Georgiopoulos knew he was in love when he met Kara, a Vogue model with coltish long legs and a winning smile, but considering her occupation, he had a nagging worry that she would be a girl who wanted a house in the Hamptons. Driving up the dusty road of US Route 44 without a car in sight—unlike the congested Montauk Highway—and overlooking the rolling hills, apple orchards, horse farms and vast verdant open spaces, he observed his girlfriend’s reaction like a hawk, as she breathed in the air and scenery. Both a smile of relief and satisfaction spread on his face when she turned to her future husband and said, “I love this place.”

Millbrook is a place that does that to couples. Kirk Henckels  and Fernanda Kellogg—who oversees the annual fox hunt and Fitch’s Corner Horse Trials where over 200 horses compete in dressage, cross country and stadium show jumping and guests roam while sipping “Kirk’s Ice Tea and Mount Gay rum”—had much of their courtship on horseback. Henckels, the Executive Vice President, Director of Stribling Private Brokerage, proposed to Kellogg while riding near one of the area’s pristine lakes. Frédéric Fekkai, whose eponymous hair salons and shampoos have made him a fortune, also chose a 150-year-old farmhouse on 350 acres in Millbrook as his retreat. “I love the shooting, the hunting, the riding, the life here, the simplicity,” he says. And naturally, when he was dating public relations executive Shirin von Wulffen, who luckily had grown up on a horse farm in Virginia, their mutual love of rural life bonded them. As she told Elle Décor, “You can be a country girl who likes New York City.”

In fact, many of the residents who come to Millbrook are from New York. Just eighty miles from Manhattan and situated on 1.9-square-miles, 19th century colonial mansions rest upon acres and acres of Millbrook's untainted terrain. Still, it is a place steeped in contrast. The town is playfully described as “Horses and Porsches,” and its main street, Franklin Avenue, offers everything from upscale restaurants serving pricey cuts of organic beef to reasonably priced meals at the local diner. And while weekenders seek respite in the town’s sprawling fields and tranquil setting—a far cry from the energy and excitement of the city—full-time residents quietly raise their families. Local residents include Paulina and Ric Ocasek, Bette Midler and Martin von Haselberg, Barbara and Donald Tober, Parker and Oakleigh Thorne, Blaine Trump and the Colley family, who have been to polo in the United States what Marco Polo was to exploration.

To say the Colleys are polo enthusiasts is an understatement equivalent to referring to Harvard as a safety school. Since the 1980s, this family has been passionate champions of the sport, which requires three to six riders per game. The Colleys have been responsible for helping raise funds to convert this Dutchess Valley land that was once dotted with dairy farms into horse stables and fields. At a polo event at the prestigious Mashomack Polo Club, Bruce Colley proves why he was anointed an Ambassador to the Federation of  International Polo: he is shaking hands with well-wishers after an exhilarating ride, beads of sweat on his face, when a guest remarks that he is from another town and loves riding. “Have you tried polo?” Colley inquires. The man responds with a simple, “no.” “Well if you can ride, you can try polo and there are teams here of all levels,” Colley says enthusiastically. “Call me any time and we’ll ride.”

Despite polo’s reputation as the king of sports, Colley, along with his brother Bryan, welcome all riders of all income levels and pride themselves on igniting interest in the sport. “If you don’t own a horse, you can pick up a scrimmage game with many of the teams,” adds Bryan Colley. The residents of this small but close community often offer their guest rooms or cottages to visiting polo players from around the globe. The sport is often subsidized by a team member or sponsors that have included Cartier, Moët & Chandon, Hunter Boot and Hermès, which isn’t surprising since Hermès heir Mathias Guerrand-Hermès was often galloping on his horse and scoring goals with his ever-present mallet. In the wake of his death, the club now offers a sportsmanship award in his honor.

The Mashomack International Polo Challenge is considered the kick-off summer event in Millbrook and, this year, teams from Great Britain, France and Italy trot across the emerald fields that seem to go on for miles and miles. This past June, the champagne bottles popped in excitement with the arrival of the 15th annual event when His Highness The Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur joined the fun. Maharaj Narendra Singh played for team India.

Spectator Karen Klopp, founder of the website what2where.com, is another resident who succumbed to the charms of Millbrook’s outdoorsy life years ago after experimenting with Martha’s Vineyard, Connecticut and the Hamptons. “If you go the Hamptons, you need 8 or 10 outfits for the weekend,” recalls Klopp. “It’s fun but I found the pace too frantic for us. The questions were ‘Where are you going? Who are you going with? Did you get invited to so-and-so’s?’ Here it is more relaxed. Children are welcomed everywhere. We live a busy life in the city and didn’t want our weekends to be only about cocktail parties without our kids.” And the rewards are just that; at the Annual Blue Jean Ball, the children who turn into college students and young adults return to the place they know and love. As Klopp observes, instead of knowing what merger or megadeal someone engaged in, Millbrook residents are far more in awe of who is the best equestrian or shot (which lately has been Parker Thorne).

But to say that style isn’t appreciated would be a misnomer. Yes, this is a place reminiscent of 19th century England in the Hampshire countryside, whereas Blaine Trump agrees: manners still matter and casual dinners and lunches of 8 to 10 people are the norm. Nevertheless, for certain occasions, especially for sporting events, people get dressed up. “It’s tweed jackets and stock tie for the pre-season cubbing months of August when they teach hounds to get ready for the hunt, and then for the formal fox hunting in October, out comes the traditional scarlet or black coats,” says equestrian Alex Hamer.

For those who aren’t as interested in hiking, clay shooting, fly fishing and riding, the small town without a Starbucks in sight has quaint antique stores such as Yellow Church Antiques. Nearby sandwiches and salads are savored from the town’s beloved Babette’s Kitchen. Lifelong friendships are also forged. Longtime residents like Barbara and Donald Tober often have leisurely lunches at their farm where conversation flows as easily as the award-winning French wines such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc from the Millbrook Vineyards & Winery. “This is a place where people love the land and animals,” says Mrs. Tober. “We’re able to relax and really talk to each other.”  Wine tours including the Dutchess Wine Trail are also available throughout the area and often people spend languid days sipping local wines and reading books on their porches while enjoying their pastoral views or find hidden untainted places for family picnics.

Speaking of, the word “family” is emphasized often here which may be why there is an uptick in house sales, even though neighboring communities have been stagnant. “Millbrook is a place where you can still buy parcels of land in excess of 100 acres,” says Adam Hade, a broker at Houlihan Lawrence.

But make no mistake. Millbrook also offers something that money can’t buy.

When he leaves Millbrook to return to the city, friends sometimes ask Georgiopoulos what he did for the weekend expecting a long list of events. One time, Georgiopoulos shared with a friend how he taught his stepson to shoot a gun and fed a baby lamb with his five-year-old son. “Great childhood memories are made here,” adds Georgiopoulos. “It’s a great place for families who love the outdoors.”

Bette Midler (Patrick McMullan)

The often-gaudy chanteuse showed up to the Songwriter's Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in a tasteful blue jacket and coordinating but not matchy tea-length skirt--looking both youthfully high-spirited and age-appropriate. The peep-toe shoes complete the look without pulling focus.

The most recent example cited was not The Artist, though that award-winning silent feature was mentioned several times. No sign of Uggie trolling around the Embassy either, though during our search we did run into Dan Abrams and Dave Zinczenko. Mr. Abrams gently corrected our congratulations on his new site about celebrity chefs after we mistakenly claimed to have read the news in The New York Post.

"No, I don't think so...The New York Times had a story on it, though," Mr. Abrams said, politely swerving our faux pas. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. So about Harvey Weinstein and this party...

Technically, the Moet & Chandon celebratory toast to Mr. Weinstein was being held in honor of his acceptance of the Legion d'honneur, an award created by Napoleon Bonaparte. It was not an an after-party to Mr. Weinstein's latest oversees acquisition, The Intouchables. But leave it to the entrepreneur to find a way to combine what essentially amounts to a knighthood with a marketing tie-in. The film had screened earlier that evening at the Paley Center, where Bette Midler, Hammish Bowles, and Fabiola Beracasa (proudly sporting her baby bump) gave the portly producer cheek kisses before viewing France's second biggest box office hit of all time. Mr. Weinstein will be bringing The Intouchables--which is about a rich quadriplegic and his black caretaker from the projects--over to America on May 25th.

But if this wasn't an after-party, what were we to make of publicist Peggy Siegal running around, directing interns with heavy chairs through throngs of people so that Mr. Weinsteins family could all sit down? Oh, apparently she was just a "good friend of Harvey's."

So was French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who didn't make it to the "not after-party" party, but sent a note on behalf of his country. Mr. Weinstein later informed the crowd that President Sarkozy was his youngest child's godfather.
Now that the Weinstein Brothers are back on top, we certainly didn't want to cause any trouble, unlike the infamous story of the former New York Observer staffer who ended up being escorted out of a party in a headlock by the enraged bear responsible for Pulp Fiction's distribution.

"If we tell you about the tattoo, do you promise not to put us in a headlock and drag us out of here?" We asked a considerably fairer-weather Mr. Weinstein.

"Of course not! I love Jared Kushner!" The industry titan roared. We didn't feel that much safer, as our publisher did not happen to be standing in the room with us at the moment.

Still, it was a good night to be Harvey Weinstein, and he let us off the hook easy. Champagne bottles were uncorked, strange fish plates were passed around, and half of the Weinstein Company joined the esteemed ranks of Glenn Ford, Bono, and David Cronenberg as a recipient of France's highest honor.