Who was celebrating what: Dede Wilsey's sanity-shattering Gone With the Wind-cum-Goth dress. Oh, and Saturday night at the de Young Museum for the opening-night gala of the Balenciaga and Spain exhibition, curated by Vogue European Editor-at-Large Hamish Bowles and Fine Arts Museums' curator Jill D'Alessandro. more ›

Number of people pictured in today's Miss Bigelow's Social City: 51 more ›

Great news: The joyous-to-read Catherine Bigelow returns to SF Chronicle to observe the bizarre and intricate rituals of San Francisco society. (Bigelow used to be a full-timer at Chron, then went to 7x7, and now returns to the former as a freelancer. Whew.) Her first assignment? Sean Wilsey's stepmother's famous holiday party. "This year, Wilsey pruned her 350-person guest list a bit - mixing it up with faces from her other worlds: UCSF's Dr. Sam Hawgood, CEO Mark Laret and UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellman, as well as politicos Attorney General Jerry Brown and Mayor Gavin Newsom, who've beelined to Wilsey's door (and pocketbook) for fundraisers," Bigelow notes in today's column. No word, however, if Dede unleashed her hounds on guests overstaying their welcome. more ›

Hey, remember that Question Time thingy? You know, that non-binding measure that voters passed which called for Gavin to appear in front of the Board of Supes and answer questions thrown his way while the rest of us get to kick back and watch the fun? Well, if you remember, Gavin kind of refused to do it and instead staged fake Question Time, "Town Hall" meetings throughout the city and wound up killing any sort of conflict over the issue by basically boring everyone to death. Even the chickens got bored and stopped attending. more ›

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You'll have to keep borrowing free wi-fi from cafes and the unsecured accounts of your neighbors for now -- Earthlink's backed out of the public-private free wifi deal with San Francisco because of its recent financial woes. more ›

Made famous to us plebeians not by the names littering the social registry and its many sad suck-ups (an aside: ahem, our rent is due soon, bitches), but by the much-missed former SF Weekly's "Dog Bites" columnist Laurel Wellman, Nob Hill Gazette just landed another beloved local writer, former Chronicle society scribe Catherine Bigelow. more ›

San Francisco socialites have been fellated for far too long by such hard-hitting glossies as 7x7 Magazine and San Francisco Magazine. Hell, even the pages from new society (excuse me, “philanthropy”) rag Benefit Magazine -- "the Lifestyle of Giving” is its tagline, God help us -- might lead you to believe that the upper crust would like nothing more than to head over to Bayview-Hunters Point and act as human shields from gunfire, saving the baby children. That is, if it weren’t for their goddamn too-tall Pacific Heights palace walls. more ›

Hey -- we're not doing our usual light-hearted romp through the Swells society column this weekend, because we've got sad news. The doyenne of Swells, Catherine Bigelow, announced in this week's column that she's been asked to take the Chron's "voluntary buyout package," so this is it for your mathematically-inclined socialite review. more ›

It's a short Swells this week! more ›

SFist Rita is out of town for work, so we are donning our tiara and gown for this weeks Swells analysis. Tra-la-la! more ›

Number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 67. more ›

guys is pretty funny. Is payola coming back for web radio? And no more crack rap, please. Also, a birthday party for John Adams, and Savage Love forgot about adoption. more ›

The Sunday Styles section of the Chronicle does it again! Not content to rest on its laurels after watching poor Jennifer Bumblebee Siebel decimate herself, Styles next turns its gimlet eye on two other prominent members of the Swells set: Denise Hale and the inimitable bicycle-intimidator Dede Wilsey. Sunday Styles RULES. more ›

"She loves 'plebeian American food' like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but doesn’t allow herself even a nibble, fearing an insidious slide into the next dress size." - San Francisco Magazine, on Dede Wilsey. more ›

It looks like there might be peace in our time as a deal is in the works over the whole Healthy Saturdays thing. Apparently, city officials are trying to work out a compromise between fans of the plan and supporters of the Dede Wilsey Shrine to Her Wilsey-ness. No details have emerged yet, but apparently Gavin has been meeting with both sides to figure something out. more ›

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 48. more ›

More balletomania! We've read so much coverage of the 74th SF ballet opening night gala, we're starting to expect to see ourselves in these pictures! more ›

Hip, hip, HOORAY! Hip, hip, HOORAY! Catherine Bigelow, the Chron society columnist, is back from vacation, and here with a special report on Wednesday night's SF Ballet Opening Gala! more ›

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 67. more ›

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 52. more ›

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 74. more ›

Is Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein the new Jerry Seinfeld? Every year, he steps on the stage of the SF Opera in the Park, which the Chron generously helps produce. And people are semi-drunk on chardonnay, satiated on taboule and tomato-and-mozarella salads, they are baking in the sun: they are warmed up already. Yet every year, Phil's attempts to warm up the crowd even more end up in a train wreck. Here are this year's jokes (transcribed by us as honestly as we could), and we'll let you be the judge: more ›

Total number of people in this week's Swells column: 61. more ›

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 78. more ›

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells: 58 more ›

like ten million spoons, when what you need is a knife. more ›

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian: Mocking Dede Wilsey and Newsom about the DeYoung parking situation. The Guardian gets distracted from its single-minded focus on Village Voice LLC to decry MediaNews's purchase of the San Jose Merc News. Letter from a Peoples Temple survivor asking for further investigations into a CIA conspiracy. Hipsters worry that they're accidentally causing gentrification in Oakland. Sonic Reducer reviews an album of songs sung by actors. You know, we may have to download the version of Ewan McGregor singing Sade (or Jennifer Garner singing a show tune. It's totally awesome to work out to!!!!!.) A review of the Flipper reunion show from April 8. It took them a month to get that up? New brunch place in Noe Valley, Shanghai soup dumplings in the Sunset. Cover: Daniel Clowes. And SFist Eve's horoscope: be more confrontational. Watch out, crazy commenters! The SF Weekly: Nate Cavallieri, ex-Weekly writer, won a journalism award for his cover article about a guy who works with gang members. Congratulations, Nate! Matt Smith on Chris Daly, Mission Housing, and someone saying that Daly speaks with a "forked tongue" -- outraged Matt Smith spittle flying everywhere! N.B.: Matt Smith reports that Chris Daly has adopted a policy of "not speaking to me." Gay cop sues. Orphan pigeon rescue. Cover article: why won't the SF Unified School District back smaller schools? Meredith goes BBQ, while SFist Ced roasts some ribs of his own! And Savage Love: do any fetishists want to buy a letter-writer's breast milk? Direct all responses to Dan Savage, not us. The EBX's Best Of issue, and the Metro -- after the jump. more ›

Yesterday, the Board of Supes approved by a 7-4 vote a measure to close off part of Kennedy Drive on Saturdays just as it is on Sundays. Well, for a "six-month" trail run at least. The measure was passed without rancor, with serious intellectual debate, and a strict adherence to democratic principles. Nah, not really. It actually involved dueling rallies, people shouting each other down with bullhorns and the use of fresh-faced children and decrepit old people in wheel chairs as props. more ›

When SFist Jackson announced, "Hey, I saw your BFF Dede today", we went scarlet (we don't wear green) with envy. When do we get OUR Dede Wilsey sighting? Taunting our jealousy, Jackson sent us this: more ›