D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A t r a c y p o l l a n a nd m i c h a e l j . f o x h o st e d a n e v e n i n g a t r a l p h l a u r e n t o b e n e f i t p a r k i ns o n ’ s r e s e a r c h
Dylan Lauren
the room. Although only nine of the guests were immediate family, there were many longstanding friends, and it felt like a family affair—casual, relaxed, and full of sentiment. As has become the fashion, there were book signings galore last month. On a Wednesday night over on Beekman Place, Eric Ruttenberg and Perri Peltz hosted a party for Jennet Conant and her new non-fiction book, A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the O.S.S. (Simon & Schuster). Additional hosts were: Sara Ayres, Tory Burch, Ariadne Calvo-Platero, Cristina Cuomo, Jill Fairchild, Jeanne Greenberg, Gigi 26 QUEST
George Stephanopoulos, Alexandra Wentworth and Elliott Stephanopolous
Kalli Siegel and Jerry Lauren
Tracy Pollan and Barbara Walters
Mortimer, Perri Pletz, Renee Rockefeller, Peggy Siegal, and Kitty Sherrill. In the crowd: John Alexander, Annette Tapert, Ken Auletta and Binky Urban, Clara Bingham, Toni and Jamie Goodale, Janie Buffet, Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, James and Lucy Danziger, Steve Kroft (Mr. Jenny Conant), Jeff Sager, Jeffrey Leeds, Amanda Foreman, Peter and Maily Smith, Mary and Ian Snow, Richard David Storey, Alexandra Styron, Jamie Tisch, Sasha Clifton, Vicky Ward, Charlie Thompson, Louise Grunwald, John Huey, Jonathan Karp, Debbie and John Loeffler
(owner of the new restaurant Desmond), Terry McDonell, Karen Zucker, Christy Ferer, Vicky Gordon, Brooke Neidich, Nancy Novogrod, Liz Smith, Iris Love, Rosanna Scotto, Robert Silvers, Calvin Trillin, Jay McInerney, and Ann Hearst. This is Jenny’s fourth book. The first three—all bestsellers—were Tuxedo Park, The Irregulars, and 109 East Palace, and they all center around or arise out of World War II. Jenny’s paternal grandfather James B. Conant was the distinguished president of Harvard in the 1940s and ’50s, but was also in on the inception and
Michael J. Fox and David Lauren
Tom Selleck
planning stages of the Atom Bomb, which is what led to Tuxedo Park, where the initial meetings were held. The success of that book led to what is now a quartet about that time, that war, and the personalities engaged in its activities—and the political repercussions thereafter. At the time, Julia was single and thirty, a six-foot-two-inch golf-playing California girl, who joined the staff of “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the O.S.S. (which later became the C.I.A.). On her first posting, which was at the headquarters of Lord Mountbatten, she met the much older and more sophisticated Paul Child who
B i lly Fa r r e ll A g e n c y
Matt Bomer