Controversial blogger’s bizarre book launch

BURQA-clad pole dancers, cavorting midgets and a Hillary Clinton lookalike being dunked in a tank of water.

THE day before Milo Yiannopoulos filed a $10 million lawsuit against Simon & Schuster, he partied the night away.

The 32-year-old British media personality celebrated the release of his controversial new book “Dangerous” in New York on Thursday evening, and there were no shortages of attendees or jaw-dropping sights. Given Yiannopoulos’ polarising position, 13 police officers stood outside the venue in case of protesters, but none appeared. Instead, people lined up down the block to gain entrance to the packed political soiree.

“Dangerous,” which was dropped by Simon & Schuster earlier this year, sold 100,000 copies on Amazon in its first day. Despite its success, Yiannopoulos filed the lawsuit against his former publisher Friday morning.

“I have reservations about their reasons for cancelling the deal. They sent emails and text messages that indicated they were happy with the manuscript, that I’d done a good job, and two days later they were cancelling it claiming my manuscript was unfit for publication,” he told Page Six. “Something there isn’t quite right, and we intend to find out at trial what it is.”

The political commentator came up with the large sum after realising how the “black cloud” of losing his book deal cost him future earnings and caused him to suffer professional consequences.

“There’s this suggestion now that I’m in some way unfit to publish by a mainstream publisher. That’s clearly not true given that I sold 100,000 copies within 11 hours of the book going live,” Yiannopolos told us. “It’s very clearly, very obviously not the case, but there was certainly a suggestion that was the case.”

Any hint of frustration couldn’t be seen at the party, where a Hillary Clinton look-alike wearing an orange prison jumpsuit sat in a dunk tank waiting to drop into the water. Many lined up to dunk the fake former presidential hopeful — and some succeeded.

“I need a Chardonnay for my Hillary,” a partygoer requested. “I just dunked her.”

Later in the evening, “Clinton” donned a signature white pantsuit and walked around with a President Donald Trump voodoo doll.

Partygoers could also watch a symbolic book burning of “Dangerous” and take photos with signs that read “F — k Capitalism,” “My vagina has its own voice” and “What a gay.”

Yiannopoulos, who found himself in the centre of a scandal in February after making comments that appeared to endorse paedophilia, told Page Six those were a “horrible 48 hours,” but he didn’t let his Breitbart News resignation and other fallout affect him for too long.

“If you come for me, you better leave me in a coffin,” he told us, adding that he’ll always come back 10 times stronger. “I picked myself up and got back to work. I discovered that people were very understanding. It’s something that I like about America; people are forgiving and understanding … if they get the sense that you’re aware that you f — ked up and are sorry … they’re very willing to forgive.”

Yiannopoulos is so confident in his return and “Dangerous” that he also said, “Simon & Schuster shareholders should be very upset.”

Although he’ll remain a polarising figure — appealing to some and alienating others — Yiannopoulous told us that he’s not the problem, it’s the people who are offended who are the problem.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” he responded when asked what’s the matter with him. “How did you get into a situation where making jokes, being provocative, having fun became some kind of thought crime, hate crime? When did it become unacceptable to laugh?”

But he admitted to being a rare type of figure — and it should stay that way.

“I don’t want everyone to be like me. I understand that if the whole world was provocative British f*gs saying feminism is cancer, it would be chaos, but it’s important that some people are like me,” he shared with us. “I’m happy to be the sacrificial lamb if it means the people who read me and enjoy me feel a little bit more confident expressing themselves in their private lives.”

Throughout the party, which featured hors d’oeuvres such as shrimp ceviche, mini crab cakes and Caprese salad skewers, scathing quotes from various publications about the British alt-right member displayed on TV screens. Partygoers also mingled with three yarmulke-wearing little people dressed as conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro. One Shapiro imitator wore a bib that read, “It’s my bris and I’ll cry if I want to.”

Guests were also treated to a show by the entertainment group Donna Trumplova & the Siberian Sex Circus, which began its show with a fight against Yiannopoulos using a dildo, a meat cleaver, and a baseball bat. The party also had a performance involving burka-clad women, which was dubbed the “Women’s March.”

Onstage, Yiannopoulos talked about his “three most hated organisations”: ISIS, the Democratic Party and Simon & Schuster. He also discussed the importance of free speech.

This story originally appeared on the New York Post and is republished here with permission.

Originally published as Controversial blogger’s bizarre book launch