anne hearst

RSVIP: Anthony Shriver Hosts Best Buddies Gala at Ashgrove Farm

Filed under: Events

A meaningful cause can turn an elegant evening into a transformative event. Co-host Anthony Shriver's charisma, Kennedy-family good looks, and passion for Best Buddies, an organization that encourages friendships with mentally and physically challenged individuals, as well as career training and job placement, turned the organization's third annual Hamptons gala into a kind of upbeat epiphany for guests.

Leafy bamboo in pots swayed in the breezy tents that housed the Southeast Asian-themed Best Buddies Gala at Ashgrove Farm in Watermill on Saturday, August 21. During cocktails, tables packed with silent-auction items also beckoned: tickets to watch the New York Rangers, to catch the "Addams Family" on Broadway, or see Jimmy Buffett in concert. Travel items included a round-trip flight to and from the Hamptons and brightly colored luggage so plentiful, the woman who won it wondered if it would fit into her car.

The famed Robbins Wolfe "eventeurs," caterers in common parlance, served up Masala crab cakes with pomegranate chutney, toasted coconut kahuku shrimp, and Portabello tempura. Yum. Filigreed metal lanterns with votive candles lined the covered walk to the dinner tent, where eight stems of purple orchids in jade bowls were surrounded by shimmering gold chargers on every table.

Anthony Shriver admitted that it wouldn't have been so easy to get his little daughter Carolina to fly down from Hyannis Port with him to Long Island for the Best Buddies Gala except that "Anne [Hearst McInerney, above right] gave her a little baby rabbit the last time we came." He then kidded that Hearst McInerney would provide chickens in the gift bags.

Tags: anne hearst, anthony shriver, best buddies, campion platt, Eunice Shriver, EuniceKennedyShriver, hamptons, jay mcinerney, rsvip, tatiana platt

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RSVIP: The Palace Regrets to Inform

by Jeffrey Slonim (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events

When a Prince touches down in the socially ambitious Hamptons, snagging an invite can be a slippery slope indeed.

First of all, author Jay McInerney and his wife, Anne Hearst McInerney, who feted HSH Prince Albert of Monaco this weekend, are sensational hosts, they support the arts and the environment in an enormously generous fashion, and in person, they are nothing but nice. And, especially after this regal shindig, they are the center of social swirl on the East End of Long Island.

If Truman Capote, having published "In Cold Blood," was at the zenith of his society status when he gave the black-and white-ball in 1966 at the Plaza Hotel with Katharine Graham, McInerney, who married Hearst on November 21, 2006, at 21, the former society speakeasy, is now enjoying a longer-term embrace by New York society in Manhattan and the Hamptons.

And Mr. McInerney, a wine expert and world-famous author, doesn't lord his social cachet over others, the way, say, Capote used to drop names while in a glassy-eyed stupor on "The Merv Griffin Show." Mrs. McInerney's grandfather was William Randolph Hearst, founder of the Hearst Corporation and the alleged subject of the Orson Welles classic film "Citizen Kane." During the brutally warm summer of 2010 on the East End of Long Island, Jay McInerney has quietly become a kind of Jay Gatsby.

Idyllic Setting for Princely gathering

While William Randolph Hearst was known for his zoo-like menagerie at San Simeon, the Hearst McInerneys entertain at idyllic Ashgrove Farm in Watermill, where the couple keep an emu (like an ostrich in a ballgown drape of feathers), presentation hens, and two 3-foot-tall geese, out of a fairy tale, that appear to weigh over 100 pounds each. Sadly, their pet Llama succumbed, possibly to Lyme disease, over the winter.

The sprawling shingled main house, designed by Peter Cook in the style of the original farmhouse at San Simeon, includes stone fireplaces, centuries old, collected in Europe by Mrs. McInerney's grandfather. The guesthouse is a modernist structure, recently built, with colorful 1960s-themed art, including bright squares within squares by Frank Stella.

Tags: anne hearst, Charlene Wittstock, jay mcinerney, prince albert, prince albert fiance, Prince Albert of Monaco, rsvip

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