aloud by Diddy deep-dive extraordinaire Emilie Hagen.

GUEST LIST: A table of 21—journalists, cultural provocateurs, and a few easily familiar faces —leaned in as the night’s deliciously unfiltered thoughts were unveiled to dissect and discuss.

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“Gossip is news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress.” — Liz Smith

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“When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet, of some mute and inglorious Jane Austen, some Emily Bronte who dashed her brains out on the moor or mopped and mowed about the highways crazed with the torture that her gift had put her to. Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”

― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

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HIH Anniversary Toast

“The reason you are here tonight is, in simple terms, twofold: first, you are cultural makers; and second, you are unafraid to use your voice.

But most importantly, we are here to celebrate Jessica and House Inhabit.

Jessica represents different things to different people. But for Substack, she is one of the pioneers of truly independent writing and thinking. She has been a beacon, even for those in the mainstream who follow her despite not always agreeing with her.

She did this fearlessly—before others were pushed by need or circumstance to do the same—paving the way as a model for them.

Jessica, here’s to three years of House Inhabit and Substack.”

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Musso’s Hollywood History

“When you sit in our comfortable worn-leather booths, peruse our 105-year-old classic menu or sidle up to the mahogany bar, you’re not just enjoying fine food and great company. You’re a part of Hollywood history.

It’s a history that reads like a Hollywood script. Deals were made on the old pay phone — the first pay phone to be installed in Hollywood. Scripts were discussed over a famous Musso’s martini. Contracts were signed over exquisite meals of Roast Duck and Lamb Chops. Stars were born.

From the beginning, Musso’s has been a favorite among Hollywood’s A-list. Charlie Chaplin was an early regular. Often seen lunching with Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks, Chaplin — legend has it — would challenge Douglas to a horse race down Hollywood Boulevard, and the winner had to pick up the tab at Musso’s. Charlie would win and gloat over a plate of Roast Lamb Kidneys, his favorite Musso’s meal.

In the ‘20s and ‘30s, it wasn’t uncommon to see Greta Garbo and Gary Cooper having breakfast together — flannel cakes and fresh coffee, of course. Or to bump into Humphrey Bogart having drinks at the bar with Dashielle Hammett or Lauren Bacall.

In the ‘50s, Hollywood legends like Marilyn Monroe (flanked by Joe DiMaggio), Elizabeth Taylor and Steve McQueen could be found enjoying drinks and appetizers in Musso’s famous Back Room. Jimmy Stewart, Rita Hayworth, Groucho Marx and John Barrymore also had starring roles at Musso’s.

Today, Musso’s remains a sophisticated Hollywood hangout. But don’t expect to be lining up for autographs. The owners and patrons of Musso’s still treat them the same way early owner John Mosso did — with respect and discretion.”

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Literary History

“Musso’s became a literary hangout in the 1930s, when studio executives began to recruit great American authors to Hollywood, hoping their names would help sell tickets. With the Screen Writers Guild just across the street, the writers — tired of working under the execs’ watchful eyes — began to spend time at the restaurant.

If they weren't in Musso’s Back Room, they could be found at the Stanley Rose Bookshop, which at the time was Musso’s neighbor to the east. Working late into the night under the comforting amber glow of the great chandeliers in the famous Back Room, writers like literary greats F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and Raymond Chandler could have considered Musso’s a second home.

Fitzgerald was known to proofread his novels while sitting in a booth at Musso’s. Faulkner met his mistress of 20 years here, and was so chummy with the bartenders in the Back Room, that he used to go behind the bar to mix his own mint juleps. Raymond Chandler wrote several chapters of “The Big Sleep” while sipping drinks in the Back Room.

T.S. Elliot, William Saroyan, Aldous Huxley, Max Brand, John Steinbeck, John O’Hara and Dorothy Parker also made their home at the Musso’s bar.

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Scene: Bukowski at the Bar

There used to be a legendary bartender that worked at M&F’s named Ruben. One day I got to talking to him about Bukowski and he told me this story:

Bukowski asked Ruben "what is it you think I do for a living?" Ruben stopped and thought and answered "you're probably a writer.”

Bukowski asked him: "what makes you say that?"

Ruben answered "well you're always drunk but you always have money, and you've always got a girl with you even though you're ugly as a dog.”

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After the Back Room closed and the bar moved to its current location in the New Room in 1955, the tradition lived on, and new generations of writers found themselves at Musso's.

Following in the footsteps of the masters who had inspired them, writers like Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut and Charles Bukowski became regulars, who, along with their martinis and highballs, drank up the creative juices left behind by their heroes.

The Los Angeles Times once wrote that if you stood in Musso’s Back Room long enough you, “…would have seen every living writer you had ever heard of, and some you would not know until later.”

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Up Ahead: A proper Anniversary post + special gift to readers later this week