Ebb & Flow: Matt Lauer Celebrates with Hamptons, Katy Perry Sighted at South Pointe, and More
May 29, 2012 | Talk of the Town
Matt Lauer and Star Jones at the Hamptons Memorial Day Celebration
Welcome back to another bucolic summer on the East End. My family and I had a blissful drive in from Connecticut over Memorial Day weekend, after my college reunion. Sunday, after breakfast, we raced to New London and caught the 9 AM ferry by one minute. It was an idyllic one-hour jaunt to Orient Point, where we docked and motored past vineyards and farmland to Greenport. Two more ferry rides and one short, serpentine car ride and I was cutting my lawn in East Hampton by noon.
Hamptons Memorial Day Celebration with Matt Lauer
The weather was heaven. But that first night, on the way to the Hamptons magazine Memorial Day celebration, my car caught on fire. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I noticed smoke, pulled over, and simply hailed a taxi. And I still made it to the Hamptons party at the Southampton Social Club on time.
Aviva Drescher at the Hamptons Memorial Day Celebration
One of the first celebrity guests to arrive was Aviva Drescher (Fran is her husband’s first cousin), the reed-thin new addition to The Real Housewives of New York City. How did she describe the show’s new season? “A lot of drama, fun, gossip,” Drescher told Ebb & Flow, "and what everything seems is completely different by the end.” On the show, Drescher is apparently BFFs with Carole Radziwill.
Guest of honor and Hamptons Memorial Day issue cover star Matt Lauer had on a beautifully cut blue blazer, white jeans, and no socks. “This is my home. This is where my kids go to school,” said Lauer of the Hamptons. On his land out East, Lauer said he’s turning it into a “horse property,” mostly for his wife and daughter. “I don’t ride anymore,” he said, “I bike and jet-ski.” And Lauer indicated that if he did ride horses, he’d do it “pedal to the metal, and I’d end up in a body cast.”
Jonathan Cheban and Jessica White at the Angel Wings Foundation Dinner
Jessica White’s Angel Wings Foundation Dinner
Borrowing car rides from journalists, Ebb & Flow felt as if I were in the John Cheever story The Swimmer, making my way from cocktail fête to cocktail fête across the Hamptons by the grace of bummed rides. Super sexy model Jessica White arrived at Georgica in Wainscott for her Angel Wings Foundation dinner just after sundown, wearing $8 million dollars' worth of Jeffrey Rackover diamonds and a dress designed by David Dalrymple. On her way to face photographers, White noticed a large insect near her beautiful face. “Whoa, what’s that?" she shouted, doing a quick shuffle in her floor-length black gown. “I’m a city girl. I hate bugs!”
The evening benefited the Somaly Mam Foundation, which liberates and advocates for victims of sexual slavery and human trafficking. White, who has been public about the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, began crying as she discussed witnessing her own sisters being abused with “black eyes and bloody lips.” She choked back tears as a female reporter embraced her.
Katy Perry Sighted at South Pointe
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, an Ebb & Flow spy claimed to have spotted Katy Perry at South Pointe, the old Tavern space, in a hat and glasses. “She arrived at 2 AM, left at 3 AM, and had a serious security retinue," said the onlooker, who also added that “she looked dowdy.”
Peggy Siegal’s Screening Schedule
If you’re not on Peggy Siegal’s list this summer, start schmoozing. On July 1, she’ll screen The Amazing Spider-Man (Columbia Pictures) at the East Hampton Cinema, followed by an afterparty at The Hampton Players Club, hosted by The Hollywood Reporter ; August 4, she’ll screen Bachelorette, which is being hyped as the next Bridesmaids, with a poolside party at the Capri in Southampton; August 11, her Little Birds debut will include a fête at a private home in East Hampton; and August 12, she’ll show Richard Gere’s forthcoming Arbitrage, which is already receiving Oscar buzz. Fabu schedule subject to change.
—JEFFREY SLONIM
PHOTOGRAPHY BY EUGENE GOLOGURSKY/GETTYIMAGES.COM (LAUER, DRESCHER); ROB RICH/SOCIETY ALLURE (CHEBAN)
