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The
Bridle Path in Central Park. 2:00 PM. Photo: JH.
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Sunny
and bright, warm but not humid and coolish at night. It was
very quiet, the city deserted by the affluent, the weekend vagabonds
and those looking for the last long holiday weekend of the season.
Meanwhile, there was New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, tragedy and
desperation. Many of us spent most of the past week eyes glued
to the television.
This weekend also marked the end of the Hamptons summer
season, although these days many of its weekend residents continue their
visits right up through the fall, and, for the very privileged,
even year round. Many parts of Hamptons indeed remain a lovely
environment with some of the most beautiful beaches in America.
As the photographs on this page attest, there is a poetic reverie
about it just before the Autumnal Equinox when everything is at
its peak and about to turn. And it still retains pockets of the
country and the pastoral that offer a respite for some from the
teeming metropolis.
However, at this time in our history it is now overbought, oversold,
overhyped and overdeveloped. Whatwith the chronically escalating
real estate boom that has lined so many pockets (in red, if not
black) and paid for so much luxury retailing of all sorts, shapes
and sizes, the Hamptons have become a madhouse of social activity
that is symptomatic of anti-social behavior, reeking of mindless
competitiveness, and faux philanthropy masquerading The Big Shill
— an endless parade of Too Much Is Not Enough. You know
that when you are escaping it by seeking the civilized peace and
quiet
of
weekends in the city, we’ve reached the end of something,
whatever that may be.
Notes from our Hamptons correspondent:
The
horse show (Hamptons Classic) was the best ever! They finally had
a huge,
airy, bright,
wide tent so one could rubberneck, watch the riders and not be
all squashed and cramped and claustrophobic and hot as in previous
years.
As this is one of America’s premiere horse shows, all the
ladies used to ape ascot with silly hats and too dressy outfit.
Not anymore. This year they dressed much more sensibly. Somers
Farkas looked beautiful and elegant in a fabulous Out
of Africa-Meryl
Streep look. Terry Allen Kramer looked
lovely in trousers and a brightly colored blouse. Audrey
Gruss wore such a pretty frock
with colored stones around her neck. Helen Schifter and
her daughter looked like twins in pretty cool sundresses. Even
the men were
more relaxed. David Koch’s tan slacks and
sweater matched identically his wife Julia’s.
R. Couri Hay wore a most amazing, colorful porkpie
hat concoction.
Geoffrey Thomas’s turquoise
LaCoste shirt with a lime green cashmere sweater flung over his
shoulders struck just the right note. |
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A
lemonade stand on Main Street in Southampton. Photo: JH.
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Others
enjoying the scene were Marty Richards, Marlene Saxton,
Jane Holzer, Kelly Klein, Dolly Lenz who's with the
horse shows sponsor Prudential Douglas Elliman; Jesse
and Rand Araskog, Jonathan Farkas, Jamee and Peter Gregory,
Sharon Sondes wearing her Verdura pins; Charles
and Bonnie Evans, Diane Young whose daughter Savanna competed
in the show; Dimitri Villard, Lady Sarah St. George,
Joanie Goodman, Peter and Lorraine Boyle, Lenny and Mercia
Holzer, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, Kim Heirston and Richard
Evans, Victoria Wyman, Jamie de Roy. Also at the Classic: Dixon
and Arianna Boardman and Pepe and Emilia Fanjul.
Rumor of the day is that Kelly Klein’s hunky/well-bred/Argentine
polo player beau has been seeing his lithesome young stable mate Marley
Goodman — she’s beautiful and loaded.
Mai and Ridgely Harrison had a cocktail party. Anne
Hearst had a fabulous dinner for her houseguest Diandra
Douglas who is back from Majorca where she spent part
of the summer with her new beau. She, Michael and Catherine
Zeta-Jones share the Majorca property, but not together
of course. Also at Anne Hearst’s: Tony Peck with
his handsome son by Cheryl Tiegs. Anne was also
showing off her brilliantly finished mansion which was designed
by Peter Cooke, Christie Brinkley’s
husband.
My Hamptons correspondent also observes: The Southampton
Bathing Corporation (the beach club) is beginning to resemble Coney
Island as so many new members AKA the new rich have been let
in. All the old grande dames look so bewildered and a bit shunted
aside. (I think she’s trying to say out-with-the-old,
in-with-the-nouveau.)
The
current state of the nation of course, reduces all of this to frivolous
frippery. On a more somber yet hopeful note, we’ve posted on
the NYSD Philanthropy page some activities others are engaged in
constructively to help our brothers and sisters and four-legged dependents
who are suffering the wrath of Mother Nature and the incompetence
of those of us who were charged with protecting us and our land. Click
here to visit. |
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