Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa at the screening of Bully (Patrick McMullan)
It’s our big launch party for SCENE and Desmond’s, the chic spot on the Upper East Side that feels part Brit private club, part downtown lounge, is packed with PYTs like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Dani Stahl, June Ambrose, David Lipke, Charlotte Ronson, Ali Wise, Euan and Lucy Sykes Rellie, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Anh Duong, Page Six’s Emily Smith and Erika Bearman(aka the prolific and much-followed Tweeter, “OscarPRGirl”) to name just a few.
Hot on the heels of the Oscars, the bon mots are all about the best-dressed, and really, this crew is a little better equipped to judge the sartorial prowess of Hollywood stars than say, Giuliana Rancic. Stacy Keibler‘s gold Marchesa? “A little too Oscar,” observes Bearman, and she wasn’t referring to her own boss, Mr. Oscar de la Renta.
Rellie, who may possibly tweet just as much as Bearman, focuses on Angelina Jolie‘s now notorious appendage: “She overdid the split pose. Whoever told her to show some leg made a mistake.” Saffir, the founder of the Cinema Society, may just know more about movies than anyone on the planet and admits he didn’t get the Jolie memo on Twitter. “I don’t do that,” he claims, referring to social media. “No Facebook, no Twitter,” which, while understandable given all the insider gossip he’s privy to, is a big #shame for the insatiable social media masses.
Speaking of hashtags, there were quite a few at the GANT Rugger Fall 2012 presentation at the Fat Radish (one of the most popular restaurants, as farm-to-table, organic food doesn’t have calories, right?). Most of the hashtags and instagram uploads refer to the quality of male models that create the mise en scène all around the LES hotspot. After glancing at a couple of #smokeshows—and the craftsmanship of GANT Rugger designer Christopher Bastin‘s newest collection—it is time for some celery root potpie and a catch-up with shutterbug Douglas Friedman. He was also a fan of the man-candy on display: “All of the models’ backsides look fantastic. And the front sides were even better.” And the clothes? “We’ll chalk it up to 12 years at an all boys Catholic school…preppy is in my blood.” On Friedman’s iPhone is his latest shoot, an ad campaign for the high-end Canadian department store Simons. The twist? Friedman himself plays photographer and model. So does he consider himself a veritable Zoolander now? “It was a rather traumatic experience; to answer your question, no, I don’t.”
