Kurt Andersen's Russian Undressing

In a profile in last week’s New York Observer by the suave and preternaturally talented George Gurley, Russian party girl and professional mooch Inna De Silva boasts of being a “hustler by nature” and relates several amusing tales about conning men into bank-rolling her luxurious lifestyle. But sources say the fortyish sex kitten left out one of her most satisfying grifts—the time she took Kurt Andersen for several thousand dollars. Back in the mid-’90s, when De Silva was working as an on-again off-again tabloid tipster, she approached then New York magazine editor-in-chief Andersen with a story about the city’s mob-controlled Russian call girl scene.

Andersen, perhaps smitten by De Silva’s “large, real breasts” (as Gurley lovingly describes them in his profile), assigned her to accompany reporter Phoebe Eaton on the story. For months, the magazine shelled out thousands of dollars on the pair’s restaurant and nightclub tabs, even furnishing De Silva with extra pocket money. No doubt sensing that Andersen was losing patience, De Silva finally announced that the big meeting with the mobsters she’d supposedly been courting had finally been arranged—in Monte Carlo. De Silva insisted that she and Eaton fly first class to the luxe principality and nail down the story once and for all. But the meeting never materialized and, after a few days of watching De Silva and her pals blow more of New York’s money at Monaco's finer establishments, Eaton caught on and flew home without the story. (Asked about the incident, Eaton refused to comment.) The magazine, of course, had to eat the expenses. Andersen, who went on to blow an additional $40 million at Inside.com, did not return calls for comment by press time.

Photo: PMC