Lashes sips a Corona at the Standard’s bar, his fedora cocked slightly. “And this way Grumpy Cat is getting out of an Escalade.” “Grumpy Cat doesn’t slum it walking up and down Sunset. “We could have walked,” Tabatha points out. Next stop is the Standard hotel, a block and a half up Sunset. When the bus drives away, Grumpy Cat, Tabatha, Lashes, and Chyrstal climb into the SUV, ordered from Uber. Her sky-blue eyes (trademark pending) blink widely as if saying, “ I woke up for this? No.” Half of the passengers seem confused by the celebrity they’ve just spotted but take pictures anyway. “Oh my God! It’s Grumpy Cat!” a fan shouts, as Tabatha boards the bus holding the dwarf Siamese like a ventriloquist holding her doll. The TMZ tour bus pulls in front of the Comedy Store.
Once a front man for the Columbia Records–signed power-pop band the Lashes, he’s now a Los Angeles–based meme manager, responsible for taking Grumpy Cat, one of the Internet’s most popular viral characters, from a single web link to a seven-figure franchise.
“Anything is possible,” he assures me.Īnd Lashes, 35, born Benjamin Clark in Spokane, Washington, would know. Lashes is hoping to one day get Grumpy Cat on Saturday Night Live. Their last trip was to New York for Book Expo America. Today’s stop is part of a multicity publicity tour for Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book, for which Chyrstal is part hype machine, part PR girl, part sidekick. “And I don’t think I knew how to spell tartar.”) (“She started off a whitish-orange color and then turned black,” Chyrstal says. She takes credit for Grumpy Cat’s real name-Tardar Sauce-and its misspelling. Tabatha’s daughter, Chyrstal Bundesen, 11, sits outside the Comedy Store with a Frappuccino. “I want to be outside and see you when the car is coming,” he tells the cat’s owner, Tabatha Bundesen, 28. Lashes has arranged an encounter outside the club the Comedy Store that he hopes will spur a segment on the TMZ site. His client, Grumpy Cat, waits in a shiny black Escalade for the TMZ Hollywood tour bus. He’s in tight jeans, a black fedora, dark Ray-Bans, and Air Jordan 1s. One Wednesday afternoon this summer, Ben Lashes is standing on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood sucking on an electronic cigarette. Estimated value of Grumpy Cat, Ltd.: $1 million
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