Jane Pratt’s new website, xoJane.com, kicked off this week with some juicy posts about sex with Terry Richardson, traumatizing bikini waxes, and the effects of institutionalization on one’s hair. Pratt also threw a launch party on Tuesday night at the Jane Hotel, which felt like a nineties reunion: Pratt gabbed with Michael Stipe and Courtney Love by the fireplace, and the Beastie Boys’ Mike D made an appearance. The morning after, we spoke with Pratt about the new site, particularly Tavi’s role in it, and how she’s holding up to brutal commenters.
Are you the one to talk people off the ledge or vice versa?
Oh, I think it’s been a mix. I wrote an e-mail to Emily at three-something in the morning about a headline, and she wrote back saying I need to safeguard my sanity. That was good advice. It wasn’t her talking me down from me being upset, but she was saying, you know, pace yourself. You don’t need to be up at three worrying about this. But other times I’ve been the one to calm people down, sure. I think I usually give a lot of advice to friends, and people come to me for that, and I tend to give it in a calm, nonjudgmental way. People say I seem calm, but usually that just means the maelstrom inside me isn’t coming across. I’m usually not feeling calm. It comes off that way somehow to the outside world.
