J-Schooler Sure to Be Put on the Hard-Hitting Investigative Beat Now (UPDATE)
On good days, tips arrive in our inbox and we're all, "Hey, that's fun to write about." Or "Silly Ivy League kids, that's sure ripe for a tweaking!"
And then there's the day you learn about SimplySheena.com.
The personal web site of Columbia J-school student Sheena Tahilramani fairly begs to be ridiculed. It almost feels too easy -- but we've written about the vanity sites of sex bloggers before, and SimplySheena, with completely tame subject matter, manages to take the medium to new depths. It's actually because she's a legit journalism student that the enormous photo of herself on the home page is so absurd, demanding that she not be taken seriously.
That's her, in a low-cut dress, jeweled necklace, and a certain gaze -- that piercing, come-hither gaze 'neath which so many sources have surely melted. ("Do you want to do this on the record ... or on the pool table?") Click through and you'll find a bio that's largely relevant (L.A. Times internship, etc.) and impressive. Then there's this:
Sheena appeared on Wheel of Fortune in September 2004 and won the majority of her winnings in the first toss-up round. The answer was 'Boulder, Colorado.' She has been an in [sic] several television shows (ER, The Shield, Cold Case) and feature films (The Holiday and Blades of Glory).
(Emphasis, 'cause it's funny, ours.) On the "Contact" page you'll find a photo of Sheena dressed in nothing but newsprint (old Columbia Spectators) -- an image that must be really really hot, if you're Joseph Pulitzer. We remain untitillated, as we 1) recall from the high school newspaper mail room the disgusting amount of ink that can get onto your skin, and 2) are, you know, completely repulsed by the entire site in general.
UPDATE 2:59 p.m.: A friend at the Columbia Daily Spectator passes along this email from Tahilramani, sent unsolicited to the paper's general mailbox last Halloween. If the jury was somehow out on the charge of self-promotion before, we believe the verdict is now in. Read it after the jump:
From: Sheena A. Tahilramani
Date: Oct 29, 2006 11:49 PM
Subject: Halloween Pics, costumes made of the Columbia Spectator!
To: spectator@columbia.edu
Cc: editor@columbiaspectator.comHello,
I'm a Journalism School student and for our J-School party my friend
and I went as "old news." We made dresses out of outdated Columbia
Spectator paper...Here are some pics and credits if you're
interested in using them...Thanks! The file called Halloween4 was
taken by [redacted], [redacted] is on the left and
Sheena Tahilramani is on the right (from your point of view). The
file titled Halloween1 was taken by [redacted], Sheena Tahilramani
is on the left and [redacted] is on the right (also from the
viewer's pov). Thanks! And, feel free to contact me if you have any
questions! If you want to use them and the quality isn't good
enough, I can get better resolution pics.Thanks, Sheena
Sheena A. Tahilramani
[2 attachments]
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January 19th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Oh, don’t miss this link of Sheena’s modelling portfolio: .
January 19th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Hey! It stripped out the URL!
http://www.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?ID=110202
January 19th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Thank you, Mr Bill. Thank you.
http://ompi.onemodelplace.com/OMP_Images/Model/110202/110202_m_0F009851-2B3D-897A-25A643B7E3DD508C.jpg
January 19th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
She’s advertising her Gawker link on Facebook and using lots of exclamation points.
January 19th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
To be fair, lets put this into context. These were Halloween costumes and the girls did win a prize for the best costumes and for their creativity. I mean, how much can you really do with newspaper on a rainy day? And, these were class websites….who really cares?
January 19th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
For anyone who can see it, her Facebook profile must not be missed:
http://columbia.facebook.com/profile.php?id=125204&hiq=sheena
Her latest update: “Sheena is in high school all over again…ohman get a life people haha!”
January 20th, 2007 at 7:07 am
Kudos on the DIY dress!
Ivy
January 20th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Yeah…lots of clevage on the site haha. That one picture looks like shes bundled up for winter. I don’t see what the big deal is…but, I like the dress too Ivy. It’s good to see that not all ivy leaguers are stuffy intellectuals.
January 21st, 2007 at 1:19 am
To be fair, I think the boulder colorado thing is a joke on *her* part; if you can’t hear the tone, perhaps you should find better things to do than pick on people whose worst crime is wearing a funny dress at a halloween party. I’ll tell you one thing, I bet the work she ends up doing is more substantial than this bullshit. Good luck with getting a job somewhere more interesting, ivy gate bloggers!
January 22nd, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I know a lot of people at the j-school and this is the work of 2 immature j-school students at Columbia who were put on academic probation for cheating on a take-home ethics exam. Get a life people.
January 23rd, 2007 at 8:13 am
That’s hot.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:07 am
Ms. T also knows a little something about ratting on her ‘friends.’
January 26th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
The website could use a lot of work if she wants anyone to take her seriously. It begs for professional guidance as does her resume.
January 26th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
CCNYGuy-Are u saying the chick in the recycle dress is the snitch in the Columbia School of J ethics scandal? Do tell!
January 27th, 2007 at 9:54 am
No.
January 27th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Who did rat out the students then? How does this girl have anything to do with it? She seems too preoccupied with party life and modeling to be involved.
January 30th, 2007 at 1:12 am
Above post: not me.
Above question: yes.
January 30th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Ben? Lexi? Those are two names that have popped up in my conversations at the JSchool. From what I hear, they were put on AP for cheating on the ethics exam. Apparently the two have not learned…don’t play with fire if you don’t want to get burned? Sheena did all the jschoolers a favor if she had anything to do with this…the publicity this cheating thing got was horrible for all of the students and our degrees.
January 30th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Above post: me
Above question: no.
Sorry, got it flipped around.
January 31st, 2007 at 2:20 am
It’d be nice if Sheena would stop using my username. Twice.
BTW, Sheena’s been quite active in these comments…anyone with a brain will be able to figure out which are hers.
January 31st, 2007 at 3:11 am
lol, jschooler is worried that the scandal is going to effect the value of his/her degree. not, y’know… the fact that a degree in journalism is worthless in and of itself.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:41 am
Hey…you’re using my name and trust me, I don’t look anything like sheena (though a few of us are amused by all of this). Let me guess, this must be either Lexi or Ben, the infamous cheaters? What’s it like being on AP for cheating on an ethics exam. Not only that…a pass/fail one. Hilarious…I think I speak for more than a few j-schoolers when I say that we’re ashamed to have you as part of our graduating class.
February 1st, 2007 at 7:38 am
So there were two cheaters and the girl in the newspaper costume,sheena, isn’t one of them right? Ok. It was sounding like she was for a few postings there. So the upshot is that the j-school should be thanking sheena for her diversionary self-promotion antics. Ok. I get it now. Bad press is better than worse press for j-school, meanwhile my j-degree is depreciating because of it all.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:35 am
oertymstd-you know who the cheaters are…go talk to them about your degree (which wasn’t worth anything to begin with).
February 6th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Yup Sheena cheats and poses like a ho…way to make the fourth estate look good.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Many women do the same things to get ahead. Just look at all the reality show girls. They use their looks to get themselves noticed. This isn’t anything new.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Ur all just hatres! ur just jealous b cuz sheena looks so much better than u do. get a life!
February 8th, 2007 at 1:38 am
Actually, I know Sheena and I know exactly what happened. She did not cheat on anything. In fact, she received honors in multiple classes last semester. Here is what happened…When this whole scandal was going on, she mentioned to a fellow classmate that she knew who did it and did not think they deserved to be expelled for a stupid “lapse of judgement.” That classmate, apparently wanted the cheaters (named above by JSchooler) to be caught and punished for making the entire school look foolish. Then, the cheating committee called Sheena in to ask her who the cheaters were. Sheena told the administration what she knew and Ben and Lexi got put on academic probation for the semester…yes, just academic probation. I don’t agree with her that they had a lapse…In my opinion they should have been expelled.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:39 am
Oh…I forgot to ask? Would you all like last names?
February 8th, 2007 at 2:04 am
um, obvi. i’m looking to ruin careers here.
February 8th, 2007 at 7:27 am
“Lapse in judgment” are you joking? Sounds like they could ALL use a refresher class in ethics. I guess if you are going to get caught, it pays to be the first to offer up the evidence. Just sayin.
February 8th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Perhaps Ben and Lexi…but, Sheena got honors in that class. So, I think she is doing well despite all of this.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I don’t think much of anyone involved the ethics scandal. Getting honors in a class is not a measure of morality. Come to think of it, it isn’t much of a measure of competence either in this age of grade inflation. Overall-not impressive but she gets B+ for her recycling efforts.
February 10th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
It’s a goog thing nobody cares what you think :)
February 10th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
gowolverines – what is a ‘goog’ thing? ;)
February 10th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Google.
Forgot to mention, Sheena was also in on the cheating chain (along with a handful of other people), but she was the only one to give up names, in the hopes of getting a lesser penalty. Well it worked, so I guess she’s smarter than most.
February 11th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Obviously you cheated in Journalism, Law and Society too. Didn’t you guys learn about defamation in that class. For the record, Lexi Matsui and Ben Frumin were put on academic probation according to students at the school. Sheena was not and had nothing to do with cheating at the school. Except, she did tell administration who the cheaters were when asked to do so.
February 11th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Oops, I meant Lexi. Not Sheena. Sheena wasn’t involved in the cheating chain. You are right. Lexi and Ben were put on academic probation.
February 11th, 2007 at 8:12 am
They’re all just a group of pathetic wannabes that knew their best shot at passing the exam was to cheat and when push came to shove one found a way to save herself at the expense of the others. Why should this shock anyone? The others got academic probation because administration couldn’t rationalize expelling the cheaters on the word of another who’s conduct was also suspect. Great examples all of them.
February 11th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
You people have it all wrong. How could Sheena have wanted to save herself. She took it upon herself to tell the administration that others had an unfair advantage. Think about it real hard and maybe you’ll get it. Sheena is the only reason Lexi Matsui didn’t get her ass expelled.
February 12th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Yep, from what I hear, Lexi would have been f*&$ed. But, that girl has issues bigger than cheating on an ethics exam. She needs a better shrink…
February 14th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
manipulation incarnate
February 14th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
You’re all just jealous you don’t like her. If you’re still writing about this, chances are you’re too hairy, have a bubble butt or a double chin. We know who you are :)
February 14th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Correction…you’re jealous that you don’t *look* like her…
February 15th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Hummm-so…how many names has sheena posted under in this thread?
Nobody is jealous of someone who thinks appearance trumps intelligence. Nuff said.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:35 am
Hummm…some investigative reporter you are :) Haha.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:36 am
I love how Sheena is dropping the names of people who have pissed her off over the last semester. I guess that petty behavior is typical of someone who’d cheat on an open-book exam, I guess.
February 16th, 2007 at 2:53 am
It’s great that the cheaters are so naive as to think that other jschoolers are not completely pissed off that 2 cheaters caused them to have to partially retake the exam. I guess that stupidity is typical of someone who’d be dumb enough to cheat on an open-book, ethics exam. Then, you must mention the immaturity and additional stupidity that it takes not to realize that Sheena was the only reason that the cheaters got caught–perhaps she will get put on the investigative beat!
February 16th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Forget ratting…that wasn’t how sheena’s mouth got her honors…it involved kneepads I think.
February 17th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Don’t you people have enough to do at the J-School?
February 17th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I agree harvardgirl. This blog is a complete embarassment to the parties involved and Columbia U. If I were one of the parties, I would abstain from any more self-promotion in the future. Just a helpful word of advice.
February 23rd, 2007 at 1:02 am
Give it a rest guys. A girl’s been humiliated (rightfully so), isn’t that enough?
February 27th, 2007 at 7:09 am
Enough. Yes. Nobody wants to read about the desperate antics of an attention starved girl.
March 1st, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Why does the picture on the webpage photo above look green? Is that the way it is supposed to be or is my screen going?
May 20th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
hahaha half of these posts are sheena
easy to tell which ones