Remember the DABA Girls? Late last month the Web buzzed about their blog, Dating a Banker Anonymous, which bills itself as a place for Wall Street women to vent about how the financial crisis has killed their love lives. ("If your monthly Bergdorf's allowance has been halved and bottle service has all but disappeared from your life," this is your site, the homepage cheers.) Populist outrage followed the publication of a credulous profile in the New York Times, and was furthered with the news last week that the DABA girls have signed with big name agencies in Hollywood and New York publishing--United Talent and Janklow Nesbit, respectively. This has, of course, renewed rumors of a book, a movie and maybe even a TV series based on the blog. But even after a full turn of the media world -- NPR has raised doubts about the site's authenticity and the New York Times was forced to defend its story-- the question remains: are these girls for real?
No, not really, as Newsweek found out in a recent interview.
In response to inquiries by Newsweek, the Times plans to issue an Editor's Note, indicating that it was misled about the nature of DABA, and should not have referred to it as a support group.