Two emails purportedly from Citigroup intern Lucy Gao have emerged in the aftermath of the world-wide forwarding of her borderline obsessive-compulsive invitation to a birthday party at the Ritz. The first is a thank you to her guests. The second is an attempt to explain her invitation—she claims it was a joke but this could just be spin control.
Please note, we cannot vouch for the authenticity of these emails, although HereIsTheCity is convinced that at least the second one is for real.
Both letters after the jump.
[And, please note, if you have an email from Lucy, please forward it our way. Contributions will be kept strictly anonymous. Tips(at)DealBreaker(dot)com. Thanks!]
Lucy Gao’s thank you note.
Good morning,
THANK YOU ALL so much for Friday night, it was absolutely phenomenon and it was – like I said – the best birthday I’ve ever had!
I really hope you enjoyed the Ritz and then Pangaea, and I will get those fabulous photos to you ASAP – I’m so excited! :D
Thanks for all your generous gifts – I had the most wonderful prolonged birthday experience when I returned to the Ritz on Sat to collect the bags full of presents and cards.
Also, vielen dank Sophie for organising the magnificent cake – incredibly delicious. Thank you to my talented prime photographer Mandeep.
Thank you Citi interns for your thoughtful gifts, champagne, and those beautiful flowers (et merci beaucoup Sophie!), and all your sweet comments on my card. I was truly touched.
Thanks to my home and Oxford friends who have travelled very far to attend the joyful occasion. Much appreciated.
And last but certainly not least, many thanks to my PA for the evening, Ms Gill, couldn’t have done it without you Sanami – should consider this as a profession! ;)
I am so grateful to have friends like you and I truly hope we can all keep in touch in the future no matter where we end up.
The very special 35 of you have made my 21st Birthday one of the most memorable evenings of my life and I hope you will also cherish the great times on Friday as much as I shall.
Cheers to great memories!
FRIENDS FOREVER
Lucy
x
And here is Lucy’s post-party fallout spin.
From: Gao, Lucy [CIR]
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 5:00 PM
To: *GCIB EU Summer Analyst Class
Subject: FROM the girl herself…
Hi Fellow Citigroup Interns,
Just to clear a few things up, now that it is seriously getting out of
control, it was suppose to be an internal joke between me and a couple
of my guests to my 21st Party. The actual party was great, and nothing
like it so please do not worry. I should not have used my Citigroup
email account in the first place so I apologise for that.
I am sorry if you found the content of the invitation details offensive
and I am glad to entertain. But please stop now because it is getting
really unprofessional and unnecessary, and a lot of you know me anyway
and have heard about this so I apologise for repeating this again, but
hopefully for the final time.
Cheers everyone and have a great time this evening.
See you soon.
Lucy
Looks like her Citigroup interns are just as pretentious http://www.oxfordgossip.co.uk/new/showthread.php?p=72333
“an internal joke” my ass. after reading all of Lucy’s messages and the string of emails from her coworkers, i think it’s safe to say that she is full of shit when she says it was all just a big joke.
Lucy: you know nothing about understated wealth and deserve to die.
I am constantly amazed at the capacity of my fellow humanity to be utterly and completely hateful. Yes, this Lucy Gao character wasn’t necessarily as meek and reserved as her ‘intern’ position in life might warrant, but by referring to her as an ‘intern’ you expose your own childish yearning for ‘class’ and ‘station’.
Also, by propogating this hurtful, sniping gossip, you are all lowering yourself to the level of sub-species. This is precisely the kind of behaviour that draws people to jump to incorrect character assessments of others.
The girl made one mistake and you have rebranded her and made her a pariah, using means comparable only to the worst kind of propaganda.
You have placed her on a pedestal and invited the rest of the world to contribute to her spiteful assassination without pause for thought as to what this treatment can do to a person.
In the same way that people are invited to believe that persons of one race or religion are brainwashed into thinking that those of another are wrong, you have made your assessment and endorse it for the rest of the petty, gossip-thirsty mob who eagerly read and contribute to this dross.
Stop for a while and measure your own intolerance and spite before continuing this disgusting datribe.
Lucy has learnt her lesson to be less arrogant, but I dont think she deserves all the that she is getting from press. I mean dont the press have anything better to do, than to focus on 21 year old kid.
By referring to the woman by her job title we “all lowering [ourselves] to the level of sub-species?”
ORLY?
As someone on the Oxford Gossip site pointed out, if she wants to work in finance this will not hurt her in any way. There is no shortage of people who are laughingstocks who work in finance, and it doesn’t hinder them at all. The only thing the company cares about is how much money you make for them.
Lucy wanted to make a splash on the social scene. She has. And she’ll live.