QUEST February 2010

$5.00 February 2010

The Wedding Issue

questmag.com

Elizabeth Pogue and ahmed fattouh At The Plaza

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S T R I B L I N G

Wide Townhouse w/50 Foot Pool. E 94th. Lavishly remodeled 25 foot, 6 story townhouse steps from Museum Mile. Spacious 5BR home includes a 50 foot lap pool w/solarium roof, elevator, 7 WBFPs, 1000 bottle wine cellar & exotic Ipe wood floors. Co-excl. $24.75M. Web #964630. K.Henckels 212-452-4402/P.Ward 212-585-4534

23 Foot Wide Renaissance Revival Townhouse. E 80th btwn Park & Mad. On one of NY’s most beautiful blocks, this 5-story elevator town-house + basement is appx 9000 square feet. The house has 12 foot ceilings & many intact original details. There are 5BRs & 4+baths. $12.4M. Web #1143663. J.Iseman 452-4414/S.Flynn 585-4579

Triple Mint Fifth Avenue Candela Classic. Full service condop 4 bedroom on Museum Mile. Living room & formal dining room have direct views of museum & Central Park. Luxury MBR suite with study/ fifth bedroom. Fully renovated building. Private fitness spa. $15.5M. Web #1148455. K.Younger 646-613-2731/S.Song 212-434-7060

Plaza 2 Bedroom Furnished Condominium with Central Park Views. Crafted by designer in fabulous Art Deco-style, the apartment has a grand living room/dining room plus custom kitchen flanked by 2 bedroom suites and 2 and a half baths. $10.9M. Web #1158078. The Plaza Sales Office 212-588-8000

1200 Fifth Avenue. New Listing. Mint condition 5 bedroom, 5 bath prewar condominium apartment with beautiful Central Park views.

New kitchens and waterworks baths. So spacious and special. Gym and storage. Full service doorman building. Sale by the sponsor. File #CD05-0234. $4.495M. Web #1158103. A.Lambert 452-4408

Park Avenue Chic. 655 Park Avenue. A glamorous second floor cooperative with dramatic gallery leading to grand living room with a wood-burning fireplace, garden views & charming dining alcove.

Two bedrooms & baths, maid’s room & bath complete this gorgeous home. $3.5M. Web #1150635. Elizabeth Paul 212-452-4419

Major Price Reduction on the East River, East 52nd. This grand & gracious 14-rm duplex, in a distinguished white glove prewar co-op, is perfect for entertaining. Stunning appx 30’ LR, library, formal DR, 2 WBFPs, enormous kit, brkfst rm + 5BRs allows for luxurious living.

Co-excl. Now priced at $11M. Web # 519458 C.Eland 452-4384

Picture Perfect. Impeccably renovated prewar apartment on Fifth Avenue’s Museum Mile. Stupendous living room with wood-burning fireplace, dining room, 2 bedrooms, kitchen, and windowed limestone baths. 3 exposures. No expense spared. Truly a white glove building.

One-of-a-kind. $3M. Web #1148408. Gene Fein 212-452-4386

Spring Is Just Around The Corner! East 51st St. 19 foot wide, 4 story 1866 Italianate brownstone with an elegant garden, separate ground floor entry & major expansion possibilities. Original stoop & wrought-ironwork, wood-burning fireplace & sunny rooms make this a wonderful home. $4.45M. Web #1153745. G.Mankoff 570-2440

Equal Housing Opportunity

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Uptown: 924 Madison Avenue / 212-570-2440 Downtown: 340 West 23rd Street / 212-243-4000 Tribeca: 32 Avenue of the Americas / 212-941- 8420

S T R I B L I N G

Olympic Tower Condo One Bedroom. Fifth Ave. Renovated to perfection 3.5 room home with iconic views from Empire State Building to New York Harbor. White glove building with health club and concierge services. Pied-a-terres and corporations welcome. No pets. $2.25M. Web #1150269. Barbara Evans-Butler 212-452-4391

Ultimate East Side Penthouse. Nesting atop a white glove full service prewar condominium gem steps from Central Park. 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths: 1500 square foot terrace & commanding partial Central Park views: a rare opportunity. $2.695M. $1575 maint/ $1680 RET. Web #1158077. Doug McCullough 917-693-5363

Sunflooded Prewar 3BR. East 57th St. Elegant prewar building with central entrance gallery leading to 25 foot living room with River view, dining room & 3BRs & 3 renovated baths. Renovated kitchen.

Many original details. Full-time doorman building with Georgian roofdeck. $1.795M. Web #1118389. Margaret Furniss 917-696-5577

Renovated High Floor 1BR, 1.5 Bath Condo at the Savoy.

East 61st. Breathtaking open city & bridge views. Large living & dining areas, open kitchen & terrace. Viking range & integrated Sub-Zero refrigerator. Exquisite granite floors. White glove building with gym & garage. $1.1M. Web #1161615. Dennis Cusack 212-988-4379

The Great Outdoors. East 97th Street. This huge duplex has a 750 square foot terrace with panoramic views! Living room, dining room, one bedroom plus a home office or guest area. Top-of-the-line open chef’s kitchen, a designer bath, 11.5 foot ceilings and tons of closets. $995K. Web #1047247. Lee Ann Jaffee 646-613-2739

Best Condo Buy on West Side. Incredible light fills this 3075 sf, 5BR, 5.5 bath condo, a half block from CPW, Lincoln Center & Columbus Circle. Fabulous E, S & W views of river, park & Lincoln Center from the 26th floor. Loft-like, renovated space with pool, gym & valet parking available. $4.795M. Web #1159056. P.Mack 452-4412

2700 Square Foot Loft on Wooster. 3 bedroom and 2 bath with chef’s kitchen and 1200 square foot courtyard. Great room has large windows and elegant entertaining space. High ceilings and abundant storage. Ideal Soho location. $2.775M. Web #1137432.

Jenna Herman 646-613-2643/Leila Mwangi 646-613-2640

Prime West Village 2BR/2 Bath. Mint condition, corner apt with gracious layout in full service co-op. Bright east-facing living rm. Large dining area. Open, chef’s eat-in kitchen; abundant closets, appx 1150 square feet. Very low maint. 80% financing & pets ok. $1.175M. Web #1153398. C.Van Amburg 646-613-2783/A.Hall 212-452-4421

Duplex Classic Six with a Spectacular Terrace. Gramercy Park. Rare enchanting corner 3 bedroom with beautiful views and light offers 2 bedrooms plus study or third bedroom, 2.5 baths, dining room and great closets in a full service Emory Roth cooperative. $2.295M. Web #1133806. Vals Osborne 646-613-2728

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Uptown: 924 Madison Avenue / 212-570-2440 Downtown: 340 West 23rd Street / 212-243-4000 Tribeca: 32 Avenue of the Americas / 212-941- 8420

980 NORTH LAKE WAY

1558 NORTH OCEAN WAY

131 EAST INLET DRIVE

Elegant Waterfront Regency. 12,000sq.ft. on three floors. 155’ of Lake frontage. Finest details throughout 5BR/6.2BA estate. Deeded beach rights and new deep water dock. $16.9M

New 4BR/6.1BA beach home. AVA Smart House Security. Wentworth kitchen. Tropical pool area. Adjacent 100X130 lot included. $9.995M

The only thing that comes close to being at sea in your favorite vessel is watching a constant parade of yachts from your own home.

Unparalleled direct waterfront views.. $8.595M

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Scott M. Gordon 561.951.9161

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Direct waterfront full service building with state of the art marina. Beautifully renovated 3BR/3BA. Huge enclosed terrace. New impact sliding doors.

Pet friendly. $895K

Best value in building! 5th floor 2BR/3BA, 2400 sq.ft., balcony overlooking Intracoastal & Palm Beach, rooftop pool, pet friendly, 2 parking spots. $895K

6th floor unit with natural light all day.

2BR/2BA, updated kitchen, hardwood floors, impact windows/doors, scenic views. $835K

Dorita Barrett 561.632.2621

Paul Birmingham 561.379.2408

Gary Little 561.309.6379

Pam Birmingham 561.329.2670

Lynn Warren 561.346.3906

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Important major estate. Very special 1+ acre landscaped grounds. 6BR/9.2BA, tennis court, pool, beach access, 4-car garage. $13.8M

Love your Palm Beach home, but wish it were larger? Let’s trade! Seller looking for smaller Island home. Trade up to 6BR/8.2BA! $8.95M

British West Indies 2-story home to be built by Wittmann Building. Ocean block, 5BR/6.5BA, 6,000+ sq.ft., library, eat-in kitchen, pool. $6.95M

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Tasteful and charming 3BR/3BA Spanish hacienda home plus 2BR/1.5BA guest house. Three beautiful log gias. Oversized 100x145 lot with service road access. $4.5M

Dream home in the sky. Dramatic city and ocean views. 3BR/3.5BA. 2,815 sq.ft. of spacious, glamorous living. High ceilings, floor to ceiling windows and formal rooms. $2.495M

Meticulously renovated 3BR/3BA northend home. Spacious living areas, gourmet granite kitchen, private patio & stylish pool. $1.99M

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InnovatIons In

CosmetiC mediCine Pioneer in Cosmetic Laser Therapy Bruce E. Katz, M.D. is the pioneer of SmartLipo and the Madonna Lift (fractional laser eyelift). SmartLipo is the first laser-assisted liposuction system. It is a revolutionary and minimally invasive procedure for the removal of fat using a high-powered laser to sculpt body contours and tighten skin under local anesthesia with minimal downtime and side effects. If Bruce E. Katz, M.D. you have areas of fat that will not www.juvaskin.com respond to diet and exercise, then 212-688-5882 you’re a candidate for SmartLipo.

In one of the most comprehensive medical stories ever published in People magazine, Dr. Katz’s seminal work on SmartLipo was highlighted.

The Madonna Lift is a new type of laser eyelift. It utilizes an innovative fractional CO 2 laser which creates tiny microscopic channels in the tissue so that new collagen can grow in to rejuvenate the skin. This results in the dramatic reduction in wrinkles and dark circles under the eyes while tightening eyelid skin and elevating drooping eyebrows. Several sessions are usually required with little downtime. Dr. Katz has seen patients coming from all over the world to have these procedures performed.

He is a Clinical Professor at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, director of the Juva Skin & Laser Center and director of the Cosmetic Surgery & Laser Clinic at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Advances in Breast and Body Contouring After Pregnancy and Weight Loss Dr. Adam R. Kolker is a double-board-certified plastic surgeon in Manhattan. As a highly skilled and accomplished breast and body contouring specialist, he is most noted for perfecting the art and science of abdominal restoration and breast enhancement in women who have experienced significant changes following pregnancy, weight loss, Adam R. Kolker, M.D. or aging. Changes that include www.kolkermd.com decreased breast volume and po212-744-6500 sition, abdominal prominence,

muscle laxity and excess skin and fat are common, and can have effects on appearance, comfort, and self esteem.

Breast enlargement, and breast lift when necessary, can restore youthful fullness to the breasts. In the many cases in which diet and exercise do not suffice, abdominoplasty can restore a firm and sculpted contour. Dr. Kolker has devised surgical techniques and has published articles on maximizing both aesthetics and safety in abdominoplasty and liposuction in Annals of Plastic Surgery, and has lectured on these advances nationally and internationally.

By utilizing methods that preserve maximal perfusion and health of the abdominal skin, these procedures allow for liberal liposuction and natural, anatomic shaping of abdominal contours. As every woman’s needs and desires are unique, the specific techniques are tailored meticulously to achieve the most beautiful and natural results for each individual.

Sculptra® Aesthetic and Fraxel® re:store Dual Laser— An Ideal Program for Non-Surgical Facial Rejuvenation with Long Lasting Results Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Dr. Bryan G. Forley performs non-surgical treatments of varying degrees of complexity to achieve an aesthetically appealing appearance with minimal downtime.

Dr. Forley brings the aesthetic judgment and understanding of anatomy and aging that he utilizes in surgery to the most advanced minimally invasive procedures. He offers a Bryan G. Forley, M.D. program of volume restoration www.drforley.com and laser skin rejuvenation to 212-861-3757 achieve a natural, youthful looking appearance without surgery.

Sculptra®Aesthetic is an injectable biocompatible material that stimulates production of the skin’s own collagen to restore youthful facial contours. The gradual replacement of collagen over a 3-month period following injection results in a dramatic lifting effect on sagging cheeks and jowls that can last up to 3 years. An average of 2-3 treatments at 6-week intervals are needed to achieve a long lasting result.

The innovative Fraxel® re:store Dual laser

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. invited a number of leading physicians engaged in cosmetic care to offer their view on what is the new and “cutting edge” in the cosmetic field.

enables the body’s natural healing process to create new, healthy skin around microscopic treatment zones by combining two rejuvenating non-ablative wavelengths. The superficial wavelength targets skin discoloration in 1 or 2 sessions. The deeper wavelength treats wrinkles, tone, and texture of the face, neck, chest, and hands in a series of 4-6 monthly treatments with rapid initial healing and short-term redness and swelling over 2-4 days.

Facial and Hand Rejuvenation With nearly 20 years of experience in performing facelift and eyelid surgeries (blepharoplasty), Dr. Broumand has found that patients are concerned that their hands reveal a discrepancy in their age after having facelift and eyelid surgery. Patients may become aware that their hands may have lost fat which can result in a Stafford R. Broumand, thin, transparent or bony appearM.D. ance. Veins may have become www.drbroumand.com more visible, and age spots may 212-879-7900 have developed. But now hand rejuvenation can be achieved by utilizing the wisdom of many techniques individualized for each patient, taking 7-10 years off their appearance.

These new techniques which are available for the hands can significantly improve their appearance. Dr. Broumand is now utilizing new fillers, fat grafting, newer light lasers and chemical peels to improve the hand appearance (to coincide with the results achieved with facial rejuvenation).

For thin looking hands, Dr. Broumand injects fillers under local anesthesia. This procedure can be done quickly and easily—and at the same time as facial rejuvenation. A single treatment may provide instant results that can last up to one year. For those patients who experience only minimal bruising and swelling, moderate activities can be resumed immediately. Lasers and peels are utilized to rid the hands of age spots and gives the skin a more youthful appearance. These procedures are also done under local anesthesia and patients can see visible results with minimal discomfort and minimal down time.

Complete treatment for face and hands are available. Consultations are the best way to determine which options work best. Dr. Stafford R. Broumand, a board certified

plastic surgeon, is an exceptional cosmetic physician with an office in New York City. Committed to patient satisfaction and personalized attention, he offers beautiful, natural looking facelifts and hand rejuvenation.

3D High Definition Facelifting Creates Natural Rejuvenation Dr. Sam Rizk is Director of Manhattan Facial Plastic Surgery, a state-of-the-art, JCAHO-accredited surgical suite on Park Avenue. He specializes in performing the most modern techniques and customized face and necklifts which beautifully define the jawline and produce a youthful appearance without a tightly pulled or “wind-blown” look. His Rapid Samieh Rizk, M.D., FACS Recovery approach with unde- www.drsamrizk.com tectable hidden scars are the 212-452-3362 landmarks of his philosophy; he performs a range of full and partial lifts, including isolated neck lifts and new techniques for male neck lifts without the telltale signs of surgery. Dr. Rizk’s signature deep plane lower face and necklift technique redistributes the jowl fat back to its youthful home in the cheekbones, producing a natural, aesthetically-pleasing rejuvenation.

He has also pioneered the use of a 3D High Definition telescope system to visualize face and neck structures from smaller hairline and ear incisions. His novel use of tissue glues instead of drains results in less bruising and swelling so patients can return to their lives as quickly as possible. The results of facial rejuvenation procedures can be further enhanced by fractional laser resurfacing.

To learn more about these Castle Connolly Top Doctors™ and other Top Doctors™ in the New York Metro Area, visit www.castleconnolly. com. Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. is the publisher of America’s Top Doctors, Top Doctors: New York Metro Area, and the source of Top Doctors articles in New York, Westchester, Greenwich, New Jersey Savvy Living and other magazines throughout the nation.

Physicians included in Castle Connolly’s Guides and on its website (castleconnolly.com) have been selected based on extensive surveys of physicians nationwide. All physicians who are nominated undergo an extensive review of credentials by Castle Connolly’s physician-led research team. Doctors cannot and do not pay to be selected as a CCML Top Doctor, however; the physicians in this ad have paid for their inclusion here. For further information contact Jennifer Mojave, Corporate Services Manager at jmojave@castleconnolly.com.

88

104

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CONTENTS The Wedding Issue 88

from this day forward

Quest showcases the most beautiful weddings

around the world. In these pages, the recent nuptials run the gamut from

a timelessly elegant ceremony at The Plaza to a lavish Turkish getaway.

98

dÉcor for the big day

Event planner extraordinaire Preston Bailey shares

shares his tips for elevating a wedding from a party to event—from the

flowers and the lighting to learning to relax and enjoy. by Daniel Cappello

104

Throughout history, La Perla has created the most

exquisite, detailed lingerie. The brand’s latest bridal collection is

110

After night falls

sure to make for a memorable wedding night.

adventures in paradise

by

Georgina Schaeffer

There’s a dream destination awaiting every

honeymooner. After the big day is through, a newly minted couple

deserves to kick back and relax at one of these ultra-romantic escapes.

110

the

pilot’s

watch

The O ys ter Perpetua l GMT-Ma st e r I I i s t h e ul t i m a t e r e fe r e n ce ch ose n b y p r o f e s s i o n a l s w h o f l y t h e w o r l d . I n 1 9 5 5 , t h e f i r s t G M T- M a s t e r was developed together with Pan Am pilots, to ease the adjustment when c h a n g i n g t i m e z o n e s . To d ay, i t s s u c c e s s o r a l l ow s p i l o t s t o r e a d t h r e e t i m e z o n e s , ke e p i n g t h e m p u n c t u a l i n a n y o n e . Th e G M T- M a s t e r I I is recognized as invaluable to professionals and serious travelers around the world. Visit

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new york

68

62

00

CONTENTS C olumns 20

68 Chronicles of the finest fêtes in town.

Social Diary

60

Social Calendar

by

David Patrick Columbia

Our guide to the month’s best benefits, parties, and more.

HARRY BENSON

Photographing Queen Elizabeth II isn’t always easy.

64

observations

The return of Mrs. Robinson.

62

68 66

Fresh Finds

Things that are in.

beaut y

industry insiders

84

126 128

Appearances

pets

by

Daniel Cappello

and

The Spa at The Surrey’s dream bridal package.

philanthropy

124

T aki T heodoracopulos

Looking back on winters of yesteryear, New York’s most celebratory season.

72 74

audax

by

by

Elizabeth Meigher R ebecca M orse

Predictions for the real-estate market.

by

B rooks H uston

The inspiring teatimes at Hope Lodge NYC. by Elizabeth Brown Reporting on the biggest parties across the pond.

by

Hilary Geary

Readers’ dogs dish about their top trifles and trinkets. By Georgina Schaeffer

snapshot

The City Hall marriage bureau gets a makeover.

by

Rebecca Morse

68

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valeria fox photo editor

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elizabeth brown Societ y editor

Hilary Geary e d i to r at l a r g e

jack bryan Contributing writers

AUDAX HARRY BENSON elizabeth brown daisy davenport brooks huston elizabeth meigher rebecca morsE Taki Theodoracopulos michael thomas VICTOR WISHNA Contributing photographers

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“Max”

editor’s letter

the unhappy psyches of an entire family (and provided a century of of the Valentine, what’s a better fodder for biographies, newspaper subject than the ultimate romantic reports, and even novels). You see event: the wedding? And, not so how powerful a wedding can be? coincidentally, this month’s Quest My favorite part of any wedding is our annual Weddings issue. We is the unpredictable (and often showcase weddings in Istanbul, undesirable) drama. It doesn’t Montenegro, Denver, New York often happen because the marryand Egypt. Read décor tips from ing couple is typically happy about Preston Bailey, a report on La the entire occasion, but there are Perla’s wedding-night lingerie, as the stray stories that intrigue and well as the top honeymoon destiamuse. Like the marriage of a nations in places ranging from the friend of mine who waited a full Caribbean and Hawaii to Montana forty-five minutes for his wife to and Scotland. Even our shrewd make it to the church. Perhaps columnist Taki has a piece on unsurprisingly, the marriage didn’t older women dating younger men. last for more than a year or two (Wedding or no wedding? That is (and the new wife was thereafter the question.) always late for everything).

Then there is the big day itself.

One of last century’s most iconic couples on their wedding Another friend of mine—the Weddings are productions, no kidday—Jacqueline Bouvier and Jack Kennedy cut the cake. bride—got a case of the giggles ding around. I’ve seen perfectly sane and sensible women (usually the mothers) lose their during the exchanging of the vows. It got so out of control marbles over planning the perfect wedding cake, or word- that it spread throughout the entire wedding party until ing the invitation, or choosing the size or color of the tent, both bride and groom physically had a difficult time getting or the bridesmaids’ favors. I’ve seen fathers of the bride out the “I do, I do” so that it could be heard intelligibly by break into a cold sweat and knock back a scotch or two even the officiating minister.

Then there was the wedding where the groom just never just before that moment when he walks his daughter down the aisle. (Jacqueline Bouvier’s father knocked back so showed. But the wedding reception still happened, and many that when the big moment came he wasn’t able to everyone had a great time.

Nowadays, as everyone knows, weddings are interactive. walk his beautiful daughter down the aisle to marry John The couple often weds at a vacation-like destination so that F. Kennedy.)

Weddings are productions, and wedding productions the guests get to go to a wedding, several parties, as well as often have the drama—and the comedy—that works out take an exotic vacation. Then, of course, after the party’s best in movies. For weddings are basically about family and over, everyone returns home, including the newlyweds, family relations—not to mention the main relationship that to their “new” home and life, with hopes among all that is being celebrated on the big day—and all of that depends Happily Ever After will describe the results. We hope you enjoy the issue as if you were the blushing bride. u entirely on the temperaments of the cast.

When Consuelo Vanderbilt was marrying Charles Spencer Churchill, the ninth Duke of Marlborough on November 6, 1895 at St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue, David Patrick Columbia her father and mother had already become separated (and would soon after divorce). Her mother, the famous Alva, decreed that Consuelo’s father was allowed only to take his daughter to the church, walk her down the aisle and on the cover: immediately after the “I do”s, he was to get lost. He did, Elizabeth Pogue and leaving the bride at the altar and going to his club to lunch Ahmed Fattouh were with friends. married at a grand party Mama Alva also decreed that Consuelo’s paternal grandat The Plaza Hotel in mother, Maria Kissam Vanderbilt, was the only member of December, following a the entire Vanderbilt family to be invited to the wedding. celebration in Cairo On top of that, Consuelo’s father had to provide a $2.5 milfrom November 29th lion (about $75 million in today’s dollars) settlement on his to December 6th. The titled new son-in-law. Furthermore, Consuelo didn’t want to bride wore a dress by marry the guy but was forced to by her dictatorial mother.

Reem Acra. Photograph So, on that fateful day, as the strains of Lohengrin filled St.

by Christian Oth. Thomas, the strains of a dictatorial wife and mother filled

Weddings . Since this is the month

1 8 Q U ES T

w e d d i n g s & pA r t i e s

As h l e y, ou r w e ddi n g sp ec i A l i s t, w i l l h e l p yo u f i n d t h e pe r f ec t dr es s . s i m p ly e mAi l As h l e y @ j c r e w.c o m or v i s i t j c r e w w e d d i n g .c o m .

Com i n g Soon : ou r fi rSt- e ve r w e dd i ng b o u t i q u e 76 9 ma d i So n av e . , n YC

D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A

David Patrick Columbia

NEW YORK SO CIAL DIARY It was a cold January in New York, although I’ve seen colder. And snowy, although I’ve seen snowier. Overall, it was quiet in the city, as it often is this time of the year. The snow bunnies and the beach bunnies had deserted the city’s canyons for destinations

north, west, and south.

The big news that hit at the beginning of the month was the tragic death of Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson, who died in Los Angeles at the end of the New Year’s weekend.

Casey had been staying

in the guest cottage on the property of a longtime family friend in West Hollywood.

Her life over the past couple of years had grown increasingly frenetic and even notorious in her public behavior.

The media had a field day over this, all of it

leading nowhere good—for anybody. And most of it was fictional. The young woman’s personality, her modus vivendi, didn’t help. When she was bad, she was a nightmare. A monster. A brat. A disaster waiting to happen. And when she was good, she was a sweet

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A a T r i b u t e l u n c h eo n fo r E u n i c e J o h n s o n at t h e m e t r o p o l i ta n m u s e u m o f a r t

Anna Wintour

Darren Walker, Holly Peterson and Spencer Means

child. An intelligent little girl who ran into trouble as she moved into womanhood.

Casey, however, upon meeting was docile and sweet and slightly shy, at least to this adult, a contemporary of her parents. She seemed to become difficult as she entered her later teen years and had more independence and mobility. For others, she seemed contentious and prone to menacing, as if something had taken over her personality. There was something that affected her personality, but it wasn’t what people generally thought.

Like Paris Hilton, her public image was linked to the 22 QUEST

Toni Fay and B. Smith

family fortune. Everyone knew she was an heiress. The thing about the rich is that the good news is the bad news. It just is. Like the title of Dominick Dunne’s last book, Too Much Money, it becomes its own kind of substance abuse.

There were stories in the late ’90s that Casey was having problems with her mother, who was divorcing her father after a long marriage. Her move to Los Angeles was a declaration of independence.

It was where many of her friends were moving because of the party scene and the fabulous weather (and the movie stars). It was where Paris Hilton moved (actually,

Maurice DuBois

Paris was just moving back to her home town).

In the last few years we’d got the impression from the columns that Casey had come out as a lesbian and was carrying on torturous (for somebody), arduous relationships with other young women who had a lot of time and a lot of money.

We also learned she adopted a child, a little girl whom she named Ava. Oddly dispirited for someone so young. The day the news came out, a friend wrote to me: “Shame about Casey Johnson. She always seemed like a poor soul to me—oddly dispirited for

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Veronica Webb and Gayle King

someone so young.”

My friend tapped it. I was reminded that I too had seen that. You can even see it in the pictures. There was an explanation for that, although it wasn’t any of the ones trumpeted by the media.

It was widely reported on the blogs that she died alone in her rundown Mulholland Drive house. Not so. She’d moved from that house (which was in distress from neglect), and was living in the guesthouse of a family friend in West Hollywood. It was a place Casey knew well, where she often visited, and sometimes stayed over the years. It was a haven for her.

Pat r i c k M C M u ll a n

Sandra Parks, Sherry Bronfman and Harriette Cole

D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A It was her hostess who found her and called 911. She had known Casey all her life and was well aware of all of her issues. She had seen the great decline up close—as had many others—that had occurred over the past few years.

Casey had Type 1 diabetes.

It was discovered when she was a toddler and she struggled with it throughout her lifetime. For those of us who have never experienced it, juvenile diabetes can be

an emotionally crippling disease. Its victims start out life with a burden that can be insurmountable to a child, let alone an adult.

Her mother and father pursued solutions to help her from the very beginning. Her family has been an important part of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for decades. Her father has been a tireless advocate for diabetes research, and Casey, with her parents, wrote a book on the subject in the ’90s. Type 1

diabetes is an insidious disease.

There are many families across the country coping with it and the burden is relentless.

Casey, from early youth, was involved in raising the public consciousness, giving talks, raising funds, and sharing her experience with others. Aside from the little that is widely known about its ravages, even less is known in the public consciousness about the psychological effects on its victims who are, remember, required to deal with its

seriousness as young children.

The condition itself was a natural opposing force to a lot of Casey’s personality, and perhaps even fostered the existential alternatives to the child who carried it. Furthermore, she was inclined, like a lot of her contemporaries, to use some drugs recreationally.

She was not the first diabetic to “use,” nor would she be the last. She’s just one we happen to read about.

She was not broke, as has

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Debi Wisch and Lorinda Ash Ezersky

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Lisa Klein and Stacey Bronfman

D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A opening night of the fift y-sixth annual winter antiques show

Alexandra Kotur and Sheila Kotur

also been reported frequently.

Although, for reasons only known to her trustees and members of her family, she had extended herself to a point she couldn’t manage. This was part of a larger conflict she was having managing her life. In the last month she’d taken to selling things to raise money.

She was alone the last weekend of her life. The madhouse versions reported in the media were fiction.

The party was already over.

Her hostess had been away for the holiday. She was alone New Year’s Eve. (“Casey was too proud to tell anyone she didn’t have anything to do or anyplace to go.”) The 26 QUEST

Meg Hayes and Cameron Shay

Katherine Bryan

housekeeper heard her talking animatedly on the telephone on Saturday.

When her hostess returned to Los Angeles on Sunday night late, she could smell stale cigarette smoke in the living room of the main house, which Casey had access to.

That was a “no smoking” zone, but in this case she was pleased to know Casey had been there to relax and maybe watch T.V. (The guesthouse was still packed with boxes from the move.)

The guesthouse was dark at that late hour, and so it wasn’t until late Monday morning that Casey’s hostess went over to yoo-hoo her guest to wake

Elihu Rose and Kathy Steinberg

up. When she got no reaction, she looked in the bedroom to see if Casey was there.

She saw her guest lying there peacefully, looking beautiful.

The hostess lifted her arm.

It was cold to the touch. She called 911 first, then she called Casey’s mother and father.

She believes Casey had slipped into a diabetic coma the night before. Casey, she said, was always “meticulous” about getting her shot. So it wasn’t probable that she hadn’t given herself the insulin.

And there were no signs of any meds anywhere. But there is a point, in the progress of this disease, she said, that the insulin isn’t as effective.

Lorry Newhouse

Heather Hahn

Casey, after a lifelong struggle with her condition, may have reached that point.

There were obviously other components to this girl’s life.

She came from a family of enormous wealth, also a family marked with other harsh and sudden losses of life, and uneasy alliances in marriage.

All of these things are brought to bear on children in all families. How they deal with them depends on the personality and the strengths of the individual child.

However, whatever those problems might have been for Casey, they are distorted by the reality of the disease.

Casey knew this, and she felt

Pat r i c k M c M u ll a n

Diane Van Amerongen

D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A v i ta l vo i c e s h o st e d a pa r t y c e l e b r at i n g w om e n at t h e b o w e r y h ot e l

mary ellen cashman

Mary Ellen Cashman is an Executive Vice President at Stribling.

Q: How long have you been at Stribling?

A: I have been with Stribling for 12 years and absolutely love it. They had been recruiting me for a while and I think it was lunch with Libba that finally got me excited about coming over. My only regret is not joining Stribling earlier in my career.

Q: What do you think is the most important thing to look for in a new home?

A: I know this is a cliché, but it’s really all about location. Location was the driving force behind the sales of the last quarter and the strong start to the New Year.

Properties in desirable neighborhoods like SoHo, Nolita and the Village retained their value in this market, while new developments in fringe neighborhoods suffered. 211 Elizabeth St. and Devonshire House are both examples of buildings in great downtown neighborhoods that are doing very well right now.

Q: What are you most looking forward to in 2010?

A: Hopefully more inventory. As prices stabilize and sellers regain confidence there should be more properties on the market. There’s just very little depth right now and that’s a huge challenge.

Q: Any other reflections on the past year?

A: I think we are seeing a return to real estate as a long term investment. Buyers are taking the process much more seriously and looking for substance. The days of flipping and quick returns have passed and the focus again is on quality buildings in great neighborhoods.

Jennifer Creel, Hamish Bowles and Anh Duong

Addison O’Dea and Duane Hampton

Lynda Johnson Robb

Eaddy Kiernan and Kylie Gattinella

an obligation to do something to make a difference. How much she succeeded was naturally affected by her own personal burdens, weaknesses, and shortcomings.

It is important to understand this because diabetes is wreaking its own havoc on our national health. Casey is at peace now, and many mourn her passing.

Meanwhile, on another gray, ehhh day in New York, with temperatures reaching into the forties and rain in the forecast, I went down to the Bowery Hotel for a Vital Voices cocktail party. Vital Voices is an international nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that promotes and advocates the participation of women in leadership roles in the political processes of their societies and countries.

Their stated mission is to identify, invest in, and bring visibility to extraordinary women around the world.

Gail Sheehy and David Patrick Columbia

Asia Baker and John Royall

It was started in 1997 as a U.S. initiative.

Hillary Clinton, then First Lady, was the keynote speaker at their first meeting. In her speech she pointed out that human rights for women simply meant human rights for everyone.

Today, they are at the forefront of international coalitions to combat human trafficking and other forms of violence against women and girls.

They equip women with management, business development, marketing, and communications skills to expand their enterprises, help provide for their families, and create jobs in their communities.

They have more than 7,000 members in scores of countries across the world.

These members are actively promoting women’s leadership in their communities.

Within hours of the earthquake’s strike in Haiti, local Vital Voices members were

PAt r i c k M c M u ll a n

Q: What brought you to residential real estate?

A: In the 1980s, I partnered with a group of investors to buy a building. This was well before buyers had the resources to investigate properties on their own. I decided to get my license so that we could have more autonomy in the search. I found the process incredibly rewarding and have been at it ever since.

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A communicating their needs to members in the rest of the world.

Alexis Tobin, who had organized this party, introduced Alyse Nelson, president and CEO of Vital Voices, who is a polished and effective speaker for her cause, explaining how one of the differences that occurred by bringing women “to the table” brought diversity of interests and issues (both male and female) to the table.

Nelson also introduced Jill Ischoll, chair of the New York Council for Vital Voices.

The event committee was made up of Anh Duong, Alexis Tobin, Samantha Thompson, Asia Baker,

Ariane de Bonvoisin, Amanda Brooks, Whitney Dickerson, Mark Langrish, Adelaide Mueller, Bettina Prentice, Catherine Petree, Lauren Remington Platt, Michael Vollbracht, and Sissy Yates.

This committee represents the younger members who are actively involved in promoting the organization.

They did a great job in bringing out a good crowd of more than 150, which included Nina Griscom and Leo Piraino, Peter Kostmayer, Sharon Hoge, Robert Couturier, Eric Cohler, Miranda Brooks, Sasha Heinz, Carolina Irving, Hamish Bowles, Yvonne Force-Villreal, Amanda

Glendinning, Jon Hess, Greg Grimes, Joan Tobin, Ian Tobin, Adam Mahr, Richard Miner, Gregory Partanio, Stephanie LaCava, Valerie Zilkha, Illy and Stuyvie Wainwright, Lynda Johnson Robb, Annie Wuerth Lieberman, Margaret Ahnert, Asher Simcoe, Helen Rosen, Duane Hampton, James Andrew, Robert Sjoberg, Gail Sheehy, Lisa Jonas, Alice Kandel, Geraldine Laybourne, Maya Hernandez, Osman Nawaz, Emmie Twombly, Roy Kean, Daisy Prince, and Dija Kane, to name only a few.

On a Tuesday toward the end of the month, I got a lastminute invitation to a “hushhush” supper for Placido

Domingo on the following Friday at Doubles after his performance at the Met in Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.”

The party would commence at 11:30 p.m. They were celebrating the maestro’s fiftieth anniversary on the musical stage and his sixtyninth birthday (which was the day before). Jacqueline Mars (think Mars Bar) was hostess and the guest list of fifty was made up of Washington National opera supporters.

Maestro Domingo would be arriving about 12:15. a.m.

Friday is my semi-day-off and it is highly valued for its precious moments of leisure.

Frankly, I often don’t leave the house on Fridays, except

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Heidi Nielsen and Gilbert Kahn 30 QUEST

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Kathy and Bill Wallace

Jane Grace and Joanie van der Grift

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to walk the dogs, of course.

However, one of the greatest living opera stars of our time?

His birthday, his anniversary, and a night’s performance in a three-hour opera? I could only feel honored to share his presence.

I am not a big opera fan, meaning I am not well versed in it, but I love music. I love classical music and I love many of the operas I’ve heard. I love to sing and play the piano (both badly) and, to me, those like Placido, with the voices that thrill us, are ambassadors of the human spirit. They are graced.

“Simon Boccanegra” was also a special occasion to fans 32 QUEST

Fred and Catherine Adler

Robert Morgenthau and Lucinda Frank

Joel Pashcow and Heidi Albertsen

and critics because he sang baritone instead of tenor.

Actually, when he was a kid of eighteen and first auditioning for the Mexico National Opera, he sang baritone. After that they asked him to sightread some arias in the tenor range. So there it began.

Charles Isherwood in the New York Times wrote the following day about his performance in “Simon Bocconegra,” his “thrilling turn as a trouble-plagued doge in 14th-century Genoa.”

Isherwood continued, “Verdi’s opera ranks as one of the most resonant and affecting performances I’ve seen him give. Mr. Domingo

may enjoy being a oneman opera industry, but his contribution to the art form will ultimately rest on what happened—what continues to happen—in performance.”

When I arrived at Doubles, only Prince Dimitri and his friend (and distant cousin) Madeleine Frowein had arrived. A little after midnight everyone started streaming in, including the maestro’ wife and son (who is a ringer for the younger Placido), as well as Jacqueline Mars, the Russian Ambassador, Caroline Kennedy, Kenneth Feinberg (Obama’s pay czar), Brenda Johnson, the Ambassador to Jamaica (a Bush appointee).

Jana Scarpa and Annie Falk

Bill Koch and Miriam Erbeia

There was a cocktail hour while we waited for the maestro. When he arrived, he had an unassuming and comfortable presence, like the Mediterranean version of the jolly good fellow. And, naturally, he looked like a man who had had a long day. But he made his way around very energetically, happy to see everyone, the consummate host. It was hard to believe he’d just come from singing an opera for three hours.

We were seated for dinner at about one o’clock.

Jacqueline Mars welcomed the guests and thanked the maestro for his contribution to Grand Opera and for his

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A directorship and conducting with the Washington National Opera (he is also director of the Los Angeles Opera). After she toasted the maestro, he spoke to the group, thanking everyone profusely for being there to celebrate. Then he introduced certain guests, including the Russian Ambassador and Caroline Kennedy, who is an “international director” of the Washington National Opera.

Placido was so appreciative of our presence. The chefs at Doubles had prepared a lightish supper and the room was as energetic as an eight o’clock dinner, which continually surpised this night-owl

who was feeling, frankly, exhausted.

I was the first to leave a little after 2:30. I was told that it was the latest a supper party ever went at Doubles—until almost 3 a.m. I wasn’t surprised. It’s the opera. These are the same people who line up on the sidewalks twenty-four hours before to get an SRO ticket for a performance. The only difference is that they don’t have to line up; they can buy a season with a check (and, one hopes, a donation). And they all do it for the same reason: they love it, they even worship the experience. That is the nature of the beast. Passion. It runs deep.

I spent the rest of the weekend finishing a biography of Somerset Maugham, The Secrets Lives of Somerset Maugham, by Selina Hastings.

I got my copy from someone who brought it over from the U.K., I’ve been told it’s coming out in this country in the spring.

I picked it up because a friend of mine had told me he spent the weekend reading it and that it was fascinating and juicy. Another friend of mine used that word too. I don’t know about juicy, but it is a very intimate biography. There isn’t much you don’t learn about the man. Furthermore, Hastings writes about both

sexes with ease and with much detail.

I have not read much Maugham. I’d seen some of his movies adapted from his plays, short stories, and novels. He has had more films (including T.V.) made of his works than any other author—ninety-two!

He is also a fascinating story, and it is told at the hands of a very thorough (and interested) writer.

It was a long, full, complicated life, a very professional life, a glamorous and famous and wealthy life, as well as a troubled, often sad, maddening life, recounted in the context of two centuries— he was born in 1874 and died

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Colleen Bell and Jane Ross

Lyndie Benson, Kelly Myer and Leana Frankford 34 QUEST

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A in 1965.

He served in both World Wars, traveled constantly, kept copious notes of everything and everyone he met, used them for his stories, and went out for more. He married once, had a daughter and grandchildren, had two male living companions who were in effect “wives” (the old time version: domestic labor, combined with companionship with the predictable subsequent resentments), whom he provided for generously.

His mother, whom he adored (and who adored him—he was the fourth and

last son, and much younger than his siblings), died when he was eight. His father died a few years later. The loss of the mother punctuated his life with agony at the beginning and at the end.

While reading Hastings’s compelling work (it took me a couple of weeks because of my time limitations and its length: 536 pages), I would ask myself if I “liked” this man whom I was getting to know so intimately. I certainly admired him and was in awe of his abilities. I have been writing all my life but never with the aplomb or technique this man developed so brilliantly.

He was a successful writer, by which I mean he was compleat, and he didn’t kid himself about his shortcomings either.

He was very smart, oddly kind, generous, and then other things you could live without.

I loved the book.

More books. On another night in New York, Priscilla Rattazzi, Eleanora Kennedy, Kayce Freed Jennings, and Jennifer Isham hosted a book party for Charles Glass (Charlie to his friends) at the Upper East Side townhouse Rattazzi shares with her husband, Chris Whittle, and their family.

The Whittle/Rattazzi

domicile was packed to the rafters. They were selling books and the author was busy signing.

Glass, who was born in L.A. and went to USC, is now an international journalist who lives in Europe. I’m not sure if it’s London or Paris these days, but he has a dual U.S./U.K. citizenship. For ten years he was ABC’s chief Middle East correspondent. Some may remember that he was taken hostage by Shia’a militants in Lebanon in 1987 and held for sixty-two days before he escaped. He is the only Western hostage in Lebanon known to have escaped.

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Keytt Lundqvist 36 QUEST

Jennifer Esposito

Tom and Maggie Vaughn

Brendan Fraser, Keri Russell and Harrison Ford

Brooke Shields

Susan Woo and James Lowther

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Carla Santos Shamberg, Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher

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The book they were celebrating was Americans In Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation. It is an evocative look at what it was like when the enemy (the Nazis) came marching in (to Paris). If you were an American at that moment, you were all right (unless they’d already pegged you as politically threatening).

The American Ambassador William Bullitt was designated “Mayor” of Paris because the government fled. As far as the Nazis were concerned, Paris now belonged to the German Empire and destined to remain that way for the 1,000year Reich.

We recognize many of 38 QUEST

Alba Sera and Caroline Alexa McBride

Sirio Maccioni, Fern Mallis, Ceslie Armstrong and Marco Maccioni

the characters in the book.

Sylvia Beach, who owned the legendary bookstore Shakespeare & Company, had chosen to stay, as did many others. The risks were greater than could have been imagined at the time. Many Parisians were willing to accept the Nazis as leaders if it meant they kept order in the country. It was that easy for more than some. Jews and others knew they were in great danger. Soon, the Americans would be in great danger too.

Suicide was not an infrequent alternative to failed attempts to escape. Everyone was a prisoner.

It all seems like a movie

Willow Jarosh and Stephanie Clarke

Michele Ateyeh and Lisa Silhanek

now. Charles Glass’s book reminds you that it was and is real life, and the way men and women actually behave with each other given the right set of circumstances.

Meanwhile, at the Whittle/ Rattazzi’s, it was conviviality almost collegiate in spirit, like a party combining faculty and students (except the students are grown up and out in the world plying their trade). By which I mean, it was crowded and cozy and people were ensconced. Drinks were ample (if you could find the bar) and the hors d’oeuvres were fresh, if you could find them in some corner out of harm’s way. The place was wall-to-wall people,

Kara Young and Bethann Hardison

full of talk and curiosity.

Meanwhile, in another part of the same forest, L.A., actor/director/ photographer/ sculptor/art collector Dennis Hopper is very ill battling cancer. He was first diagnosed with prostate cancer a decade ago, was treated, and it went into remission. More recently, the cancer has spread and his condition has worsened noticeably.

Dollars and sense. The situation in the Hopper household had been under something of a cloud for some time, with the husband complaining that his wife was indifferent to him. It was exacerbated when the current

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A Mrs. Hopper, Victoria, wife number five, presented the husband with a list of the art works in the household that she believed belonged to her.

The Dennis Hopper collection is one of the most important collections of contemporary art in America today. He began collecting a decade before his wife was born, in 1968, and it is also a substantial part of his estate.

Upon hearing his wife’s request, evidently surprised by her claim of ownership, he removed her as executrix of his estate, and replaced her with his eldest daughter,

Marin Hopper (from his first marriage to Brooke Hayward, who is separated from her husband and living with their daughter on another part of the Hopper property in Venice).

The change evidently did not go down well with the missus, who, it is said, went out and got herself a lawyer and demanded that the will be read now. No waiting around. This unusual request was granted. From it, it was learned what she and each of his children were receiving, her share being the largest.

Fair and equal.

Nevertheless, the stress around the house from this matter was very difficult for Hopper, who is very ill. His doctor advised him to get away for a rest from the marital storms (Mrs. Hopper is said to be quite volatile). He moved to the Beverly Hills Hotel, although less than a week later, his condition worsened and he had to be hospitalized.

During this time, about a week before Christmas, Mrs. Hopper allegedly hired a truck and, with the assistance of her relatives, removed a number of pieces of art (those on her list of personal possessions),

household items, as well as the sterling. As well as herself and the daughter—for destinations unknown to Hopper.

Over the Christmas holidays, he had to be hospitalized again, and his wife returned.

“Will You Love Me In December As You Did in May?” It’s the title of an American popular song written more than a century ago. In the late atomic age, it remains the eternal question, although the context has been “updated.”

Dennis Hopper and Victoria Duffy were married fourteen years ago this year. She was in her late twenties and he was

“A N i g h t to B e n e f i t H a i t i ” at t h e T h om p s o n L . E . S . h ot e l

Vito Schnabel and Stacey Bendet

Johannes Huebl, Olivia Palermo and Tim Schipporeit 40 QUEST

Sabine Heller, Ali Wise and Karen Duffy

Zani Gugelmann

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Pat r i c k M c M u ll a n

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A “ BEAUTIFUL GIRLS : S t e p h e n S o n d h e i m ’ s S o n g s f o r W o m e n ” at t h e m a n h at ta n s c h o o l o f m u s i c

Ed and Ilene Lowenthal

Teri Ralston, Donna McKechnie and Dona Vaughn

sixty. She had the reputation among their friends for being a spender. However, he had a reputation for being wild once upon a time, and had long since settled down. He was also known to be very rich, having built a fortune first created from Easy Rider, which also made him a star, and from his brilliant art collection.

In the past few years of the marriage, the actor made known to friends that he felt his wife was indifferent to him, and was always busy with her own interests. It’s a common complaint in such a marriage. Last summer when he was again not feeling well, but shooting a film in the 42 QUEST

Southwest, he rented a house big enough for everybody to share. Instead of joining, the Missus went off to the shores of the Hamptons and rented herself a house to enjoy the salty seaside air.

After the business of the removal of possessions last month, and the disappearance of the wife and the daughter for several days, Mrs. Hopper returned to the domicile and, it is said, apologized to her husband.

The removed possessions have, as of this telling, remained removed.

Mr. Hopper is evidently very upset about this but since they are married, sharing the

Marin Mazzie and Angela Lansbury

Jenn Colella and Robert Sirota

domicile, the only way he can discover their whereabouts or get them returned is by filing for divorce, which he does not want to do at this late date in his life. The couple is now living under one roof. Mrs. Hopper’s mother has also come to stay, and they, mother, daughter, granddaughter, it is said, sleep behind locked doors. The house of Easy Rider.

Ahh fame! Oh fortune!

Louis Auchincloss died in New York on January 26th, in his ninety-third year. He was born September 27, 1917.

There is a natural desire to write about his life here, but I did not know Auchincloss

personally, except from an obvious distance. His prolific writing career will be recorded elsewhere frequently, at length and with knowledge of the man that I don’t possess. He was long an important writer to this writer, for what must be obvious reasons by now.

Although my personal favorite chronicler of the American scene, which is distinctively chronicled by Auchincloss, has always been John O’Hara.

Nevertheless, I will always be in awe of his perspicacity, productivity, patient observations, and the talent with which he portrayed the concealed lives of his subjects.

He was like Edith Wharton.

PAt r i c k M C M u ll a n

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A t h e P r e m i e r e o f Fa l l i n g Fo r G r ac e at t h e a s i a s o c i e t y

Douglas Marshall and Carson Griffith

I saw him fairly regularly over the years. I covered a number of evenings that were in his honor. I don’t recall being introduced outside of the mass how-ja-do’s that occur at these things.

Naturally I was fascinated by his presence. My admiration for his accomplishments and achievements has similar sentiments to those of a kid who idolizes a Red Sox pitcher.

I know he was aware of my presence as a writer, though he never expressed it directly.

He once told a mutual friend, referring to something I’d written about Mrs. Onassis after her death, that I’d “got 44 QUEST

Essi Metsakallio

Adelina Wong Ettelson and Whoopi Goldberg

it right.”

I took that as a very high compliment, believe me, despite its distance. However, over the years, as we were in the same room, under some same roof many times, he never demonstrated even an inkling of interest in making contact. Just a simple “hello” in response to mine as we were standing next to each other. There was a moment one afternoon several years ago in the Society Library on East 79th Street. I went in to research something and he was sitting at the end of one of reading tables. I was the only other person in the room.

He was reading something. I

David Dinkins

Kimberly Guilfoyle and Angel Sanchez

noticed him when I entered, of course, and he looked up at me. I smiled and nodded, in passing. He looked at me as if he didn’t notice.

It makes me laugh to think of that moment now because it later occurred to me that he had a kind of shyness, that WASP reserve that can be very hard to read if you’re outside the realm.

Frankly, I always felt a little awkward in his company, as if I might say the wrong thing and catch a glare from those saturnian eagle eyes.

Later, it occurred to me that perhaps it was he who was feeling awkward and that’s what I was picking up. Life’s

funny that way. However, the gold in a writer is in his work.

That is the greatest friendship any good writer can offer his fellows. Louis Auchincloss more than lived up to that.

One the first Monday of February, the world and Helen Gurley Brown lost David Brown, who died in the very early morning hours at the Browns’ apartment overlooking Central Park. He would have been ninety-four on his next birthday, July 28th.

I met both Helen and David a number of years ago through their longtime friend Alice Mason. David, who was a big booster of writers, had been reading New York Social Diary

Pat r i c k M c M u ll a n

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A in its early days in Quest, and was a fan. I had already known that he had a reputation for being one of the few, maybe the only film and stage producer who actually read unsolicited scripts that were sent to him by writers. Not only did he read them, but he even responded to the writers who sent them, with his thoughts about the work. This from a man who led a hugely active business and social life as well as a deep involvement with his wife’s career and work.

We became occasional lunch partners in those early days (for me) at Michael’s, and eventually, when I became

editor-in-chief of Avenue magazine under its owner and founder, Judy Price, he liked pitching ideas to me (you can imagine how flattering that was for me). He wrote some of them too.

He loved Broadway and Hollywood lore as much as I do, and of course he was full of first-hand stories about his adventures on the Great White Way and Lotusland. He was an expert on the career of Walter Winchell, the ultimate Broadway columnist who, in his hey-day, had 30 million readers daily across America (almost 20% of the population at the time), and left his mark

on the journalistic parlance of the twentieth century.

It was David, working as a story editor for the old Cosmopolitan magazine (long before Helen took it over), who bought the short story “Sweet Smell of Success,” a roman à clef based on Walter Winchell, from a writer pal of his named Ernest Lehman. The story was renamed for the magazine, “Tell Me About It Tomorrow” because Cosmopolitan’s editor didn’t want the word “smell” in the magazine’s edit. Ernest Lehman went on to become a successful screenwriter (The King and I, North By Northwest) and later an even

more successful film director (The Sound of Music) and producer (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ).

David was working in Hollywood as a story editor for Twentieth Century Fox under Darryl Zanuck when he met Helen Gurley, who was working as a private secretary for Don Belding, a partner in Foote, Cone, and Belding, the national advertising agency in his Beverly Hills office.

As David’s career as a producer was moving along, he encouraged Helen, by then a copy writer to try her hand at writing a book about single women like herself. This was

t h e h o s p i c e e v e n i n g o f fa s h i o n a n d p h i l a n t h r o p y w i t h o s c a r d e l a r e n ta i n pa l m b e ac h

Robert and Helen Messic 46 QUEST

Renee Woods and Boaz Mazor

Sam and Anita Michaels

Vicky Hunt, Rush Limbaugh and Cathy Flagg

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ground breaking at the time.

Sex and the Single Girl sold in the millions. The book was so popular that Helen spent much of her time personally answering all the adviceseeking letters coming from her fans.

Seeing the response, David suggested she make it easier on herself and turn the whole thing into a magazine for that particular demographic— single working women. The two put together an elaborate proposal and shopped it around the magazine industry in New York. They had no takers. Finally, David heard that Hearst was going to retire its old Cosmopolitan title 48 QUEST

Barry Humphries

and suggested to the Hearst executives that they re-launch it as a new publication with Helen as editor. (David wrote the sight-lines on the cover of each issue.)

The timing was right.

Cosmo, as it became known under Helen Gurley Brown, became for many years the biggest (and, some said, the only) money earner in the company.

By that time, David had already become the enormously successful producer that he was. His long producing partnership with Richard Zanuck had ended (although I’m told they remained friends and were in

Naomi Watts

Deborra-Lee Furness and Hugh Jackman

communication daily) and he maintained an office here in New York. Although I knew he was far past the age where a lot of men retire, David always had a lot of irons in the fire production-wise. In the past ten years he produced Sweet Smell of Success, the Broadway musical, as well as the musical version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Chocolat, and Angela’s Ashes.

For the past several years I was invited to join Helen and David for Thanksgiving dinner at the Four Seasons restaurant.

We always had the same table, in the pool room, by the pool, reserved for 4 p.m. Helen, who never lost her skills as an

Ellen Barkin

executive assistant, would set the date in the springtime and was sure to send reminders shortly before the big day.

The lunch was always fun and everyone looked forward to the conversation, which ran from Broadway to Hollywood to the White House, with David supplying many of the anecdotes. There were also trenchant questions from the guests (there were always four of us. Alice Mason was also a guest for many years).

Despite his activity in the film business, his long career gave him an outlook of movie making that was somewhat jaundiced, although characteristically kind in

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its eloquence. Answering an interviewer about the differences between today and his earlier years in the business, he responded: “Instead of having a single point of view in the making of a movie, which could have been Darryl Zanuck or David O. Selznick or even Jack Warner in the golden years, we now have a dilution. We have the marketing department deciding what pictures to make, reading scripts, going to dailies, seeing rough cuts. In the big-studio days, we never permitted anyone in the sales department to see anything but the finished movie.”

In the past two years, now in his nineties, David encountered the brutal vagaries of aging. When we met him at the Four Seasons for the Thanksgiving dinner, he was now in a wheelchair, confined. He still liked to have his cocktail or two (Helen is a tee-totaler, although she might take a sip and ask David if he really “needed another” when he ordered a second).

This past year, I could tell that it was particularly galling for him to be in such a state, though he never said a word about it. Instead the conversation moved along in areas now familiar and fascinating to all of us: books, films, plays, social anecdotes, and some politics (David was unabashedly liberal and never lost his admiration for Bill Clinton. He also never said an unkind or insulting word about the opposition.)

There was one difference in our last Thanksgiving at the Four Seasons. David was quieter and the burden of being infirm and needing a caregiver weighed on him in silence. When they were leaving the restaurant that late dark autumn afternoon, 50 QUEST

IN MEMORIAm

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown

I had the feeling that we might not be meeting on this holiday again, if for no other reason than it had become a task greater than he wished to bear. When I heard yesterday afternoon from a friend that David had died in the middle of the night, I felt great sorrow for our loss, and especially for Helen’s great loss, but also relief that he had departed as he would have wished, with his dignity intact. I wish him Godspeed.

What was always striking to me about both Helen and David was their kindness, courtesy, and soft-spoken manner toward each other and toward everyone they came in contact with. No great fame or fortune—which graced them both—ever marred that quality for even a moment. They had been together for more than fifty years and yet their mutual respect and obvious affection never faltered. They were a team, through and through, and he was the gentleman and the man.

In the June 2001 issue of Esquire, Cal Fussman interviewed David in a piece called, “David Brown: What I’ve Learned” (he was eightyfive at the time). Here are some of his gems: * Say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’— two words that Andy Rooney believes have nearly dropped out of the language. * Always acknowledge a gift, be it something in a blue Tiffany box or a single yellow rose from the corner vendor. * Never be rude, regardless of provocation. This will infuriate the provoker, who gets off on bleats of wounded feelings. * Never tell truth that hurts unless it only hurts you. * Treat everyone equally.

A gentleman makes no distinction among classes.

He was a prince. u

n e w y o r k s o c i a l d i a ry

D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A

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This unique home on 12+ completely private acres with spectacular valley views offers 4,258 square feet of living space. The geodesic dome living room with mezzanine enjoys wonderful natural light. A charming circular dining room and open kitchen with separate prep pantry are perfect for entertaining.

The 3 bedrooms and 3½ baths include an expansive master suite, circular bedroom with its own loft hideaway and a huge private suite with multiple possibilities – studio, guest suite, office, etc. An in-ground pool, magnificent rock outcroppings and lush professionally planted gardens grace the hillside setting. Garrison schools make this home perfect for a year-round or weekend retreat.

CORTLANDT MANOR

$669,000

Elegant European-style stone resort built in 1927 and converted in 1986. Set among 600 idyllic acres of landscaped gardens and lush woodlands with private lake, Valeria features a clubhouse, pool, tennis courts and nature paths. This spacious tower unit offers 2,650 square feet on 3 levels with new cherry kitchen, 2 bedroom suites, each with luxurious bath, and a patio area overlooking the lake. This unique offering is minutes to the train and only 45 minutes to NYC.

Member of Westchester/Putnam, MLS • Mid-Hudson MLS (Dutchess County) Greater Hudson Valley MLS • (Orange, Rockland, Ulster, Sullivan Counties) For more information on these and other listings, many with full brochures and floor plans, visit our website: www.mccaffreyrealty.com

CALENDAR

FEBRUARY host its annual dinner at 6 p.m. at the Breakers. For more information, call 561.988.2919.

5

evening of opera

The Viennese Opera Ball will take place at 8 p.m. at the Waldorf=Astoria. For more information, call 212.207.6769. cancer ball

The American Cancer Society will hold its annual Cancer Ball at 7 p.m. at Mar-a-Lago. For more information, call 561.655.3449. fit for royalt y

Prince Alexander, Prince Peter, and Prince Philip of Serbia will hold “The Princes Ball” at 9 p.m. at Cipriani 42nd Street. For more information, call 212.672.0509.

6

fashion meets art

The Norton Museum of Art will host the “Bal des Arts: Avedon Fashion 1944-2000” at 7 p.m. For more information, call 561.832.5196.

8

think pink

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation will hold the “Hot Pink” luncheon at 12 p.m. at the Breakers. For more information, call 646.497.2622. dance the night away

Evidence Dance Company will host the sixth annual “Grace in Winter” Silver Ball at 6 p.m. at the Plaza Hotel featuring a dance performance of “Grace” with Jennifer Holliday and Peven Everett. For more information, call 212.921.9070.

The School of American Ballet will hold “The Winter Ball” on March 1st at 7 p.m. at the David H. Koch Theater. The evening will feature a one-time-only performance by the advanced students. For more information, call 212.769.6610.

2

afternoon at the plaza

The Associates Council of the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center will hold its second annual lunch at noon at the Plaza Hotel. For more information, call 212.639.7929.

3

February 3rd to the 8th. For more information, call 239.495.7293.

preview, luncheon, and fundraiser. For more information, call 212.877.9689.

global gala

4

The International Women’s Health Coalition will hold its 2010 gala, honoring Ted Turner and Desmond Tutu. For more information, call 800.801.1787.

worldly Arts

explorers’ exhibition

The American International Art Fair, benefiting the Norton Museum of Art, will be open to the public from

The India House Foundation will host the “Ships, Explorers, and the World Trade Center” exhibition

60 QUEST

francophile’s fÊte

The French Heritage Society will hold a dinner dance for its Palm Beach chapter at Club Colette.

For more information, call 212.759.6846. anti-defamation dinner

The Anti-Defamation League will

11

irish eyes

The American Ireland Fund will hold the “Emerald Isle” dinner dance at the Breakers. For more information, call 212.213.1166.

12

save the ‘glades

The Everglades Foundation will host its fifth annual benefit with a cocktail reception and dinner at 7 p.m. at the Breakers. For more information, call 305.251.0001. have a heart

The fifty-fifth annual Palm Beach Heart Ball will be held at the Mara-Lago Club with Melania Trump

CALENDAR

the Breakers. For more information, call 561.837.6501. oenephile’s delight

The third annual New York Wine Expo will be held from February 26th to the 28th at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. For more information, call 617.385.5214.

27

take flight

The Lupus Foundation of America will hold The Butterfly Ball at the Mar-a-Lago Club. For more information, call 561.279.8606. from the heart

The American Heart Association will hold the twelfth-annual Heart Ball at 6:30 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner. For more information, call 703.248.1717.

28 On February 5, Prince Alexander, Prince Peter, and Prince Philip of Serbia will host “The Princes Ball: A Mardi Gras Masquerade Ball” at 9 p.m. at Cipriani 42nd Street. The event will benefit the Lifeline Humanitarian Organization. For more information, call 212.672.0509. acting as co-chair. For more information, call 561.697.6614.

For more information, call 561.992.4553

17

the “POSH” Palm Beach kickoff at Club Colette. For more information, call 561.828.1522.

mother’s day

25

honoring women

Palm Beach Atlantic University will host the “Women of Distinction” luncheon at 11:15 a.m. at the Breakers. For more information, call 561.803.2971.

18

the doctor is in

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will hold “Dinner with a Doctor” in a private residence. For more information, call 617.632.3000.

The American Cancer Society’s 11:30 a.m. luncheon at the Pierre will honor Tory Burch and Deborah Axelrod, M.D., with “Mother-of-the-Year” awards.

For more information, call 212.237.3888.

24

shop ‘til you drop

Lighthouse International will hold

DAZZLING DINNER DANCE

The Society of the Four Arts will host its biennial dinner dance.

For more information, call 561.655.7227/

26

BREAKDANCE

The Cleveland Clinic will hold the “Breakthrough!” dinner dance at

The Hanley Center Foundation will host its annual family luncheon at 12 p.m. at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. For more information, call 561.841.1211.

March 1

ballet ball

The School of American Ballet will hold “The Winter Ball” at 7 p.m. at the David H. Koch Theater. The evening will feature a one-timeonly performance by the advanced students. For more information, call 212.769.6610.

3

fire, fire

The Palm Beach Firefighters and Paramedics Education Foundation will host a cocktail reception at 6 p.m. at the Breakers. For more information, call 561.655.0101.

20

Discover the cure

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will host the Discovery Ball at the Breakers. For more information, call 617.632.3000.

4

for the children

22

The Children’s National Medical Center will hold a cocktail reception at 4 p.m. at Mar-a-Lago. For more information, call 202.476.2327.

move to the music

The Palm Beach Symphony will hold a gala dinner dance at 7 p.m. at the Flagler Museum. For more information, call 561.655.2657.

5

preserve palm beach

23

hospice reception

The Hospice of Palm Beach County will host a reception for its chairmen at 5:30 p.m. at Café Boulud.

equine affair

On February 3, the India House Foundation will host “Ships, Explorers, and the World Trade Center” at 11 a.m. at the India House at One Hanover Square. For more information, call 212.877.9689.

The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach will host its annual dinner dance at the Breakers.

For more information, call 561.832.0731.

F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 6 1

H A R RY B E N S O N

IT SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY While I was still living in Scotland

in the late 1950s, I had an assignment to photograph Queen Elizabeth II while she was staying at her 50,000-acre Scottish estate, Balmoral Castle. I saw her entourage through the window of a local store and went over and looked in. Her detectives came out to ask who I was and why I was waiting there. I told them my name and that I was from The Daily Sketch (a Glasgow newspaper).

Her little Corgi was running around barking when the Queen came out.

She said something like, “Well, Mr. Benson, what can I do for you today?”

Completely in awe of being spoken to by the Queen—who rarely addressed the press directly—I just stuttered and stood there smiling. I got no memorable pictures to speak of and learned very quickly that it is hard for an inexperienced photographer to take a good photo during situations in which 62 QUEST

you have only a short time with someone like the Queen. I was determined not to let that kind of opportunity slip by again.

But, looking back, I think one of the happiest times in my life was covering Scotland for the Sketch—everything was new and felt like an adventure. In my 1957 Fiat 600, I travelled all around the country taking pictures. I could go wherever I wanted and suggest any story I thought interesting.

I next photographed the Queen in 1957 when she visited Scotland to open a coal mine. She dressed in miner’s garb and went down into the mine. It later turned out the there was not enough coal in the mine to keep open.

In February 1966, the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, embarked on a month-long visit to the Commonwealth, which included stops in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia,

Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, the British Virgin Island, Turks and Caicos, and the Bahamas. An exhausting schedule, to say the least. Everywhere they appeared, the locals came out to greet

them exuberantly and welcomed them with Union Jacks waving. I went from island to island photographing the ceremonies. Each night I would develop and wire the photographs back to London

for the next day’s paper. It was exhausting, but quite an experience. It is hard to describe how important it was to the people for the Queen to visit the islands, but I think the photograph pictured

here sums up their journey quite well.

And it gives an idea of the reception they received everywhere they went. u Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1966.

F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 6 3

Ta k i

beauty AND the boy toy

The quest for a younger bedfellow is an age-old story famously illustrated by The Graduate.

Do you remember The Graduate, starring a young Dustin Hoffman being seduced by an older Anne Bancroft? I remember the ‘60s classic because of the young, beautiful Kathryn Ross, as well as la Bancroft, whom I certainly would not have kicked out of bed, as we used to say in prep school. The fictional older woman in the movie was called Mrs. Robinson, a name that is suddenly in the news again.

Iris Robinson, a member of the British parliament and wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Peter Robinson, has con-

fessed to an affair that took place two years ago, when she was 59, with Kirk McCambley, then 19. Like the big-screen Mrs. Robinson, Iris was also a close friend of her boy toy’s family and knew him since he was a child. As if that weren’t enough, Iris Robinson was given £50,000 by two wealthy property dealers, which she then gave to Kirk so he could open a café.

The husband-and-wife parliamentary team is now in trouble. Peter Robinson has taken a leave of absence and Iris is seeing a psychiatrist.

Ta k i But like Greek politicians, British ones also get away with murder. My point, however, has nothing to do with parliamentary sex scandals, but with older women beginning to resemble older men in their quest for youthful companions.

Once upon a time this was a male domain. The dirty old man with a big cigar in his mouth and a beautiful young blonde on his arm was a cliché. Some even married each other. Charlie Chaplin married Oona when he was 54 and she was 18. They stayed happily married until death. Ditto Bing Crosby, T.S. Eliot, Pablo Picasso, Herbert von Carajan, H.H. Asquith, Andres Segovia—the list goes on

take a fourth, an eighteen-year-old.

Back home, however, the situation is changing. In England, the artist Sam Taylor Wood, aged 43, is pregnant by her nineteen-year-old fiancé, actor Aaron Johnson. We all know about Demi Moore and her much younger hubby, Ashton Kutcher. Madonna is fifty and her South American gigolo is twenty-two.

Zoe Heller’s novel Notes on a Scandal was turned into a very good film starring the great Cate Blanchett. It’s about a married teacher with children who falls into an affair with a fifteen-year-old pupil. In the book and in the movie, she more or less gets away with it. In real life,

older than him. Long after she died, he called her the love of his life.

When I was just out of school, the only women I looked at were much older than I was. They were the only ones you could go all the way with. The uptight ‘50s were just that. Young girls only gave it away with the promise of marriage. Older ones, especially married women, were much kinder. Until well into my late twenties it was the oldies that kept me running after them with my tongue hanging out. Then, suddenly, it was the other way round.

Youth became paramount, and the only older woman I remained close to was my mother, may she rest in peace.

In Notes on a Scandal, a married teacher takes up with a fifteenyear-old student.

and on. It is commonplace that many young girls turn to older men in what shrinks call a quest for their lost fathers.

Aristotle claimed that the ideal age for a couple is when the man is double the woman’s age plus one year. I beg to differ with my old professor. The ideal is double plus eleven. (I’ve had more experience and a longer life than old Ari.) Even the new president of South Africa seems to agree. Jacob Zuma has been married five times and has nineteen children. Zuma, now 67, has three wives, and is about to

teachers caught with their knickers down with pupils go to jail.

Mind you, older women with younger men have always been around, and I even knew a tennis player who married his mother. Before you go reaching for the sick bag, his name was Frank Parker and he was a member of the U.S. Davis Cup team, won the U.S. National championship, and was ranked number one many times during the ‘40s and early ‘50s.

But here’s the catch: Parker married his adopted mother, who was twenty years

In the final account, and despite the latest trend for older women having boy toys, the eternal battle of the sexes should be waged between equals—in age, that is. Let’s face it: A vast difference in age makes a couple look pretty ridiculous. Just go around the Hotel du Cap in Antibes and you’ll see what I mean: fat old Russians surrounded by teenage Natashas. I love youth more than anyone and miss my own youth more than most, ­but looking ridiculous is hardly what it’s all about. u F EBRUARY 2 0 1 0 6 5

AUDAX

Memories From My New York Winters

The The oldold Penn Penn Station Station building, building, the the portal portal forfor young young adults adults arrivarrivinging in in town town forfor winter winter parties. parties.

While the kids were deciding whether

to start their evening at ten or wait until midnight, my friend, Michelle, and I were hoping to last through the 5 p.m. show of Young Victoria and get home for a nibble of paddlefish and an early supper before schnoring in the New Year.

Now that he has relocated uptown, I have been running in to my old friend and fellow chamber music aficionado, Peter Duchin, at the M31’s Sutton Place stop.

Seeing him always reminds me of the great bands that used to play New Year’s venues—Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians at the Waldorf to name one.

I remember walking into a deli on New Year’s Eve about fifteen years ago and finding the bandleader Lester Lanin ahead of me on the line. He began his long career at the beach club on Long Island, 66 QUEST

where I grew up, and still came to play the Labor Day dance there every summer as a gesture of appreciation. But this night he just shook his head and said, “It’s the first New Year’s Eve in over forty years I haven’t had a date. Can you believe it?”

Well, yes, as I get older, I can.

New York during the holidays holds some of the greatest memories of youth: Hundreds of prep-school kids converging on Penn Station the night before Thanksgiving, going to a Rangers game at the Garden, staying out on the town until the LIRR milk train (my old man called it “the vomit comet”) got you home in time for breakfast, touch football on the third fairway of the Hunt Club, and the family gathering, where my mother had the task of keeping the seventeen or so cousins in line, which she was always up to. (Not

always true of the uncles and aunts!)

In any case, by the time Thanksgiving weekend ended it was back to school for exams and then a return to New York for dances that could be dreadful or delightful, but were always improved by a cozy pre-event dinner at the Regency Whist Club and the gigantic mai tais at Trader Vics in the Plaza aprés. And, of course, a night could not be considered properly concluded unless one headed out to the various gin mills that catered to the young on the Upper East Side—Doug Fry’s, Dick Edward’s, Don Denton’s, and Mike Malkin’s, where no one was ever carded.

It was at Denton’s one night that its then sometime bartender, Michael R. McCarty, now the impeccably reformed impresario of the eponymous restaurant and saloon in Palm Beach, decided to liven

AUDAX up the evening. Rising from one of the backgammon tables, he retreated to the men’s room, emerged in his raincoat, and crossed the street to a laundromat. There he took off the raincoat and, in his wellendowed starkness, flashed back across the street, burst into Denton’s, and ran down the bar back to the bathroom. All had gone according to plan thus far, but then, as Michael pulled at the door to get in, it wouldn’t budge. He quickly heard

Andree’s Park Avenue pad. Lars’s date was Margie Lindsay, the Mayor’s tall, beautiful, brown-tressed, and wonderfully sweet daughter, just down from her junior year fall term at Dana Hall.

Speaking of Dana Hall, twenty years later a publishing colleague called me one morning at Macmillan and said, “I’m having the most awful problem.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, I’m filling out this questionnaire

utes later that we discovered her receiving the ministrations of the bathroom attendant who had to keep the two loos in working order each night—a Sisyphean task if there ever was one.

Supporting her on either side, we walked her home to Gracie Mansion, where a police guard held post outside.

“I’ll let you take it from here,” I told Lars? He looked extremely disappointed in me, but resigned to the drubbing

for my twenty-fifth reunion at St. Paul’s and it asks, ‘What was your most memorable moment?’ I want to write, ‘During the first St. Paul’s/Dana Hall exchange program, when a future queen lost her virginity,’ but I’m not sure I should.”

“Maybe not,” I advised.

At any rate, back to Margie Lindsay.

Margie had imbibed a bit too much of Howard Dean’s grain alcohol punch before coming to Malkin’s. Once we got there, we decided that a restorative Black Russian or two would make her feel better. If you’ve never tasted one, please don’t start now. It is a mixture of crème de cacao and vodka that goes down like old sludge. Anyway, the night went on riotously until it 4 a.m. when the lights came on. Potter realized he couldn’t find Margie, and it was not until several min-

he knew he was about to take. When I asked him what happened the next day, he said, “Well, we were shown into this little anteroom, and Mrs. Lindsay came downstairs. She gave me the dirtiest look I’ve ever seen, and took Margie away. I stood up to go, and the cop said, ‘You ain’t goin’ nowhere.’ So I sat down and the Mayor came down wearing a paisley bathrobe. ‘I’m not very happy about this, you know,’ he said so Mrs. Lindsay could hear from upstairs. As I stammered my apologies, his face slowly broke into a smile and he told me to sit down. We talked for about ten minutes; he asked about school and my plans for the vacation; and then he shook my hand and wished me goodnight.”

And so it was on a typical night in the holidays of yore. u

From left: The writer was served his first Bloody Mary at P.J. Clarke’s; guests at a winter house party.

the uncontrolled giggling of two of his erstwhile best friends, Nicky Emmanuel and the late, lamented Artie Schoen, holding the door fast against him. So in due course, as Don Denton ambled down the bar to ask Michael what he thought he was doing, there was nothing for McCarty to do but run back up the bar and out the door, cross 79th Street, and retreat in the laundromat. If only someone had thought to grab his raincoat in the interim!

At any rate, Malkin’s, between First and Second avenues, was often the last stop of the night, with the owner and his friend Diego Del Vayo attentively surveying the preppie population therein. One night, my oldest friend, Lars Potter, had arrived from the toga party his St. George’s upperclassman Howard Dean was throwing in Big Howard and

F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 6 7

Quest

Fresh Finds b y d a n i e l c a p p e l l o AND e l i z a b e t h m e i g h e r

THIS MONTH, QUEST brings you the best in things bridal, and that doesn’t stop here. Around town, we’ve spotted some sterling (and diamond!) must-haves for the bride and groom. Even if getting hitched isn’t on your to-do list, February is defintely for lovers, and we haven’t forgotten those spot-on gifts for your valentine. So, whether you’re asking her to marry you or simply want to write him a love note, we’ve got you covered.

When all the pieces fit, she’s the one: The “Marry Me” jigsaw puzzle in sterling silver. $600. Asprey: 853 Madison Avenue, or 212.688.1811.

Walk down the aisle in fashionable confidence

There’s no more exquisite gift for your bride than these 19th-century earrings (London) in 1-ct. Colombian

with the sling-back whitesatin wedding shoe, with bow detail. $325. Stuart Weitzman: 625 Madison Avenue, 212.750.2555, stuartweitzman.com.

emeralds and 3.5-ct. diamonds. $39,000. L’Etoile Royale: 784 Madison Avenue, 212.752.1706.

Shimmer at your rehearsal dinner in this ombre silk-taffeta dress. Dennis Basso: 765 Madison Avenue, 212.794.4500, or dennisbasso.com.

68 QUEST

Ensure an “I do” with this cushion-cut micropavé 2-ct. diamond ring, set in platinum. Price upon request. Harry Winston: 718 Fifth Avenue, 800.988.4110, or harrywinston.com.

Gold and white-gold wedding bands by Wempe come in an array of designs and diamond options,

Go British

for every taste. $1735-

for evening

$4000. Wempe: 700 Fifth

shirts (picquet Sea

Avenue, 212.397.9000,

Island cotton, $475; pleated

or wempe.com.

two-ply cotton, $495) and bowtie (velvet, $95). Turnbull & Asser: 42 East 57th Street, 212.752.5700.

The Henri shoe is the perfectly proper patent-leather finishing touch, with black grograin bow. $350. Belgian Shoes: 110 East 55th Street, 212.755.7372.

The once downtown-only purveyor of hip bespoke shirts also customizes classic tuxedos to the best fit.

Seize Sur Vingt: One West 58th Street (The Plaza Retail Collection), 212.832.1620, or 16sur20.com.

The Oyster Perpetual Day-Date II, in platinum (black or blue dial), will keep you on time for the big day. $51,050.

Rolex: 800.36.ROLEX for an Official Rolex Jeweler near you.

F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 6 9

Fresh Finds Red lips, red nails...red wallet. This quilted-leather portefeuille is a girl’s staple for life. $520. Chanel: 15 East 57th Street,

Arianna Caroli’s “Farfallina D,” in 24-kt. goldleaf

or chanel.com.

and egg tempera on linen, comes in a Thai-silk box. Wally Findlay Galleries: 165 Worth Avenue, Palm Beach, 561.655.2090.

From Paris with love: wear your heart on your feet—not your sleeve—with the Happiness sandal and Hourra vinyl wedge. $660. Azzaro: azzaro-couture.com.

For February 14th (and any other day of the year, for that matter), pick up the Red Croc Ricky 33, from Ralph Lauren Collection. $16,995. Ralph Lauren: Select Ralph Lauren stores, or ralphlauren.com.

It-girl designer Minnie Mortimer has both fashion and comfort sense, as the red polka-dot Suzanne shirt proves. $53. Minnie Mortimer: Available in W Hotel stores nationwide, whotelsthestore.com.

Transport yourself with an Australian Aboriginal-inspired Kodo massage. $150 (plus 20% off this month when you mention Quest!). Spa at The Surrey: 20 East 76th Street, 646.358.3600.

70 QUEST

Drip love around your neck: cable sterling-silverand-pavé-diamond heart tags ($650-$850) and pink rhodanite tag ($950). David Yurman New York: 212.752.4255, or davidyurman.com.

Don’t forget the little ones. The girls’ tucked cotton tee, in pale coral, makes a sweet gift for the kids on

Scroll diamond earrings featuring

Valentine’s Day.

rose-tinted, pear-shaped morganites.

$16.50. J. Crew:

$27,000. Tiffany & Co.: 259 Worth

800.562.0258,

Avenue, Palm Beach, 561.659.6090.

or jcrew.com.

Engraved matters: flirty, foxy stationery with lined envelopes ($50, box of 10; $6, single).

Dempsey & Carroll: 1049 Lexington Avenue, 212.570.4800.

Looking sexy never felt so good, in this strapless bra ($240) and high-waist brief Diamonds—and a considerable pink topaz, and an intricate gold band—are a girl’s best friend. In this ring, at least. Price upon request.

Fred Leighton: 773 Madison Avenue, 212.288.1872, or fredleighton.com.

($136), in nylon, elastan, and viscosa fabrics. La Perla: La Perla boutiques nationwide, or laperlausa.com.

BEAUTY

Heaven on Earth (and East 76th)

By Rebecc a Morse

You would be forgiven if, upon entering the gracious lobby on a tree-lined block off Fifth and nodding to the uniformed doorman, you assumed you were in one of the Upper East Side’s fairer co-ops. You would not be blamed if, settling down in a silk slipper chair in the muted gray foyer, you imagined yourself inside a pre-war classic six—one that belongs to a friend with impeccable style and a taste for mirrored side tables, flickering candles, and Art Deco accents. Unless your friends offer sumptuous facials in treatment rooms, though, you are not, in fact, in a private home at all: you are at The Spa at The Surrey, a divine aerie on the second floor of the newly refurbished hotel, and you are enjoying the most intimate spa experience in New York.

There is something different about this spa. It starts at the reception area—or lack thereof, just an antique armoire that functions as a subtle check-in station. Next, a cup of tea from the bar designed by Miriam Nouvelle of the T-Salon, brewed from loose leaves in tall glass jars that look—and smell—like vertical bowls of potpourri. “People walk in, and they immediately talk about the serenity and the feeling of peace that settles over you,” says Cheryl Jacobs, the director of the spa, who draws upon a career at W Hotels and the Core Club to bring an unparalleled sense of intimacy, privacy, and luxury to The Spa at The Surrey.

Hummingbirds appear throughout the flowered carpet; in Native American mythology, the birds are said to bring joy and happiness, and as a creature of joy, it’s no wonder these 72 QUEST

hummingbirds are indigenous to the spa, which is Darphin’s flagship in New York and the exclusive purveyor of Australia’s best-selling Li’Tya products. Each spa treatment, like the signature Rose and Pomegranate facial, is a “journey,” Jacobs says, and the views on these journeys wow. Each treatment room, designed by Lauren Rottet, is equipped with its own iPod docking station; guests have a choice of a pre-recorded playlist or bringing their own. A chic subway-tiled private bathroom, a rare amenity, adjoins each of the five treatment rooms, the suite featuring an infinity tub with colored lights and a steam shower for two. Should you never want to leave, there is no need to: “If you are having a massage and a facial, you don’t change rooms, the therapist does. The goal is that you never have to leave your room,” Jacobs says, thus avoiding those jarring midexperience brushes with reality that are unavoidable at other facilities. The Spa at The Surrey, incredibly, does not even have a public changing room.

The most unbelievable part of this experience might just be how reasonably priced it is—and that is no accident, according to Jacobs. The Surrey spa “is about wellness, not fluff,” and the pricing reflects that choice. Mention QUEST and receive a 20 percent discount on all spa treatments through March. u The Spa at The Surrey is located at 20 East 76th Street. For more information, call 646.358.3600 or see thesurreyhotel.com.

The alluring entrance to The Spa at The Surrey.

Opposite: The impeccable treatment rooms (left) each feature a private bathroom (right).

The Spa at the Surrey: A Fantasy Bridal Day Treat your favorite fiancée, mother-of-the-bride, devoted bridesmaids or lucky groomsmen to a private day-long retreat at The Spa at The Surrey. “There’s so much we can do for brides,” says spa director Cheryl Jacobs. Here is Quest’s fantasy bridal day: j A healthy brunch delivered from The Surrey’s Café Boulud. j Yoga and Pilates on The Surrey’s landscaped penthouse roof or a power walk in neighboring Cenral Park with

The Surrey’s in-house celebrity personal trainer Chris Imbo. j Mid-afternoon tea service, Champagne, and chocolates. j Hair and makeup application; manicures and pedicures. j A choice of treatments, such as The Surrey’s luscious signature Rose & Pomegranate Darphin Facial, the detoxifying Black Pepper Slim and Detox massage and seaweed wrap, or the Li’Tya “Mala Mayi” Australian Desert Salt Scrub and mud massage.

F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 7 3

r e a l E s tat e

industry insiders

By Brooks Huston

What advantages do potential buyers have in this market?

Many sellers are understanding the dynamics of the market, and homes are being priced accordingly. This is a tremendous advantage to savvy buyers who recognize a home is an investment in a lifestyle and not a commodity. We’ve even seen some bidding wars, which would have been unheard of several months ago.

Patricia Petersen, president and CEO of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.

Patricia Petersen, president and CEO

of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty, reports on the state of Long Island’s real-estate market and shares her plans for expansion.

Manhattan has seen an increase in sales volume, but prices haven’t rebounded as quickly. Is this true for Long Island, too?

Absolutely. We had a very strong end to 2009 and have gone into the new year far exceeding where we were last January. So far this month we are more than one hundred percent ahead of January 2009. The trend is very positive and continues to be gaining momentum.

There is certainly room for improvement, but we are very pleased by the dramatic turn around.

Has there been an increase in demand?

Will it lead to an increase in activity?

We have already seen a very promising increase, and a lot of that is attributable to pent-up demand. Because of the caliber and high price point of our listings, there was a delay in the recovery of

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average sales prices in our portfolio compared to other firms in the market. Our clients were less likely to benefit from a lot of the federal support. Nevertheless, average sale prices are up from the low point. While they haven’t come in the range of past highs, the movement is in the right direction. We hope to see our average prices return to above $1 million by the end of the quarter.

What should potential buyers look for in a broker and a brokerage firm?

Buyers and sellers should be looking to work with brokers who are willing to invest in building a long-term relationship. They should look for a track record of success, but also find someone with integrity and commitment to service.

Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty has grown into one of the largest independent brokerage firms on Long Island. What factors do you attribute to the success?

Much of our success comes from the fact that we have a real story to tell and a brand message that resonates with the community. We have stayed true to our company values, and believe in healthy communication with our clients and

Kenjockety, a 16,000-square-foot Tudor-style waterfront estate with a deep water dock.

within the firm. We also maintain a commitment to ongoing education for our brokers. Our acquisitions have proved highly successful, as has our expansion into the North Fork. We plan to continue growing this year and have a strategy for growth along the South Shore of Long Island and into Queens. Our Sotheby’s affiliation has proven invaluable in both enhancing our presence and helping us recruit and retain top talent.

The well-appointed interior of the Kenjockety estate, which generated a great amount of activity.

How have you used technology to improve the process of finding a home?

We redevelop our website every two years, and have worked with outside consultants on improving search optimization. We’re starting to get our feet wet with social networking.

What is your outlook for 2010?

My outlook is cautiously optimistic.

We are starting the year in a good position based on the success of the last quarter, and are definitely heading in the right direction. Our hope this year is to move closer to what we believe will be the new normal. Transactions are taking much longer and it can be very frustrating for our agents. My hat is off to them. I am thrilled to see that we are growing our sales force despite the more challenging process.

A spectacular North Shore estate, located on Long Island’s “Gold Coast.”

Do you have any other reflections on 2009?

Well, I’m glad it’s behind us. We learned a lot over the past year, including how to be better managers. We have come a long way in improving our business operation. I’m very proud of the fact that we have been able to reduce our operating costs by thirty percent without negatively impacting our agents. We’ve continued to thrive while spending less money, and that

is a huge achievement that will benefit us going forward. One thing I have learned personally is the need to over-communicate. I have made a commitment to be more visible and to spend more time with agents visiting branches and seeing open houses. Our management team shares that goal and is growing much closer. We have started scheduling idea exchanges and roundtables that will improve collaboration throughout the firm. u

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OPEN HOUSE

Prolific novelist James Patterson’s bestsellers keep his readers in suspense, but his most recent offering might just be his most thrilling. After a decade at 686 Island Drive, he is selling his 7,970-square-foot, five-bedroom Palm Beach home, and, in this story, the only mystery is how he could bear to leave.

Patterson’s plantation-style colonial is located on the south end of exclusive Everglades Island, a strip of land floating in Lake Worth and one of Palm Beach’s most exclusive milieus. The home’s views are phenomenal: “Particularly special about this house,” Patterson says, “is that there are certain views that just work their way into your psyche. It’s a rare house in Palm Beach ... looking east across this expanse of water at beautiful homes.”

One of the island’s finest waterfront properties, this sprawling house nonetheless avoids being imposing. “This is a real warm house,” he says, “real people live here.” Patterson, who holds the New York Times bestsellers list record with fifty-one titles, rented in Palm Beach before becoming a victim to the hamlet’s charms. “It’s the 76 QUEST

Hamptons, without the summer traffic,” Patterson says. “You could wear a tuxedo here every night.” When interrogated, he allows, “I don’t.” His confession: his favorite Palm Beach day is “writing a couple of chapters I like—if that doesn’t happen, the day goes downhill,” an oceanside walk and dinner at home.

From Everglades Island, “town” seems removed but is a mere four minutes away, a unique attribute of the enclave. We wouldn’t blame Patterson for never venturing out though; who would leave this house but at gunpoint? With its lush tropical landscaping, covered lanai, fantasy summer kitchen, gorgeous swimming pool on the water, and dock with a boatlift, the house is a very secret—and special—hideaway.

Luckily for Palm Beach, Patterson is not escaping the island: he and his wife have purchased historic Casa Ananda at 701 South Ocean Boulevard. Mystery solved! u 686 Island Drive is listed at $14.95 million. For details, call Betsey Hall at Fite Shavell & Associates. 561.655.6570.

co u rte s y o f F i te S h av e ll & A s s o c i ate s

BEACH READ

This page, clockwise from top left: The master bedroom at 686 Island Drive; the spacious entrance foyer with grand staircase; the formal dining room for chic entertaining; the informal dining room with breathtaking east-facing Lake Worth views.

Opposite, top: 686 Island Drive in Palm Beach. Bottom: New York Times bestselling author James Patterson.

v e s t m e n t s . . . F i n a n c e . . . R e t ir e m e n t . . . C u rr e n t E v e n t s . . . i n s u r a n c e . . . s t o c k s . . . I n v e s t m e n t s . . . F i n a n c e . . . R e In t

Money Matters

By Brooks Huston

Dominick Lombardi

Senior Vice President Investment Management & Trust, IDB Bank ®

LOVE, MARRIAGE, Family... and FINANCES Are there any documents that couples should update soon after marriage?

Many couples mistakenly assume that, once married, they will automatically be each other’s beneficiary in the event of an untimely death. Steps must often be taken, however, in order to assure the proper distribution of estate assets.

There are a number of items to which couples should pay close attention.

First, newly married couples should go to their local Social Security office and update their records to avoid problems with the IRS when filing tax returns.

Various insurance policies (life, home, health, auto, disability) should be reviewed to update the beneficiary information, which may affect the cost of the policies. Also important is checking the titles of banking, brokerage and retirement accounts: re-titling these accounts can avoid probate and save a lot of pain in the event of a disaster as account titles supersede bequests in a will. Deeds and other real-estate documents should also reflect dual ownership when necessary.

We strongly recommend that couples review estate documents such as wills, power-of-attorney, and healthcare proxies. If these important documents do not 78 QUEST

exist, they should be drafted and executed as soon as possible. At the very least, couples should sign a power of attorney.

If there are small children involved with the marriage, couples should also consider selecting a guardian for the minors and any property. This is an issue that should be dealt with immediately. Doing so can diffuse a potential area of conflict within families.

Lastly, if either member of a newly married couple is a sole proprietor or business owner, some time should be spent reviewing partnership and shareholder agreements to avoid potential misunderstandings and disagreements.

Some of these tasks might seem a bit daunting to a newly married couple, but they are very worthwhile exercises.

Additionally, we suggest consulting with an attorney or a financial advisor.

How do I know if my financial institution is the right fit for my family?

More and more families find themselves asking this question as a result of the turmoil that has spread through the financial industry over the last year. Prior to this, many people rated the importance of their bank by the CD rates they paid or the loans that were approved. At

IDB Bank, we believe that it is important to choose an institution that fits your family’s needs and that provides an un-biased, high level of service.

Finding this special fit is not always easy. We hear the frustrations of many new customers that have joined us after leaving a bank where they were not serviced correctly, whose voice recordings they grew tired of listening to, or that they had simply outgrown. Families should understand what their banking, lending and investment needs are and try to find an institution that can provide all of these services through one or two relationship managers.

Are there “rules” that families should follow to acheive financial security?

There is no simple solution to financial success, but there are a few important guidelines that families might adhere to in order to live well, build wealth, and weather financial storms.

First, set short-term, long-term, and immediate goals: without a goal there is no game plan to move forward.

Second, start or increase savings to create that “six-month emergency fund” (the one we’ve all heard about but never funded) by reducing unnecessary spending. Next, make an effort to monitor and actively manage retirement assets: Be aggressive enough to meet future retirement needs, and maximize 401k opportunities, including corporate match options and catch up provisions. Regardless of the situation, we always urge our clients to implement a high level of patience when it comes to their financial future, believing that success will be found over time.

For more information, call 212.551.8534 or email dlombardi@idbbank.com.

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For centuries it has been the same: first comes love, then comes marriage...then comes the joint bank account.

Paul Funk

Executive Managing Director Frank Crystal & Company

Wedding bells bring insurance needs When planning a wedding, when should I start thinking about insurance?

How about with protecting that beautiful new ring! We often find out about upcoming nuptials from the groom.

Recently, a client’s future son-in-law contacted us before purchasing an engagement ring. It was his first major jewelry purchase, and we made sure that the ring was insured before it was in his hands—and on his fiancée’s finger.

Given the expense, what if something happens that disrupts the event? Are there any precautions I can take?

A great deal of attention and detail go into a wedding, and the proper insurance offers peace of mind. A wide range of coverage options are available; we recommend working with a qualified broker to tailor each of these options to your celebration’s needs. Despite every effort, the wedding could be affected

by an event beyond your control. Fire damage to a venue, severe weather conditions, or, worse, a member of the wedding party getting sick, could all affect the event. Having already secured the proper event cancellation insurance can protect you from substantial losses.

When planning a destination wedding, consider travel and medical coverage for the wedding party.

Caterers, photographers, florists, entertainers—the list of vendors goes on and on! Should I raise the issue of their insurance?

Absolutely! Verify that each is properly insured—and request evidence of insurance well in advance. You should confirm that you are named as an additional insured by all vendors and ensure that the proper liability coverages are in place for hired persons working at the venue.

For more information, call 561.273.2318 or see frankcrystal.com.

F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 7 9

v e s t m e n t s . . . F i n a n c e . . . R e t ir e m e n t . . . C u rr e n t E v e n t s . . . i n s u r a n c e . . . s t o c k s . . . I n v e s t m e n t s . . . F i n a n c e . . . R e t

Money Matters John Voltaggio Managing Director Northern Trust

MARITAL ASSET PROTECTION PLANNING How important is marital asset protection planning?

While often a sensitive topic between couples and their families, marital asset protection planning is a critical element of a well-crafted financial plan.

Families should be able to openly discuss their financial goals, which often include ensuring the well-being of one’s spouse and children, protection against potential creditors, and efficient life-

Planning a wedding can be an exciting part of preparing for your future. Among the myriad considerations involved, financial matters may be the last thing on your mind, but it is important for you and your partner to communicate openly about personal finances and expectations.

Financial Concerns, Before and After Approach the marriage of your finances in a practical way, by recognizing that you are merging two lives and disclosing your current financial situation—including assets, debts, liabilities, and future goals. This conversation can also help you begin to discuss how to manage money; subsequent discussions can focus on how to manage financial responsibilities, long-term planning goals, and comingling of resources. You will also want to discuss the appropriateness and benefits of a prenuptial agreement, which, in the event of divorce, creates a road map for how the couple will take care of 80 QUEST

time wealth transfer planning, all of which require thoughtful consideration.

A well-developed and properly implemented marital asset protection plan can provide significant benefits to the couple and their current or future children, and to parents and grandparents who may wish to pass wealth to one or both members of the couple.

One benefit of marital asset protection planning is that it allows a couple

to determine and agree upon how they want their financial affairs to be handled in the event of a divorce, including the division of a marital estate. This approach is typically more effective than the alternative, which could involve the ruling of a judge or court based on the current local laws. Wealth advisors can help mediate these discussions and help ensure various complex issues are considered.

Each individual should have their own attorney present during the negotiation and drafting process. Techniques used in marital asset protection planning can include prenuptial agreements, self-settled trusts, postnuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, paternity and parenting agreements, separation and/or property settlement agreements, and avoiding the co-mingling of assets altogether.

For more information, call 212.339.7474 or visit northerntrust.com.

tony Guernsey Chief Client Officer Wilmington Trust FSB

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFULLY MARRYING YOUR FINANCES each other.

Who needs a prenuptial agreement? In the following circumstances a prenuptial agreement might be beneficial: · If you have or will inherit money and prefer to keep inheritances within the family or protect those assets from loss. · If you have children from a previous marriage and want to protect assets you plan to bequeath to them.

· If you have property you want titled in your name or to protect property from a present or future spouse’s debt. · If you have ownership in a business.

Decide how it will be valued and divided in the event of a divorce. · If you are planning to provide your spouse with an expensive education.

State how your contribution will be repaid in the event of a divorce.

t ir e m e n t . . . C u rr e n t E v e n t s . . . i n s u r a n c e . . . s t o c k s . . . I n v e s t m e n t s . . . F i n a n c e . . . R e t ir e m e n t . . . C u rr e n t E v e n t s

Both parties should seek the professional guidance and personal representation of an attorney in drafting an agreement.

Whether financial agreements are formalized with a prenuptial document or not, engaging in decision-making that supports communication before and during a marriage can help establish a strong beginning and create a path toward the successful achievement of future financial goals—and in a best-case scenario, wedded bliss.

For more information, call 212.415.0510 or email tguernsey@wilmingtontrust.com.

A strong financial foundation is essential for couples starting out on the journey of life.

What is the first step young couples planning to marry now should take?

The economic health and the perception of the financial community have changed markedly in the past year and a half. It is more important than ever for young couples planning new lives together to find competent and trustworthy advisors to work with and to build solid financial plans. Young couples, and anyone else, should seek firms that have a history of success, pursue a transparent and explainable investment philosophy and process, provide detailed reporting and full financial disclosure which can be substantiated by a reputable audit firm.

Which factors should newlyweds weigh when evaluating financial strategies?

As the young begin their new married lives, there are a variety of financial planning strategies they can pursue to protect themselves, grow their assets, and provide for the future of their children. There are many factors to consider—income from jobs, lifestyle, existing investments, risk tolerance and potential assistance or asset transfers from their families.

How should couples address the tax implications of marriage?

Couples with defined compensation plans should plan for the future on a

Brandon Reid

Managing Director & Senior Resident Officer Bessemer Trust, Palm Beach

financial planning for newlyweds combined basis but maintain separate plans. Unless economic considerations dictate, they should leave those funds untouched to take advantage of income tax deferrals.

How should we plan for children?

In planning for the education of children, there are many techniques that can be utilized for saving, some of which provide tax benefits—529 plans, gift to minor accounts, or the establishment of irrevocable trusts.

How do you differentiate strategies for different investors?

Younger investors have time to build assets and withstand market volatility; more mature investors need to protect

assets and reduce volatility. Both formulate plans consistent with their lifestyle needs and able provide protection in a challenging world. A significant portion of most investors’ portfolios should have exposure to assets that will grow faster than inflation-after spending and taxes.

Deflation is the focus of attention today, but in coming years we will likely shift our concern to inflation as an offshoot of the economic recovery and federal deficits. Despite the volatility associated with equity ownership, now, more than ever, is a time to do one’s homework and invest with the future in mind, having learned lessons from the past. u For more information, call 561.835.8305 or email reidb@bessemer.com.

F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 8 1

T R AV E L

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ABROAD, BUT AWARE

BY REBECC A MORSE It’s summertime: do you know where your children are? For many New York families, those children, whether teen- or college-aged, are likely traveling internationally. What started as an effort to fatten college applications has blossomed into a rite of passage, whether building homes for Habitat for Humanity in Peru, studying at the Sorbonne, or sunning in Cancun over spring break. Such travels can be seminal experiences in a young adult’s life, but in many cases, danger lurks abroad.

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Whether the subject is Amanda Knox, the Seattle college student recently convicted of murder by an Italian court, or Natalee Holloway, the Alabama highschool senior kidnapped and killed in Aruba in 2005, recent headlines about tragedies abroad strike fear in parents’ hearts. As you look ahead to your childrens’ trips abroad this year, you can do more than just drive them to the airport: Left: Ross Thompson, director of International Student Security.

I nvesti T Rg AV ative EL you can keep them safe.

Enter Ross Thompson. A sophisticated twenty-something in a tailored suit, he looks like a cross between your son’s college pal and a master spy, which, in fact, he is: Thompson is the director of the International Student Security division at Investigative Management Group (IMG). Knowing, and blending in with, his clients adds to his effectiveness in keeping them protected. “Any trip can be done safely,” says Thompson, and you can’t help but believe him.

Thompson’s endeavor falls under the corporate umbrella of IMG, the leader in high-end security and investigation.

IMG’s principals, the renowned former federal law-enforcement agents Robert Strang and Ann Hayes, preside over staff including former prosecutors and law-enforcement agents, providing discreet background investigations, personal safety, and now, student services.

Prevention. With Thompson at the helm of the student security division, IMG first focuses on preventative measures for clients by consulting on trip itineraries and providing pre-departure counseling. Thompson

and his network of “local assets” in most of the world’s countries have gathered in-depth information, from the general to the specific: what part of town to stay in, which hotel, which room. They offer a totally comprehensive approach to danger prevention, advising on local culture, crime rate, health risks, and specific special situations—like corruption.

Reaction. Once a child has departed, having Thompson and his team on retainer throughout the trip allows parents to sleep at night. IMG seamlessly handles crisis management, repatriation, medical evacuation, and on-the-ground support in case of an emergency, like abduction, arrest, drug use, or medical crisis. Using sophisticated electronic and radio surveillance, cars, and private planes, Thompson is able to manage any situation within the critical first twelve hours of an emergency.

Today, danger is a reality, but engaging International Student Security can allow your child to see the world—safely.

For more information, call 212.308.8500 or email rct@investigativemanagement.com.

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TRAVEL SAFETY TIPS

*Touching the pocket where your wallet is stashed reveals its location to thieves. *Avoid displaying your country of origin by wearing university paraphernalia. *Book only rooms between the second and eighth floor of hotels, preventing unwanted entry from the roof and street, while remaining within reach of firefighting equipment. *When not in your hotel room, leave the lights and television or radio on. *Do not carry luggage or parcels for others, including friends or other traveling companions. *Pre-program all important numbers into your cell phone, complete with proper dialing codes (including emergency services, embassies, program directors, and home).

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PH I L A NT H ROP Y

Sweet Tea B y E l i z a be t h b r o w n

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very close by telling stories. There’s a lot of support,” Jacobson says.

Karen Radwin, senior managing executive at Hope Lodge NYC, agrees, “It started as a one-time good idea, but then it became so meaningful to the guests.”

Ultimately, the strength of the program rests with its volunteers. “We couldn’t have Hope Lodge without them. They’re part of our family. We all do everything, but everyone contributes their own expertise in a different way,” Jacobson says.

Serena Stewart, a Hope Lodge NYC volunteer since the beginning, says, “When I started, I was in the middle of my second treatment and thought it was meant to be. It’s really, really fun here.

I know that sounds odd, but I certainly get more out of it than I give.”

This appears to be a common sentiment at Hope Lodge NYC. As guests gathered in the kitchen for coffee and treats during a recent teatime, one volunteer sat down at the piano and played “Somewhere over

the Rainbow.” Another led Rocco, the therapy dog, around the room to comfort guests who were missing their pets.

In August 2009, the American Cancer Society named itself the “Official Sponsor of Birthdays,” a campaign wholeheartedly embraced at Hope Lodge NYC. “Hope Lodge allows cancer patients to have access to life-saving cancer treatment and, as a result, they are able to celebrate more birthdays,” says the American Cancer Society’s Jennifer Soares.

In keeping with the birthday theme, Hope Lodge NYC anticipates the birth of a guest’s baby for the very first time.

With what promises to be a truly special celebration, it is clear that the baby will be welcomed into an incredible family that both extends and enriches the lives of its members. u From left: Katherine Lee, Karen Radwin, Sandy Diamond, and Serena Stewart pose with therapy dog Rocco during a recent teatime.

Jamie Yike

“It’s like an oasis,” Rosalyn Ruskin says of her experience at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge New York City, Jerome L. Greene Family Center, after her husband, Mark, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. “These are the most wonderful, wonderful caring people.”

Hope Lodge NYC provides free lodging and support services for those forced to travel in order to receive specialized medical care. Since opening in 2007, three thousand patients from forty-six states and twenty countries have benefitted from the center’s services.

Throughout their stay, guests are encouraged to participate in scheduled activities ranging from yoga sessions to beauty classes for women undergoing chemotherapy.

Every Wednesday, Sandy Diamond and Lynn Jacobson host a tea to give guests an opportunity to visit with one another. “What we find is that people get

Lupus Foundation of America Southeast Florida Chapter

Butterfly Ball February 27, 2010 The Mar-a-Lago Club Palm Beach, FL 7:00 p.m.

Honorary Chair: Yvonne Sherrer, M.D. Gala Co-Chairwomen: Lily Holt Dillon ~ Sheree LaDove Funsch ~ Melody Saleh

Silent/Super Silent Auctions, Gourmet Dinner, Live Music & Dancing

Black Tie

The LUPUS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA, SOUTHEAST FLORIDA CHAPTER, meets all requirements specified by the Florida Solicitation of Contributions Act. A copy of the official registration (#SC-03492) and financial information may be obtained from the Division of Consumer Services by calling toll-free within the state (800-435-7352) or outside the state at (850-488-2221). Registration does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by the state. The Lupus Foundation of America, Southeast Florida Chapter is a 501C(3) non-profit corporation. Tax ID #59-1752601. 100% of each contribution that is received by the Lupus Foundation of America, Southeast Florida Chapter is retained by them.

FINE PROPERTIES FROM OUR COLLECTION

22FT TOWNHOUSE

PENTHOUSE WORK OF ART

AMAZING SPACE VALUE & VIEWS

West Village Exclusive Nothing like it! 7BR 5 full bths, 2 powder rms, 45ft garden, 22x10 terr & elevator. Fab entertaining/parlour flr w/moldings, chefs kit w/ high end applncs. Call for a private viewing.

Asks: $14.9M. Web#1719238 Astrid Pillay 212.381.2262

East Village Exclusive PH w/spectacular views & rf terr, ultimate in lux living. 3 yrs of painstaking renov resulted in a remarkable home. Chef’s kit, wbfp, lndry rm, dramatic sky-lit staircase leading to a magical rf terr, CAC & fixtrs. Asks: $4.5M. Web#91475 Ari Harkov, VP 212.381.4246 Warner Lewis, VP 212.381.6590

60s/W Near CP Exclusive A rare oppty to Combine 3 units to create up to 6BR/4.5Bths w/ Lrg Living Dining Area + 3 balcs. Many layout options. W/D, Open city & river views. Top FS Building.

Pets allowed. Asks: $4.4M. Web#1742770 Michael Frontera 212.521.5753

MINT CALEDONIA CONDO

SPECIAL HIGH FLOOR PREWAR SEVEN

GRAND FIVE BEDROOM PREWAR 80s/CPW Exclusive Entry Gallery leads to Grand LR, WBF, moldings, 11.5 ft ceilings, & baywndw. Huge Dining Room, Gorgeous wd panelled Lib wi/blt-in book cases. Ren. Country EIK, W/D. 5 Bd’s, 3 Ren. Bths, Master BR suite w/ study.2 apt per flr, 24HR DM, Gym. Asks: $4.35M. Web#1793604 Monica Podell, SVP 212.381.3231 CONNECTICUT

Chelsea Exclusive Triple Mint 3BR/3 Bth lux Caledonia Condo nestled along the contours of the High Line at 17th St. Breathtaking E, S, & W views of Manhattan & the Hudson Riv. Flr to ceil wndws; top appliances; spa baths; W/D. White Glv bldg amenities.

Asks: 3.1M. Web#1796976

70s/East Exclusive Lrg, grand rms, excellent light, views, & layout. Glorious Living Room/WBFP and Formal Dining Room, kit, 3BR/3.5 Bths plus maids in distinguished FS PW with private garden.

Asks: $2.9M. Web#1700038 Marguerite Platt, EVP 212.381.3223

Kris Kruse 212.381.2270 CONNECTICUT

CONNECTICUT

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BEAUTIFUL IN-TOWN HOME

Darien A magical oasis best describes this beautifully renovd colonial on 2+ acres. The FLR opens to the DR overlooking the chic pool & gardens. A bright & airy gourmet kit flows into a cathedral ceiling grt rm & all-glass sunroom w/ French drs. Asks: $3.595M. Web#98446246 Eileen B. Hanford 203.656.6570

Westport Gracious center hall Colonial has been customized w/ sep 3rm guest apt. FLR w/gas fpl opens to cherry-paneled office/library w/ French drs to pvt pool area & SS outdoor kit. FR opens to sunroom w/walls of glass overlooking grounds. Asks: $2.449M. Web#98435623 Pat Abagnale 203.221.0666 Bobbie Abagnale 203.221.0666

New Canaan Sited on a serene in-town st, this architecturally designed Gambrel colonial is beautifully constructed & offers 4BR, a pvt, deep backyard & a pool. Asks: $1.795M. Web #98382219 Lydee Conway 203.966.7800 X309

We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. We encourage and support an affirmative advertising and marketing program in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin.

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Stone Meets Shingle - Sophisticated Newport Style Colonial with old-world charm and phenomenal views. Wide moldings, raised paneling, 4” oak floors and wonderful ceiling height.French doors to covered porches.Long drive to front courtyard. Library, Living and Dining Rooms with Fireplaces.

Butler’s Pantry. Country Kitchen open to Family Room with stone Fireplace.

Five Bedrooms. Seven spectacular acres in top estate area. $3,245,000

Grant Road Farm - One of North Salem’s finest equestrian estates

Incredible Value - Potential Family Compound. Wonderful Gambrel Colonial with 4,100 square feet of living space. Center Entrance Hall.

Country Kitchen. Family Room with Fireplace. Five Bedrooms. Separate 1,600 square foot, Five Room Office Suite with Accessory Apartment.

Garages for five cars. Two acres surrounded by conservancy. Gorgeous rolling lawns. Sparkling Pool with heated Pool House. Truly rare! $995,000

1870’s Lakefront Farmhouse -

with 85 pastoral acres. Long gated drive, lined by an allee of ancient Sugar Maples, past scenic pond with original Ice House. Circa 1925 Farmhouse with period details and four bedrooms. Pool. Six-Stall Barn. Nine paddocks.

Riding ring and miles of marked bridle trails. Caretaker’s Cottage. Chicken Coop. A true working horse farm or build your dream estate! $4,875,000

Over nine quiet acres with private two-acre lake. Restored Farmhouse with bull’s-eye molding, four fireplaces and hardwood floors. Front Parlor. Formal Dining Room. Living Room open to Library. Sun Room. Beautiful Country Kitchen open to Family Room. Master Suite. Three additional Family Bedrooms. Accessory Apartment. Pool. Magnificent old Horse Barn with huge loft. $1,599,000

Westview- Spectacular old world craftsmanship and grace! Stunning Unsurpassed Elegance Stone and Shingle Colonial perfectly sited to take in breathtaking distant view. Just completed, 12,000 square feet with classic proportions and meticulous detail. Elegant Entrance Hall with Cloak Room. Antique Cherry Library. Sun Room. Front and rear porches. Formal Dining Room. Butler’s Pantry. Fabulous Kitchen. Six Bedroom Suites. Media Room. Long drive to nine estate acres with Pool. Charming 1930’s Log Cabin. $6,950,000

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Elizabeth Pogue

&

Ahmed Fattouh

Cairo, Egypt j November 29 - December 6, 2009 New York, New York j December 12, 2009 This page: the bride, in Reem Acra, at The Plaza amidst dancers preparing for the zaffa, a traditional Egyptian wedding parade. Opposite, clockwise from top left: The couple’s friends travelled to Egypt for a Nile cruise the week prior to the New York wedding; bridal preparations; the Whirling Dervish in the Grand Ballroom at The Plaza; guests build their own pyramid by the pyramids; the wedding cake by Sylvia Weinstock; dancing to Rebecca Blake and the Starlight Orchestra at The Plaza.

From this Day Forward 88 QUEST

N ew Y O R k P h otograp h y by C h r i st i an Ot h / E gypt P h otograp h y by E m m et Au st i n

Center: antiquities outside Luxor, Egypt.

David Eki zian

&

New York, New York j November 28, 2009 A ring bearer at St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral. Opposite, clockwise from top left: cake by Sylvia Weinstock; the bride enters, her dress by Ines di Santo; Garo Dogramaciyan with a guest; the bridal shoes; the newlyweds on the steps of St. Vartan’s; the bride, in an 18th-century Barberini family tiara with 170 carats of sapphires from L’Etoile Royale, with her mother, Julya Dogramaciyan, in a Colombian emerald parure, also from L’Etoile Royale; dancing at The Pierre to the Hank Lane Orchestra.

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P h otograp h ed by tae p h otograp h y

Nirva Dogramaciyan

Laura Wells

& Osman Biranis

Louisville, Kentucky j April 25th, 2009 / Istanbul, Turkey j September 3rd, 2009 This page: Laura wears her favorite color for the first dance. Opposite, clockwise from top left: The couple was married at the Wells family home in Louisville; Walter Coles and Maria-Teresa Meloni; the bride and groom with their siblings; the couple held a party for guests at Halikarnas, the Bodrum, Turkey, nightclub where they first met; guests Phaedra Chrousos, Allison Aston, John Royall, Georgina Schaeffer, and Jay Aston in Turkey;

G eoff O l i ver B u gbee / M i ller P h otograp h y

at the alter with Reverend Alfred Shands and Father Francis Cusack. Center: Darrell Wells’s speech.

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Pia Bayot

&

Oliver Corlette Kotor Bay, Montenegro j June 6th, 2009 This page: the couple at the altar after the ceremony. Pia wore her grandmother’s and Bruce McEvoy; the wedding was set on the island of Gospa od Skrpjela or “Our Lady of the Rocks;” Oliver Gilly at the reception at Aman Villa Milocer; traditional folk dancing; the bride and her attendants, including Joanna Baker, Alexandra Hack, Emily Oates, and Aryanna Abouzari; the dessert table; more traditional dancing.

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N olte Lo u rens

wedding dress. Opposite, clockwise from top left: wedding guests Alexandra Coolidge

Krystal Shanahan

Michael Sachs

This page: the bride, in Vera Wang, prepares before the ceremony.

Opposite, clockwise from top left: The blue-and-white theme at Denver’s Montview Presbyterian Church spoke to both the July 4th wedding date and the father of the bride’s fifteen years as head coach of the Denver Broncos; the reception at a private residence in Denver; exiting the church; the two Mrs. Sachs: the bride toasts her new mother-in-law; the first dance; a dashing group of groomsmen.

p h otograp h s by lau ra E s m ond for Hanna h P h otograp h y

Denver, Colorado j July 4, 2009

&

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MONTH 2008 00

P h oto C red i t G oes H E R E

Décor for the

Big Day By daniel cappello

force. Respected as the master of transforming raw, everyday spaces into luxurious, theatrical environments, Bailey is highly sought-after for his ability to translate his clients’ visions into awe-inspiring displays that elevate parties into events.

Bailey’s work has often been likened to art installation.

Nothing seems impossible with Preston: From a tree that encompasses an entire ballroom to twenty-foot-tall floral peacock sculptures, the sky’s the limit (literally). It’s no wonder that his client list is star-studded, including the likes of Ivanka Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Donna Karan, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

If Bailey’s designs are art installations, then Celebrations, a new book published by Rizzoli, can be likened to his retrospective.

The book is subtitled “Lush Flowers, Opulent Tables, Dramatic Spaces, and Other Inspirations for Entertaining,” and it’s just that—a beautiful reflection on how to create spaces

98 QUEST

for memorable celebrations. On the occasion of his book’s publication, Quest caught up with Bailey to discuss his stellar career and to glean some tips for weddings and other events.

DANIEL CAPPELLO: How did you start out in this business?

PRESTON BAILEY: Well, about thirty years ago, I needed a job! I was asking around for something to do, and [the interior designer] Vincente Wolf suggested that I do the floral displays for one of his projects. I had no background in flowers, but I went to the flower market, got into what I was doing, and realized I really enjoyed it.

DC: How did you transition from doing just flowers into staging whole events?

PB: One person is really responsible for my evolvement in that sense. I had a private client who came to me when her daughter was getting married and asked for “an event:” a theatre, an opera

John L abbe / rizzoli

Preston Bailey is more than an event planner—he is a creative

For Jennifer Lustig’s wedding at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, Preston Bailey adorned tables with umbrellas of raining crystals.

“My favorite color changes.

I love lavenders and purples this year.

I’m often inspired by the colors at fashion shows because designers have an eye on color schemes and trends,” Preston Bailey says.

house, some big, dramatic staging that guests would notice when they walked in. From there, I started on the path of bigger set designs, and soon events got bigger, technologies changed in terms of lighting and projects and set producers, and that’s how I ended up where I am today.

DC: What’s been your most memorable event?

PB: One that stands out is Oprah’s fiftieth birthday party. We did

it in Chicago, at the Harpo Productions studio, and it was aired on TV. Her attitude and labor of love were inspiring. And the Trumps. I did Donald Trump’s wedding, which was great, but doing Ivanka’s was especially thrilling. She really got involved with it and she’s fun to hang out with. A big part of what makes an event special for me is the nature of the people involved.

DC: Where do you find inspiration?

PB: Everywhere! At 5 a.m., something will come to me and I’ll jot it down. I read books, look at images, listen to clients, look to nature, look at different cultures when I travel. It comes from paying attention to everything. You have to keep the creative process present.

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John L abbe / rizzoli

DC: Do you have a favorite color?

PB: It changes. I love lavenders and purples this year. Last year, I was all about yellow. I’m often inspired by the colors at fashion shows because designers have an eye on color schemes and trends.

For an outdoor wedding at the St. Regis hotel in Laguna Beach, California, arches spanning the processional aisle abounded in roses.

“I always try to create at least one piece—either the flowers or the centerpiece—something that will impress people and leave them something to walk away with,” Bailey says.

DC: What’s your favorite flower for a wedding?

PB: I love orchids. There are hundreds of varieties, so there are so many to choose from. I love going to the orchid shows and discovering all the shapes, textures, and colors. I also love romantic flowers, like peonies and roses.

DC: Do you have any wedding-planning tips to keep in mind?

PB: People get so involved in the planning that they forget to enjoy themselves once it arrives. I’ve watched so many people try to over-control their weddings, and that can drive you crazy. You should plan it, hire the right people to work with, and then, once the day arrives, enjoy yourself.

DC: Do you have any tricks of the trade to share?

PB: It all just needs to be great, from the flowers to the lighting. I always try to create one piece—either the flowers, or a centerpiece—something that will impress people and leave them something to walk away with. That could even be one performance during the night. You want the guests to feel comfortable and relaxed, so that they don’t want to leave. The best events are the ones where you think, I don’t want this to end! So do your best to create an environment for this to happen. u 102 QUEST

John L abbe / rizzoli

DC: But is it ever that easy?

PB: Well, you also have to be conscience of your expenses! Decide what’s most important. Are you someone who loves food? Or are you more into décor? Be cautious of what’s important to you for budget, and focus on what will make your event your own.

A table setting that works on two levels: floral arbors above complement rich colors and textures below.

By georgina schaeffer

00 QUEST

P h oto C r e d i t G o e s HERE

After Night Falls

Dorothy Parker once joked that “brevity is the soul

of lingerie.” And while there is much truth to her famous quip—the majority of the lingerie in the world is anything but “long-winded”—I would doubt Dot Parker had considered the sophisticated designs at the house of La Perla.

Ada Masotti, an Italian artisan skilled in the tradition of hand-crafted Bolognese corsetry, opened her first lingerie boutique—then known as a “corsetry labratory”—in Bologna, Italy, in 1954. It was named La Perla after the red velvet-lined jewler’s cases that packaged the brand’s first creations.

This page: the padded Balconnette bra with Brazilian brief and garter from La Perla’s most recent bridal lingerie collection.

MONTH 2008 00

This page: a short camisole nightgown with a lace dressing gown recreates the style of a 1940s pin-up girl. Opposite: this slip from La Perla’s collection echoes a 1920s sensibilty.

Today, the same fantasy and whimsy (as well as fundamental sense of preciousness and occasion) still reign supreme at the house, where the traditions of material and method of old-fashioned corsetry are still very much alive. Yet, with seventy-five boutiques around the world and eighteen collections, ranging from underwear to ready-towear, La Perla has grown substantially in its less than one hundredyear history. Under the leadership of Ada Masotti’s son, Alberto, La Perla has consistantly contributed innovations to the world of women’s lingerie. And while the fashion house also produces fragrances and swimwear, the name La Perla is still synonomous with lingerie.

Lace isn’t just lace, and ribbons aren’t just ribbons. La Perla uses ancient methods of creating lace and embroidery to embellish their silks and satins. “Leavers lace,” named for the ancient looms used to manufacture the material in England, is still used today in the company’s collections. During the nineteenth century, leavers looms were introduced to Calais, France (and elsewhere), the largest producer of precious laces, both then and now. Because of the extremely complex and costly manufacturing process involved with creating this type of lace, leavers looms stopped being produced in the early 1900s and much of the practice was abandoned. However, La Perla is preserving this heritage by using leaver looms today, the only machines capable of handling a high quantity of threads to create intricate, handmade lace.

Leavers lace can be distinguished by the high definition of the design.

La Perla also employs Soutache, one of the most sophisticated types of workmanship used in the creation of lingerie, for both its lingerie and swimwear collections. The process involves looping a ribbon-like material (usually silk) and attaching it by hand onto a fabric in an ornate pattern.

Finally, Frastaglio, an antique type of Florentine craftsmanship, is created by flat-stitched embroidery trimmed to cord yarn on a veil of tulle and then attached by hand to a fabric. The effect is a refined inlay motif that seems to climb up the fabric. Frastaglio is primarily used in silk corsetry and nightwear.

Using only the finest fabrics and trimmings to constuct the lingerie, combined with the traditions of the small “corsetry labratory” begun

by Ada Masotti, La Perla creates the most coveted feminine creations.

Perhaps nowhere are these ideals more apparant than in the bridal collection. The pieces range from demure to sexy, with a range of slips, dressing gowns, corsets, garters, and more. The collection fulfills any bride’s dream for her wedding day—and night—from a 1920s flapper-girl slip to a 1940s pin-up syran dressing gown to a modernday princess corset set. From the silks and satins to the ribbons and laces, every detail is crafted for a discerning bride. Each piece, and all of its trimmings, revels in the ritual and beauty that is a wedding. u F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 1 0 7

F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 1 0 9

This page: the microfiber and Chantilly lace bustier is fit for a modern-day princess. Opposite: a dressing gown creates a perfect air of romance for the wedding night.

P h oto C r e d i t G o e s HERE

Adventures in Paradise

00 QUEST

This page: The Makana Terrace restaurant overlooking Hanalei Bay at the St. Regis Princeville Resort in Kaua’i. Opposite: a couple married at St. Stanislaus Church at Casa de Campo. Inset: Dominican-born Hollywood darling Celines Toribio wed Empowered Media CEO Giancarlo Chersich at Casa de Campo.

german romantic Jean Paul F. Richter wrote, “Paradise

St. Regis Princeville Resort, Kaua’i

is always where love dwells.” But nothing nurtures new love like the shared fantasy of a honeymoon. In this spirit, Quest rounded up a few of the most romantic destinations on the planet.

808.826.9644 / stregisprinceville.com Serious romance seekers won’t find a more fairy-tale destination than the new St. Regis Princeville Resort on the north coast of Hawaii’s lush Kaua’i island. Overlooking majestic tropical cliffs and the sapphire waters of Hanalei Bay, guests don’t even need to leave the property to soak up Kaua’i’s immense natural beauty. Plus, every amenity is at your fingertips—from Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Kaua’i Grill to the luxurious treatments at the Halele’a Spa, which sources many of its ingredients from Hawaii’s indigenous fruits and flowers. Still, the resort isn’t so secluded that you can’t enjoy the many activities in the surrounding areas: charter a helicopter tour of the island, take a surfing lesson, hit the fairways at the Makai and Prince golf courses, hike the rugged Napali trail, or take a horseback ride through the Princeville Ranch. Aloha!

co u rt e s y o f c a s a d e c a m p o

Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic 809.523.3333/ casadecampo.com.do Spanning 7,000 acres on the Dominican Republic’s southeastern coast in La Romana, this private resort has everything on-site for either a heavenly honeymoon or a destination wedding. Already a favorite among newlyweds, Casa de Campo is prepared to welcome lovers with its Sweet Romance Supplement package, which includes private concierge service, a picnic, spa treatments, special gifts, and much more. Casa de Campo is also a premier location for destination weddings. Each year, hundreds of ceremonies are held at the beautiful, fifty-seat Church of St. Stanislaus in the heart of the historic Altos de Chavon village.

F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 0 1 1 1

401.619.1190 / w-class.com For some, the perfect honeymoon is digging your toes into pink sand on a private beach, where frozen drinks dangle from palms.

Others seek adventurous journeys to foreign lands. And still others want a bit of both! For those unique honeymooners, why not hop from island to island aboard a classic W-Class Sailboat with a crew eager to reel you into the world of sailing? Whether you’re an avid sailor or a landlubber just getting your feet wet, the 76 W-Class boats will add excitement to any escape. They are as beautiful as the waters they course, and not many modes of transportation can top these racing sloops. Perhaps it’s not the destination, but how you get there that matters most.

Wimco Villas 800.932.3222 / wimco.com If true privacy is what you’re after, skip the crowded resort scene 112 QUEST

and try one of Wimco’s private luxury villas sprinkled throughout the Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, and Hawaii, all available for one-week vacations. You’ll have complete privacy, and a wide range of services is only a phone call away. What could be more romantic than waking up in, say, the Virgin Islands, to a cool ocean breeze, followed by an afternoon of sailing, and a midnight swim—all without another soul in sight?

The Resort at Paws Up, Montana 406.244.5200 / pawsup.com For the wild at heart, the unspoiled outdoors at Paws Up is the perfect blend of luxury accomodations and pastoral tranquility, what the resort calls “glamping”—glamorous camping.

Explore Blackfoot Valley on horseback, on ATV, or by foot.

And after days spent rafting, fly fishing, or waterskiing, you can relax back indoors at Spa Town, enjoy cuisine from the five-star chef, or just turn in at your private home or luxury tent.

B E N J AMI N ME N D LO W IT Z ( W- C L ASS )

W-Class Yachts

Clockwise from top: Two W-Class boats sail the Caribbean sea; a private one-bedroom Wimco villa in St. John, Virgin Islands; for a unique honeymoon experience, try a luxury wilderness retreat at Paws Up in Montana.

The Breakers, Palm Beach

Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh

888.273.2537 / thebreakers.com There’s no need to travel to far-flung destinations when this historic, oceanfront gem exists right here in the U.S. The oldest hotel in Florida, The Breakers perfectly balances its rich heritage with $250 million in upgrades, including a half-mile private beach, five pools, and four whirlpools. After a day lounging in the sun or hitting up the golf courses, couples can choose from one of the nine on-site restaurants or—luckily for honeymooners—in-room dining, available 24/7.

0131.556.2414 / thebalmoralhotel.com Sure, a honeymoon is about escape, but that doesn’t mean you can’t run off to a city! Tried-and-true city mice will love the Balmoral Hotel’s unbeatable location on Princes Street, in the heart of Edinburgh’s luxury shopping district. But that doesn’t mean there’s not plenty of romance in the old-world hotel, with its famous clocktower and breathtaking views overlooking Edinburgh Castle and the historic Old Town.

Enjoy romantic dinners at the Michelin-starred restaurant Number One and award-winning treatments at the Balmoral Day Spa. When you book one of the 188 suites or rooms, you can truly say you’ve stayed in a landmark.

Jumby Bay, Antigua 268.462.6000 / jumbybayresort.com In December, this 300-acre private island off the coast of Antigua re-opened to showcase a multimillion-dollar redesign.

Upon landing in Antigua, guests take a short cruise on the calm sea to Jumby Bay on Long Island. In addition to offerings such as the Sense spa, local cuisine, and cooking classes with Antiguan chefs, the island is also an ideal spot for animal lovers. You’re likely to spot astounding, rare creatures in the air (blue pelicans, white egrets), on land (Spanish sheep), and at sea (eagle rays, nurse sharks). u

This page: A dock at Antigua’s Jumby Bay Resort. Opposite, from top: The Breakers in Palm Beach; the Balmoral Hotel in the heart of Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Spend the summer with the formerly rich and powerful...

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on L e w in

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A New York Original

速

a p p e a r a n c es

fun in the sun by hilary geary

From left: David and Julia Koch watch the fireworks at the Coconuts’ New Year’s party; Dixon Boardman and Cynthia Boardman at the Fanjuls’ Christmas party.

Christmas season in Palm Beach was a little chilly to start, but it soon heated up and started buzzing. Worth Avenue was hopping; I even spotted Rod Stewart strolling the Avenue with shopping bags and packages in hand! But the real Palm Beach news was the engagement of the beauteous Nina Monell, daughter of Palm Beachers Rene Morrison and Ambrose Monell, to William Morton, son of Robin Pickett and Billy Morton. This handsome young couple had known each other from the Southampton-New York-Palm Beach circuit, but the romance sparked 124 QUEST

when “Willy” was an usher at Minnie Mortimer’s wedding a few years ago, and he escorted Nina to her pew. They will be married in an old-fashioned society wedding (right out of a Cole Porter Song!) at Southampton’s Dune Church in late June.

Ahh, romance!

Now back to the holiday parties.

The calendar was on overload, but the highlights were: the cocktail given by Stephanie Potter and John Foster at their new oceanfront apartment, followed by a kick-off cocktail party at Graff jewelers to support the American Ballet Theatre’s

Nutcracker benefit, all topped off by a small, seated dinner-dance given by Darcy and George Gould in an all-white, winterwonderland tent.

You entered into a pure white, perfectly pleated fabric-draped tent adorned with hanging crystal snowflake lights and poinsettias (white, of course!). The magic was created by the floral genius Bill Beers. Mike Carney’s white grand piano was centered in the middle of the dance floor. A hand-carved snowflake ice bar, complete with a built-in vodka luge for all the frozen vodka fans, sat off to one side.

Dozens of fresh Douglas fir trees—some as tall as twenty feet—were decorated with snow and thousands of miniature white lights, snow owls, polar bears, and white peacocks with trailing plumes.

Ladies were asked to wear white, and they all did! The effect was very dramatic and nothing short of spectacular.

Darcy Gould looked beautiful in Naeem Khan, designed especially for that night. Another stand-out was Alyne Massey in a long-sleeved white, with a touch of silver, Ralph Rucci. Among the guests: Kate Ford, Frank Chopin, John Loring, Alfred and Judy Taubman, Robin and John Pickett, Pat Wood, Wilbur Ross, Kit and Bill Pannill, Marty and Audrey Gruss, Stanley and Gaysie Gaines, Gail and Harry Theodoracopulos, Freddie and Ginny Melhado, Tina Fanjul, Lally Weymouth,

Mashek, Chris and Grace Meigher, Talbott Maxey, Felicia Taylor, Kimberly du Ross, Pauline Pitt and Jerry Seag, Lydia and Robert Forbes, Anka Palitz, Don and Nancy Carter, and Nancy and Bill Rollnick.

On another night, we went to Emilia and Pepe Fanjuls’ annual black-tie Christmas dinner in their beautiful house all decorated with wreaths, misteltoe, and all the other Christmas trimmings. They even had carolers in period costumes, which got everyone singing themselves into the spirit of the season! Among the group: former Canadian prime minister Brain Mulroney and his wife Mila, Alfy and Raysa Fanjul, Lesly Smith, Pauline Pitt and Jerry Seag, Jacky and Ken Duberstein, Dixon and Ariana Boardman, Lally Weymouth, Beth De Woody, Howard Cox, Christina de Caraman, Percy Steinhart, Steve

Another fun one was Clelia and Tom Zacharias’ cocktail party at their chic penthouse apartment. Clelia greeted guests in a short black Oscar de la Renta with a vintage Leiber belt and black patent Manolos—she looked as young as one of the kids! The Mejias, Arnots, Sternes, Peeks, Hottensens, Bertles, and Meighers all brought their kids. Plus, Joanne and Roberto de Guardiola, Philip and Susan Warner, Cameron and Annie MacRae, Denis and Annabelle Coleman, Ali and Lee Hanley, Howard Cox with Camille Douglas, Baron Clifford Klenk, Alex Donner and Kate Edmonds, Muffy and Don Miller, Alexia and Baird Ryan, Alice Ross, and Bambi Putnam were all in attendance.

New Year’s was a blast with fêtes all over the place. Alfred Taubman and his wife, Judy, gave a small, seated dinner. Liz

From left: Raysa Fanjul at the Fanjuls’ Christmas party; Darcy and George Gould; Jackie Astor Drexel and Rodney Dillard at Michael R. McCarty’s.

Alberto and Peggy Mejia, Suzanne and Michael Ainslie, and Baron Cliff Klenk.

The next night brought the ABT benefit, hosted by David and Julia Koch at The Breakers. After cocktails, we sat down at our table, enjoyed a bit of ballet, then dined royally. There was a brief auction of a pair of dazzling Graff diamond “Swann” earrings, conducted by Graff’s charming CEO, Henri Barguirdjian.

Among the guests were Bruce and Maria Bockmann, Susan Lloyd, Michele and Howard Kessler, Mary and Mandy Ourisman, Don and Muffy Miller, John

and Christine Schwarzman, Pari-Sima Pahlavi, and Tom Quick.

Next came Christmas week. Kenn Karakul and Jim Held kicked off the week with a cocktail party at their landmarked house “El Castillo.” All the world-class architects have touched this spectacular home, originally designed by Sims Wyeth with a later Addison Mizner addition, topped off by a John Volk pool house.

They just bought and re-did it, with Tom Kirchoff overseeing the renovation. Our hosts generously opened their doors for a big old-fashioned family party.

Walker entertained the thirty-something set. Mike McCarty had a pre-Coconuts dinner at McCarty’s, natch. The biggest parties were the Coconuts,’ The Breakers’ “Paradise Ball,” the Club Colette bash, and the Mar-a-Lago dinner.

After the New Year, Wilbur and I gave a cocktail party in Harry Benson’s honor as he has just come out with another dazzling photography book, Harry Benson: Photographs, covering sixty years of brilliant work. Harry has a huge fan club so a big crowd turned out.

What a start to the new year! u F E B R U AR Y 2 0 1 0 1 2 5

PETS

MY FAVORITE THINGS my current obsession is Jolly Pet’s “teaser ball,” which my mom found on the BestFriends General Store, a website that sells more than six hundred toys. It is basically a ball within a ball, and I can’t get enough of it. Here, I’ve asked a few other tails-about-town for their favorite toys, treats, and other pup-perfect recommendations! with georgina schaeffer

• Lucy Williams

Quest Pets: For more information on the

I suffered a stroke last year, but now that I’ve recovered, I love

products mentioned here, visit our blog at

the little boots I get to wear! They keep me comfy when I’m not

questmag.wordpress.com. To submit your pet

lounging on my animal print Wallybed from harrybarker.com.

photos, email them to info@questmag.com.

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• Daffy and Ivy Perkin We are two girls who get along great. Since I (Ivy) am 10, I like to snooze on my mom’s bed

•

pillows. Still, I will get up for a game of fetch with my new little sister, Daffy (left).

Max Maddock My mom says I‘m a gentle giant. My best friend is my little sister, Mimi Maddock, who is relaxing with me in this picture. Along with eating, sleeping, and playing, I love to munch on Wheat Thins for a snack.

For walks, I like to go to Central Park or down to the ocean in Southampton.

•

Harold Moscowitz Dr. Jennifer Welser at NYC Veterinary Hospital saved me from blindness more than once. I adore her! My favorite toy is a Santa Moose, and I think Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges are the best treat.

Charley Choate My favorite time of day is before 9 a.m. so I can run off-leash in the

•

•

park. My top toys are my

Melody and Music LeFrak

AKC Squirrels. And the

As future showdogs, we love a good

MAX bones I get from

brushing! Like our “brother” Mikimoto

the doorman are the best

on Fifth, we look forward to watching the

treat. Also, I love any-

Westminster Kennel Club’s 134th Dog

thing made from rope!

Show on February 15th and 16th!

F E BRU A RY 2 0 1 0 1 2 7

SNAPSHOT

LOVE, NEW YORK STYLE isn’T there something quintessentially “New York” about a City Hall wedding? After all, romance is easy in Manhattan, a place where glass slippers are delivered by bike messenger, where horse-drawn carriages idle on street corners, where the nighttime lights in Park Avenue windows make every sky starry.

Shouldn’t commitment here be convenient as well? From Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller to Carrie and Mr. Big, boldfaced lovers have long made City Hall nuptials chic: more than 70 occur each day, with 17,809 ceremonies performed in 2009.

Before last year, the Manhattan Marriage Bureau was more Cinderella in rags than Cindy at the ball—not City Hall at all, in fact, but a drab municipal building with dirty linoleum, florescent bulbs, and plastic chairs. No place for love to thrive—until, that is, a third-term fairy godmother appeared. With a wave of his pen, the Mayor granted a $12 million renovation to a 24,000square-foot Department of Motor Vehicles office (a real pumpkin). The Prince Charming of our tale? Designer Jamie Drake, 128 QUEST

whose royal hand had also transformed the Mayor’s Upper East Side townhouse and Madonna’s Los Angeles home.

The new Marriage Bureau, accessed through an arcade with original cast plaster moldings and 1920s bronze detailing, unites sleek with beaux art. iPod docks allow couples to choose their background music, DMV-standard bathrooms have been turned into “dressing rooms” with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and if you’ve forgotten the most important thing, a City Store sells $9 rhinestone wedding rings—as well as tissues, toothpaste, and garters.

Opened in January 2009, the Bureau’s newlywed year has been nothing but sweet, with increases in marriages performed and licenses granted. Each ceremony still lasts, on average, about one New York minute ... proving, perhaps, that for New Yorkers, nothing is as romantic as efficiency. —Rebecca Morse Room 262 was replaced last year by a sleek, Jamie Drake-designed space on Worth Street, where couples can wed in a New York minute.

INTERIOR DESIGN, INC.

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