this downtown boy was born in Germany as the son of public intellectuals; his father is the publisher of the influential Die Zeit and his mother is a writer. he was educated at the progressive Bedales School in England with Sophie Dahl and the Dellals and sojourned across the pond for a degree in comparative literature at Stanford. thomas once wrote about style and culture for the New York Observer. he’s dated pharmaceuticals heiress Casey Johnson, is currently writing his first novel, and is pursuing modeling on the side of being a muse to fashion designer Thakoon Panichgul