Who

A writer, humorist, and lit world social fixture, Fran Lebowitz is renowned for her flip one-liners and for her scathing essays on weighty topics like race.

Backstory

A Morristown, New Jersey native, Lebowitz moved to the city after being expelled from high school (for "nonspecific surliness," she claims) and worked as a cabbie (among other odd jobs) before Andy Warhol hired her to write a column for his nascent Interview. Falling into the 1970s downtown literary scene, she also wrote for Mademoiselle and earned acclaim for two books of acerbic essays: Metropolitan Life (1978) and Social Studies (1981). Then came an 11-year period of writer's block, a silence she affably attributes to sloth. She returned with a children's book in 1994, Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas, about two bears named "Pandemonium" and "Don't Panda to Public Taste." Although she hasn't published much since, she remains a cultural commentator (she appeared in four episodes of Ric Burns' epic New York documentary TV series) and wit-for-hire, and Lebowitz's modern-day Dorothy Parker reputation seems so entrenched that a lack of literary output hardly affects her status as a New York institution.

On the side

She's had a recurring role as Judge Janice Goldberg on Law & Order, a part she claims to have won by "begging" to visit the set, finding a judge's robe in the wardrobe department and appearing in costume demanding, "Why don't you let me be the judge?"

Vice

Her two-pack-a-day cigarette habit could give the Marlboro Man a run for his money. "Smoking is, as far as I am concerned, the entire point of being an adult," she once said.

In person

Lebowitz's circle of friends is a large one: She's a close friend of Graydon Carter (as well as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair), Calvin Klein, and Diane von Furstenberg, and when restaurateur Brian McNally opened his Nolita bistro in 2002, he named it Café Lebowitz in honor of Fran. Alas, McNally's plans for a smoke-filled Parisian-style café—he even had Zippo lighters engraved Lebowitz—were ruined when the city enacted a ban on smoking one year later. The café changed hands, and name, in 2004.

Personal

The openly gay Lebowitz owns a Midtown West apartment.