(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

L ike a Virginia-bred Godzilla, former event planner and current super-socialite Tinsley Mortimer is big in Japan. Her friends on the scene have mixed feelings about it. “Ever since she did this huge ad campaign for [Japanese handbag line] Samantha Thavasa, her face is plastered on a bunch of gigantic billboards in central Tokyo,” says a fellow lady who lunches. “I heard the last time she went over there to promote these bags, there were hordes of Japanese people crying and screaming her name. She’s bigger than Paris Hilton or Scarlett Johansson to them.” Apparently, “she has that iconic blonde look that the Japanese market loves,” says her friend Eleanor Ylvisaker. Not everyone’s been supportive. “I heard people are calling her ‘Tins-ree’ behind her back now,” said a socialite. “Especially in combination with her participating in that E! show on socialites. She’s getting paid, like, a lot of money to do all of it, which is so cheesy.” Tobias Buschmann, a spokesman for Thavasa, credited “her amazing sense of personal style, her socially active New York lifestyle, and the intimate relationship she has forged with the fashion industry” as Mortimer’s selling points. Mortimer recently signed her first autograph: “I felt so dorky, but I just hope they like me!”

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Table of Contents: October 16, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!