By: Brian Zanzonico
"We kicked Entertainment Weekly's [butt] today," he laughs.
There are layers to his happiness. For a decade, Miserandino, 34, has operated TheCelebrityCafe.com, which he started in his Wagner College dorm room and has built into the third-most-visited entertainment Web site on the World Wide Web. That's a vital piece of information that his advertising department will undoubtedly use as leverage to sell ad space on the page.
But Miserandino's joy has little to do with his bottom line. He knows that every person who visits will learn about the auction fund-raiser for the Bellmore-based Lupus Alliance of LI/Queens - a donation-driven organization that promotes public awareness of lupus, provides emotional and moral support to lupus sufferers and contributes money for research and treatment - that will be held on Sunday, May 22, at the Melville Marriott in Uniondale.
And Miserandino is doing it all for his sister, 27-year-old Christine, who has suffered for 13 years with lupus, a widespread and chronic auto-immune disease that causes the immune system to attack the body's own tissue and organs, including the joints, kidneys, heart, lungs, brain, blood or skin. There is no cure for lupus, nor is there evidence of what causes it.
"They [Lupus Alliance of LI/Queens] need the money," Miserandino said. "My motivation is my love for my sister and what she is going through. She goes through a lot, and it's the least I can do."
Miserandino said that a litany of auction items have already been donated for the benefit. Folk singer Jen Chapin, daughter of the late Harry Chapin, has agreed to give an in-house concert to the highest bidder. Southwest Airlines donated two tickets to anywhere in the U.S. Edy's is offering a year's supply of ice cream. The performance troupe Blue Man Group has donated two tickets to a show. In addition to more than a dozen "big-ticket items," as Miserandino calls them, bed-and-breakfasts up and down the eastern seaboard have offered rooms for getaways. Miserandino is also appealing to local businesses to donate items for auction.
"I'm hoping they see the need - my motivation, my sister - and come through the best they can," he said.
Through Feb. 28, tickets for the benefit are $35; from March 1 to April 1, they're $45 and $50, and thereafter they're $55. To reserve tickets, call (516) 783-3370 or (800) 850-9000.
A decade on the Web
The May 22 auction is a benefit for the Lupus Alliance of LI/Queens, but it is also a celebration of 10 years of The CelebrityCafe.com.
The Brooklyn-born Miserandino was the features editor of Stony Brook University's newspaper before he started the Web site from his Wagner dorm room. Though he was a psychology/sociology major, his tech skills and ability to speak several languages landed him a job on Wall Street, assisting traders. He was a rising star and had some of the biggest companies vying for his services.
By day he was another grunt in the financial capital. But during lunch, his free time and at night, he was writing for the Web site. Through the site, he was able to sell his interviews with celebrities to newspapers across the country. He sometimes sold a single story to 26 different American publications.
"It was fun to me," he said. " I got to go to cool record company parties, Playboy parties, the whole nine yards. TheCelebrityCafe was a vehicle to sell stories. It was an interview repository."
He began to expand the Web site, adding CD and DVD reviews and other features, and found that the public really took to it. His fluency in Italian led to a $180,000 job offer with a financial firm in Milan. Involved in a serious relationship at the time with his girlfriend, Margherita - whom he later married - Miserandino declined the offer. In 2001, he turned his attention to TheCelebrityCafe full time.
With 16 staff writers from Pittsburgh to California, Miserandino said he is able to compete with Entertainment Weekly's Web site, which he estimates has hundreds of employees. The numbers (of hits), he said, don't lie. "And I'm doing this all from Malverne," he said. "I'm here."
Lupus, the silent killer
There hasn't been a breakthrough in lupus research in decades. According to Lupus Alliance of LI/Queens Executive Director Jo Anne Quinn, those who suffer from the disease receive the same medication and treatment they did 35 years ago.
Quinn, 56, said that 9 out of 10 people with lupus are women. She was 22 when she was diagnosed with the disease. Due to years of steroid treatments to combat it, she has required one shoulder and one hip replacements. She said she expects to get the other shoulder and the other hip replaced in the near future.
"One of the problems is the non-recognition as a major illness," she said, noting that the singer Seal, baseball great Tim Raines and the daughter of NBA legend Oscar Robertson all suffer from lupus. "The problem is that young women who look fine have it. People don't identify it as dangerous as it is."
Comments about this story? Mal-wheditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 240.
