Mars Bar Embraces Pretty Boy Penn Badgely

Gossip Girl's Penn Badgely had an evening to kill and a movie to promote, so he decided to prove his downtown bona fides by spending an evening in Mars Bar, one of the last true remnants of the old East Village. It's easy to picture the author, Dave Itzkoff, scheming with his cohorts on just how funny it would be to watch Badgely walk into the Mars and deal with its regular customers. Penn would nervously drink a vodka soda or two in a corner as the peanut gallery lobbed insults in his direction, and both the actor and author would have a funny story to tell their respective posses.

At first Penn is unsure of his choice of bars, wondering if the Mars is closed, when in fact its customers usually arrive early and stay late. He then makes a potentially critical error by bumping into someone as he reaches for his beer, and quickly apologizes out of fear for his life. But rather than eating the hunky star alive, the Mars folks quickly take to Mr. Badgely and adopt him as one of their own. As he ambles outside from its dank, musky walls into the fall night, Penn shares some learned wisdom, saying “I’ve found that people are cool if you don’t treat them like jerks”. Amen, brother.
· A Night Out With Penn Badgely [NYT]
· Mars Bar Coverage [~ENY~]