Social Diary 8/3/05 - Hot August Days in New York

Hot August days in New York. We went to lunch at Michael’s – I, JH, Ann Rapp with Tim Street-Porter and his wife and partner Annie Kelly, mainly to discuss Tim’s new book – an enormous coffee table volume of his photographs of Los Angeles (simply titled Los Angeles with introduction by Diane Keaton) which will be published by Rizzoli in October – a very specially published limited edition of 5000 copies each of which will include a separate, signed photograph from the book.

Michael’s was an appropriate choice for the couple who live in Hollywood and have a house in Litchfield County which they visit every few weeks, and have been dining at Michael’s other restaurant in Santa Monica since it opened in 1979. In fact, Michael himself was there yesterday, fresh from his and his family’s annual summer European excursion to London, Paris, Capri, Paris, London where Michael’s wife Kim McCarty had an exhibition of her paintings and signed on with a gallery in Paris. So there was a bit of a bi-coastal reunion going on.

Ann Rapp, DPC, Annie Kelly, and Tim Street-Porter

Back to the photographer, however: Tim grew up in England where he had an aunt who subscribed to the Saturday Evening Post. There might be two generations now who’ve never heard of the Saturday Evening Post, but suffice to say it was one of the biggest, most widely read, one of the most popular weekly magazines in America for decades. Many great American journalists and novelists published short stories frequently in the Saturday Evening Post. Norman Rockwell’s career was established by the SEP, as were many other famous illustrators. For the young Tim Street-Porter, the magazine was a cultural document of a way of life and a lifestyle that was truly foreign to a boy growing up in post-War England. For one thing, the Americans, to the British boy’s eyes, had more of everything and bigger of everything – cars, refrigerators, tellys, cars, trains, houses and most all, space. So when he finally had a chance to come here as a young man, he jumped at it.

Interestingly, although he loved New York, and quite obviously still does, he was eager to travel west to see those Wide Open Spaces of America and the golden coastline of California. And so he did. None of it disappointed him. His first night in Los Angeles, he went to a Beatles concert under the stars at the Hollywood Bowl. If you’ve ever been to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, you know that it’s pure southern California, pure L.A. magic. It’s all you need to do to understand why people love L.A.

Eventually he went back to London, but in the mid- to late-1970s, now a professional photographer and traveling with his wife Annie Kelly, an Australian lady, he visited to Los Angeles again and decided to settle there.

Today the Street-Porters live in a house in a section of Hollywood called Whitley Heights which was developed in the early 1920s by a man with the name Whitley who first traveled to the South of France to study the villages there before building his version of them in the Hollywood Hills. In the early days of the movie industry, quite a few of the stars lived there including Valentino, Jean Harlow, Charlie Chaplin, Francis X. Bushman, Bette Davis, Harold Lloyd, Wallace Beery, Carmen Miranda, Tyrone Power, Norma Shearer, Gloria Swanson, W.C. Fields and Rosalind Russell, at different times of their careers. The now legendary photographer Baron de Meyer, whose title came through his wife, said to be an illegitimate child of King Edward VII of England, also lived there, as did William Faulkner.

Annie and Tim’s fascination and affection for their historic neighborhood as well as the whole city of Los Angeles inspired what has become a great photographic career (actually two – Annie Kelly is in the decorating business and also writes books) focusing on architectural and interior design and residential landscapes especially in Mediterranean and/or tropical climes. (Google: Books by Tim Street-Porter). The new book, about to be published, is a tribute to that now decades long attraction to the City of the Angels.

Among some of the beautiful photographs to be published in Tim Street-Porter's Los Angeles, the Ramon Novarro house in Hollywood Hills (restored by Diane Keaton).

After lunch, Annie Kelly pulled out some of the photographs that are going into the book, which Tim shot in his spare time, especially during the winter months when the light is the best. All of us Los Angeleno dweller/aficionados (Ann Rapp was born and brought up there) feasted our eyes, rapt with nostalgia for the desert night skies, the night blooming jasmine, the fiery sunsets over the Pacific, the ice cream cone Art Deco architecture and of course, even the billboards commanding the Sunset Strip all brilliant enhanced, of course, by The Light. I once asked a friend of mine who’d moved back to New York after living for several years in Los Angeles what she missed most about it. Her answer, the answer: The Light. Looking at the images that will be published in the Tim Street-Porter/Diane Keaton book attest to that.

Meanwhile, back in the Hamptons. Last weekend was on of those Hamptons Only party nights, the highlight of which was the Robert Wilson's Watermill Center/Byrd Hoffman Foundation’s annual fund-raising gala, this year themed “Brazil.”

Mirror Man and Robert Wilson

This is probably the biggest, glitziest, most glamorous, art-iest of the season’s parties. Its secret, its strength lies in the immense international charisma of its founder/leader Robert Wilson, and because of that it is no surprise that they raised more than $1 million from ticket sales and live and silent auctions of artwork generously donated to the Center by artists, galleries, and private collectors. Amongst the attribute of Wilson’s genius is the ability to intrigue, captivate, motivate and raise millions for his projects. LVMH/Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton was again the principal underwriter of the event.

From the moment you leave your car with the valet parkers on the edge of the woods where the Center is located, you enter the Robert Wilsonian environment of wonder, amusement, intense tomfoolery and the intrigue of the imagination. This year's benefit featured spectacular site-specific installations and performances by Brazilian artists-in-residence Tatiana Grinberg, João Modé, Paula Gabriela, and Os Gemeos.

There were more than 700 attending, and without question the biggest agglomeration of the rich, the chic, the shameless, the artists, art mavens, the entrepreneurs, the hedge fund operators, the dowagers and all the entourages under the Hamptons’ sun, including Calvin Klein, Sophie Dahl, Carlos Miele, DJ Spooky, Kate Spade, Zac Posen, Veronica Hearst, Jamee Gregory, Judy and Alfred Taubman, Ralph Gibson, Larry Gagosian, Princess Elena of Spain, Princess Mimi Romanoff, Fern Mallis, Richard Meier, Christophe de Menil, Jane Holzer, Roger Waters, Ross Bleckner, Tim and Helen Schifter, James Lipton, Olivia Chantecaille, Catherine Malandrino, Benjamin Millepied, Anh Duong, Arnold Scaasi, Douglas Hannant, Peter Marino, Eric Villency, Michelle Oka-Doner, Bob Colacello, Peter Morton, Kelly Bensimon, Alex Kramer, Cecilia Dean and Annelise Peterson. You see what I mean?

Simon De Pury conducted this year’s live auction that included commissioned portraits by Annie Leibovitz, Andres Serrano, and of course the benefit’s host, Robert Wilson. Wilson’s commissions were among the evening’s highlights, with three bidders joining his innovative series of “video portraits” which features artists and actors including Brad Pitt, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jeanne Moreau and Winona Ryder. The series will debut in major exhibitions in Spring of 2006. LAB HD, a video art TV channel available on DISH Network, will also broadcast Wilson’s portraits.

Proceeds raised by this benefit assure the continuation of the Watermill International Summer Arts Program and the completion of the construction of The Watermill Center’s main building. The Watermill Center will dedicate its permanent facility in July of 2006. All of which assure that you’ll be seeing them again next year for more stunning party and fund-raising activities.