Waiter fired for twittering about celebs

It is not easy to feed the egos of Hollywood celebrities. It is not even easy to merely feed their intestines.

This seems to be the conclusion one reaches from the story of Jon-Barrett Ingels, waiter to the stars. Well, now former waiter to the stars.

You see, Ingels was merely an extra in the vast set that is Beverly Hills. He would be still or sparkling, depending on his audience. And occasionally, he would turn his Twitter account into a diary of how hard it was to make his daily bread.

According to the delightful Los Angeles Times blog Brand X, Ingels worked at the Barney Greengrass establishment in Beverly Hills. I am not entirely familiar with it. However, a minuscule drift toward Citysearch reveals to me that within its exquisite walls, one can espy not only the Olsen twins, but also Pamela Anderson.

So it would not have fazed Ingels at all to greet Jane Adams, she of the HBO penis-inspired series "Hung" and formerly the terribly neurotic skinny thing who consorted with Niles on "Frasier." According to Ingels, Adams ordered a soup and a lemonade, and for this sustenance received an entirely reasonable check for $13.44.

Adams allegedly explained that she left her wallet in her car. Ingels said she could go out and get it, but he claims that she never returned that day.

Now, given that a large swath of Hollywood waiters are aspiring writers, actors, and gigolos, one should be unsurprised that Ingels subsequently blogged about this episode at HowToSucceedAsAFailure, which appears to be his magnum opus. Or perhaps magnum hopeless.

BJ Novak, who doesn't look hungover to me at all.

(Credit: CC Angela N/Flickr)

When a representative materialized the next day to pay for Adams' food, Ingels felt empowered to tweet at his Twitter account, PapaBarrett: "Tues: Jane Adams, star of HBO series "Hung," skipped out on a $13.44 check. Her agent called and payed the following day. NO TIP!!!"

Oh, Papa. Oh, Momma. Could he not hear the train coming even then? Well, no. When other celebrities were brought to his table, Barrett continued to tweet with an eagle's eye and a teenage boy's brain.

Ali Larter, the famous, um, person from "Heroes," was "not wearing a bra". BJ Novak, the louche and wayward intern from "The Office", was, perish the concept, "hungover."

As for Tori Spelling, she of the rather classic "Beverly Hills, 90210" and no obvious plastic surgery, well, Ingels described her as having "become hot." In the very same tweet, he offered indiscreetly that she eats "salami eggs and onions."

This was all within a few days in July. A month later, Ingels claims that Adams wandered into the restaurant, rather upset, and gave him his $3 tip. Ingels offered her platitudes of the "Aw, you didn't have to" sort. But Adams, he says, exclaimed, "Well, I read about it on Twitter!"

You know that the power of microblogging is such that this does not have a happy ending. Yes, Ingels was put out to green grass.

Of Adams, he muttered to Brand X, "All she could think about was herself and her pride and her ego."

I am not sure whether this was before he tweeted on August 15, "For the record, I think Jane Adams (Hung) is a great actress!!" and "Jane Adams (Hung), if you're listening, I am producing a Web series and would love you in it!!!"

So now PapaBarrett is unemployed but still tweeting. On September 10, he bemoaned that though the NFL has a Twitter policy, Barneys New York (visited by many a Greengrass patron) does not.

Jon-Barrett Ingels currently has 457 followers. He lists his occupation as "Unemployed, thanks to Twitter."

[mrcjacobs]

Serves him right for being a *******!

[Random_Walk]

He had it coming. *shrug*

[rapier1]

In the industry you don't complain about the tips (or lack thereof) in public. People that do end up getting fired - at least from places that give a damn about service.

[cvaldes1831]

Only 457 followers? Sounds utterly fake.

[xim1970]

Yup, he deserved to be fired. Yeah, maybe you got screwed out of a couple of tips, but I would imagine that in Hollywood, you'd do better than anywhere else...what a ****** this guy is! He's just a frustrated writer/actor who can't do what they do...and how bad of an actor/writer do you have to be to still be serving the likes of Tori Spewing!

[GhostAlph]

"Unemployed, thanks to Twitter."?? Isn't that a little like voluntarily sticking yourself in the eye with a pencil and then saying "Blind, thanks to pencil"? No, Twitter didn't get you canned - your inability to utilize a modicum of discretion led to that.

[40Dphotog]

Don't "tweet" where you eat, jackass.

[Dalkorian]

lol

[xenophod]

He should count himself lucky not serving the scum of the earth from Hollywood. Gag I would rather die then serve those self-absorbed swine.

[fshea]

Has cnet now become the celebrity gossip column TMZ. Why am I reading this **** on cnet. <br /> <br />cnet is supposed to be about tech and who's twittering who is not tech! <br /> <br />Now try and get back to your overly biased Apple stories and Widnows bashing like your normal articles.

I would have enjoyed the story information a lot more without having to decipher Chris Matyszczyk's feable written attempts to be clever and witty.

[mista77]

CNET news reader not interested in a waiter twittering about celebs - next.

[solitare_pax]

Agreed.

[Thomas, David]

ROFLMAO

[rascalnco]

You have to remember this is Hollywood, lots of DRAMA! Obviously he knew who she was and all he had to do was take care of it himself until she could pay up! Big mistake by not doing so, those type of things tend to follow you around in Tinsle Town. I bet a career in the movie business is worth $13.44. What a Dumb Ass!

[Macky774]

I've been in the industry for years, and it's hard for those who haven't waited tables to get it. Jane Adams doesn't get it. My fave video blog right now is this waiter on YouTube who says what so many of us in the industry think and feel. <br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/user/YourDailyTip <br /><br />He's funny, bitter, cute, angry, satirical, and most of all... truthful. I've seen his channel grow from just a few subscribers to almost 500... he deserves it to grow a lot more, I think.

[Stormspace]

If he had used a pen name and made it a point to not tweet about people at his tables he probably could have gotten away with it. Problem is these people typically have enough money that restaurants want to curry favor with them to keep them coming back. He obviously embarrassed the owner and paid the price and it doesn't matter if he was in the right or not.

[Dr_Zinj]

Another instance of the value of anonymous posting.

[setjeff15081947]

You're not familiar with Barney-Greengrass? Go in and order yourself some "Far-Fel". Poor, deprived blogger.

[bluemist9999]

It's very important to remember anything posted on the 'net probably will come back to haunt you.<br /><br />The classic statement I've heard is "If you wouldn't want to see it on the front page of the NY Times, with your name on it, don't say it."<br /><br />With that in mind, this waiter shouldn't have posted private rants about his job in a public forum.