August 19, 2005 |
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"I THINK if there were a president in my party again, no matter who it was, and I was asked to do anything, I would do it. Anything!"
This was Bill Clinton's answer to reporter Jennifer Senior in her New York Magazine analysis of his travels in Africa. She had gone off the African message to try to get the former president to comment on the possibility of a female chief executive elected in his lifetime.
Senior then adds, "Without realizing it, Clinton had answered my general question with a very specific answer. What should the Office of the First Man look like? - Whatever Hillary wants it to."
SPEAKING OF the Clintons, there they were last weekend at one of their favorite places, Martha's Vineyard. They were once again the guests of Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson. And, though they rushed on and off of the island, Bill had time for one golf game with his old friend Vernon Jordan, even though the latter is suffering a severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome from being too active at fly-fishing.
The Clintons popped over to Nantucket for a fund-raiser and then came back to the Vineyard. Frank and Carol Biondi again played host to whomp up some dough for Hillary's Senate race, but the crowd wasn't as big as in past years. Still, everybody enjoyed being an insider and guests all love the Biondi's super-beautiful gardens. One attendee says of fund-raising: "The Vineyard is sort of played out moneywise; everybody has been there and done that!" However, the former president was praised for his masterly introduction of his wife who spoke about 20 minutes on the economy, ecology, abortion, etc.
I asked Vernon Jordan if, in his opinion, Sen. Clinton could win the presidency down the road? He said, "Absolutely!" In spite of his leather wristlets that confine his movements, Vernon was upbeat and happy. He celebrated his 70th birthday last Monday at a dinner party for just 10 friends. Later in the fall, his wife, Ann, may mount a really big party for Vernon and I hope she chooses New York, not Washington. (Vernon spoke at my 80th birthday and I would like to speak at his 70th because I just love younger men!)
AT ANOTHER Biondi dinner party, two of the guests were Sir Evelyn and Lady (Lynn) de Rothschild who have a house this summer at Edgartown. The ebullient American, Lynn, was at dinner in a gauzy little nothing, sporting an enormous ring. Vogue's Billy Norwich gazed at it and asked if the bauble came from JAR (Joel Rosenthal's multi-coveted international gems shop). Lynn laughed and showed that the ring was just a bunch of colorful beads held together on an elastic string. "I paid only a few dollars for it in a local dress shop." Billy pressed, "Well, do you have any good jewelry, Lady de Rothschild?" She laughed. "Lord de Rothschild, does your wife have any good jewelry?" Evelyn just smiled and sat back in his chair. He seems very proud of his Yankee girl and he is getting used to the way Americans tease him.
Lynn was deeply involved in the recent Live 8 event and was even instrumental in getting U.S. television to carry the show after they dragged their feet, worrying that the event might become politicized. She spoke with Karl Rove several times seeking and getting White House help.
ON THE Vineyard the "in" crowd is worrying that because she is selling her wonderfully comfortable house overlooking the ocean, Louise Grunwald, hostess nonpareil, won't be returning. (Her famous husband, the Time magazine titan, Henry Grunwald, left us during the past year. He was a Vineyard summer regular and is also severely missed.)
Now, Louise's pals are exhorting this charming widow to write her memoirs, which would include stories of her three husbands, her children, her grandchildren and life in the Southampton fast lane, adventures with everyone from William. S. Paley to Lord Mountbatten of Great Britain. She did a bit of writing for New York Magazine at the time she was Henry's hostess when he was our ambassador to Austria. That was very successful.
Other writers and editors think Louise could crank out a hell of a memoir about her life and times, her family's place as movers and shakers on Seventh Avenue, her work at the knee of Diana Vreeland and Grace Mirabella of Vogue, her own self-education as a "closet intellectual" and her brilliant advice about how to entertain with pizzazz. One smartie has already dubbed it "Mrs. Dalloway A-Go-Go!"
IN MANHATTAN - those two lovely babes, Suzanne Goodson and Amanda Burden, picking at ribs in the hell-for-leather loud and lively Blue Smoke restaurant. They were raving about the coming movie in which George Clooney plays the late CBS newsman Fred Friendly, Frank Langella portrays Bill Paley and David Strathairn impersonates Edward R. Murrow. "Good Night, and Good Luck" is said to be a simply terrific film for people who care about - or for people who detest and despise - media, past and present.
(E-mail Liz Smith at MES3838@aol.com, or write to her c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.)
©2005 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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