Talk:Misha Sedgwick

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
This article is supported by WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed biographical guide to actors and filmmakers on Wikipedia.

Per a complaint about the content, and an apparent ongoing edit war which appears to be mostly absurd, I've radically stubbed the article and ask that it be rebuilt with hardcore sourcing.--Jimbo Wales 00:20, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

I've rewritten the article, providing proper (and credible) sources. What was the absurd argument about, anyhow? (The talk page looks blank, which is why I ask.) Can't sleep, clown will eat me 07:41, 6 February 2006 (UTC)


  • I've re-added the information that Jonathan Sedgwick says Misha is not related to Edie, which seem to have been removed several times by anonymous users. The sources are given in proper format (New York Times and New York Post) and is written in neutral style. I would very much appreciate the information being left in as it is verified according to Jimbo's directorate. Please do not revert the article without discussing it here first. Thatcher131 16:50, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Please note the following information from warholstars.org. I don't know how reliable this site is so I haven't included this info as a source in the main article. Note that if this statement is accurate, Misha did not herself claim to be Edie's niece but did go along with it. (The main article now says "was identified" without specifying how or why.)
MISHA SEDGWICK
New York actress Misha Sedgwick is not the niece of Edie Sedgwick as she has previously claimed. Misha appeared in the off-Broadway play Andy and Edie which opened in New York on May 3, 2004 and was written and co-produced by Peter Braunstein. Braunstein's original website for Andy and Edie can be found at

http://web.archive.org/web/20040605180732/www.andyandedie.com.

Jonathan Sedgwick (Edie's brother):
"Misha admitted to my daughter, the real niece, that (in her words) 'I'm only VERY distantly related to her (Edie), even though I have the same last name... I think he (Peter Braunstein) started the rumor and people just picked up on it because my last name is the same. I played her in an off-broadway play and some gossip papers in NY thought I was closely related... which started the whole thing... but I'm not.'"
  • It's a weird story all around. This review of the play in 2004 [1] correctly notes that Misha is not Edie's niece, but the New York Times said in 2005 that she was. This page http://www.warholstars.org/news/jan041.html used to have a photo of Misha captioned as Edie's niece (still available in google's cache) but it has been scrubbed from the current version of the page.Thatcher131 17:10, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Thatcher131, Offoffonline modified their review [2] of the play sometime between late February and March 11th. I recall reading their original review when it was first linked in the Andy & Edie play stub and it did incorrectly refer to Edie as Misha's "aunt." My guess is someone pointed them to the Wikipedia articles and they updated their review without noting the correction on their site. Santress 08:50, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Update: I was able to find an old Google cache of Offoffline's original review still up a few weeks ago.[3] From the unmodified review, "Misha Sedgwick, the actual niece of Edie Segwick, offers glimmers of her aunt's magnetism and sometimes plumbs the darkest reaches of her character, but mostly settles for the sex kitten's purr." It would have been nice if they had noted the correction and revision date on their site. Santress 09:03, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
Thanks. warholstars did the same thing. That's why its better to use newspapers than web sites (at least for now) as sources for contentious issues. It is really extremely useful that the Post printed Jonathan Sedgwick's comments on Feb 10 (after the revert war and Jim's stubbing the article) because it should allow us to settle this with good sources. Thatcher131 13:38, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
  • To De Forest (talk · contribs), please stop putting links to www.warholstars.org all over the article. Warholstars is not a verifiable publication in the same way that the Ney York Times or other newspapers are. I know that Jonathan Sedgwick claims he was contacted by Misha who blamed it on the writer, but for an article as contentious as this has been it is simply not a reliable enough source. Since warholstars can not (by itself) directly prove any contention it does not belong as a footnote to a specific claim. It is included in the external link section. Thank you.Thatcher131 05:40, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
  • I am being as patient as I can. Please understand that among other things, warholstars is not a neutral group. It has a strong interest in protecting the name and image of Edie Sedgwick, which means it is not as reliable as a newspaper. Since the newspaper reports the same thing anyway, why do you persist in putting the warholstars links all over the article? Thatcher131 05:50, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
  • I appologize for your trouble. I was unaware as to why the Warholstars links were being removed. I did not know that Warolstars was not considered as a reliable news source. De Forest 02:29 12 March 2006 (UTC)
That is quite all right and I very much appreciate your response. Some web sites are reliable enough for some things but when Jimbo Wales, Wikipedia's founder and overlord, takes a personal interest in the article and says "hardcore sourcing", well I took that seriously. In another less contentious article it wouldn't matter so much. Thatcher131 02:45, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Rewrite

I generally don't think encyclopedia biographies should have sections labeled "Controversy". This rewrite removes the label "Controversy" (which could be seen as inflammatory) and puts all the facts up front, so we don't have to have any more silly back and forth over the inclusion of "no relation." We don't have to (and shouldn't) call it a controversy; we present the facts and if the reader wants to decide it's a controversy (or not) he is free to do so. Discuss? Thatcher131 23:34, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] To Nedhepburn (talk · contribs)

Whether you like it or not, the New York Post, even Page 6, is a published newspaper and thus a reliable source per wikipedia policy. I suggest that you contact the Post and ask them to print a correction or retraction, which I am sure they will do if you can prove your case. Then bring it to our attention (date and page number, possibly url) and we will all gladly support changing the article. You can say whatever you want, but De Forest (talk · contribs), who also edits this article, claims to know first hand that the claim is false. That's why, rather than holding a pissing contest between people with different personal beliefs, we rely on published statements. (Also note that wharholstars.org, a warhol fan site, no longer accepts the claim that she is Edie's neice, and has additional information not found in the Post article, but this is not referenced here since it is not considered a reliable source either. If we were to allow your unsourced claims, that would open to floodgates to all sorts of other unsourced claims as well.) Thatcher131 11:15, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

from nedhepburn.... understood, duders.

[edit] Rewrite

I am appalled that this "dispute" continues despite our honest efforts to correct the public records regarding the identity of Misha Moore aka Sedgwick. We learned of Misha in February 2006 when we noted her assertions on the wikipedia page for Edie Sedgwick and the wikipedia page for Misha, that she was claiming to be Edie's neice, Kyra Sedgwick's cousin, and member of our family as you can clearly see in the history of this webpage. Upon investigating, we learned that her real name is Misha Moore, daughter of Henry and Margaret Moore of San Diego. Jonathan Sedgwick and other members of our family have taken the appropriate and necessary steps to correct the public record and request stubification of articles that misrepresent Misha's claim to be the neice of Edie Sedgwick. Misha and her cohorts clearly attempted (and apparently continue to try) to pass Misha off as a Sedgwick, suddenly backpeddling about the claim of being the illegitimate 'love child' of Jonathan Sedgwick, to quote Kevin Kushel, in order to defraud and commercially capitalize on the Sedgwick name, with some degree of success. After Misha stated in writing that she would fully cooperate with public correction of the various publications that reported her as "Edie's neice", Campbell Robertson of the New York Times made every appropriate attempt to request that Misha contribute to article on this strange case of morbid identity theft. Misha declined to participate in the Times article despite her assertions in writing that she would fully cooperate in the public correction, and that she was sorry for the pain she has caused us. We have dutifully followed wikipedia's guidelines to present the truth in this article, only to find that Misha and her co-conspirators continue to try to promulgate fraud. At the suggestion of wikipedia, I now write this plea to you, and I hope and trust that this folly will cease by permanently removing this page from wikipedia. Misha is not noteworthy and should not be given any credence whatsoever. These people are delusional, at best. As for Jason's attempt at a personal attack on any member of our family, I can only pity the poor fellow. He, too, was given an opportunity to explain his representations to such people as David Weisman and John Palmer (producer and director of Ciao! Manhattan, Edie's only feature film) and Betsey Johnson (the esteemed fashion designer for whom Edie was a treasured model), etc., that Misha was Edie's neice. I am sorry that wikipedia is one forum having to deal with this utter balderdash. Reliable resources such as the NY Post and the NY Times, and other reputable publications, are now well aware of this situation. Although we hoped that this matter could be resolved amicably, we have no doubt that is impossible considering the most recent versions of the wikipedia article since the Times published the notice of correction. I have no desire to enter into a pissing contest with these people yet it appears that this must be written so you will understand the dire nature of this circumstance. Liberty Bell 04:00, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re-rewrite

It is pretty obvious to me, if one wants to check the history, that the anonymous user with the IP address 69.181.2.146 has numerous times tried to distort and rewrite the content of said articles to suit their own purposes. They would clearly lead you to believe Misha's last name is Moore and that the New York Times reported such... but that is clearly not the case if anyone cares to check the source. It would be like leading you to believe a parent's surname is absolute and definitive when there are so many alternatives. However, even that which is stated above is a clear and obvious distortion of the facts. It is instead a personal war that has escalated through one particular member of the Sedgwick family, if we are in fact naming names. Using supposed emails to justify their case, whose true author can never be confirmed, they continue to fuel this fire, something Misha herself has done her best to quell. While she has tried to cooperate, she will hardly sit idly and let malicious things be propogated on a well-respected website, nor indulge the curiosities of third parties. As for myself, I've done my best to make sure that my name has not been slandered on this website (which it has been repeatedly by said users) who have chosen to recklessly and libelously assign intention. Having said that, I'm sure that the best thing would be for this page to be deleted and that Misha could let her name reemerge and defined by her future endeavors. Gossip is hardly an ally of fact. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jdolan74 (talkcontribs) 05:43, 28 December 2006 (UTC).