November 17, 2008 - Cancel All Gifts! Sorry, But No One Gets Anything This Year
Given that it hasn’t yet got properly cold here, it feels like a very strange hallucination. In a naked effort to make us forget that we are living in an economic meltdown, the stores are full of Christmas trees and fairy lights. Their illusion makes you feel you are in some sort of dream world - everyone is friendly, everything is cheap. Never mind what the news says about the collapsing auto industry, all is just fine and cheery. HP>>
November 11, 2008 - Never Give Up
For a moment last week, around midnight on Tuesday, we all went mad with joy. Mad in a way I’ve never seen or heard. As I went to bed around 4am I could still hear the screams from people in the street: “We did it!” Emails came in from friends the next day: “I’m still drunk; you?” HP>>
November 4, 2008 - Art, Politics, and Soul in New York
If you weren’t in Times Square tonight, the only place to be was downtown in the West Village at Gavin Brown’s gallery for an installation by Jonathon Horowitz called Obama ‘08. HP>>
November 4, 2008 - Obama’s Family Loss
When I first heard of of the passing of Madelyn Dunham, 86, grandmother of Barack Obama, my reaction was like that of my friends: “Oh no. How tragic she missed this by just a few hours: the likely culmination of an historic journey to the Presidential nomination by her own flesh and blood.” HP>>
November 3, 2008 - I Can’t Wait Till All The Shouting Stops
We’re finally here: tomorrow is Election Day. You could cut the tension with a knife. Many of my friends have been stumping in swing states for Obama over the weekend, terrified that at the last moment a “Bradley effect” could rob him of the victory the polls predict. I don’t think this will happen. H L Mencken had a point when he wrote that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public - but he hadn’t met Sarah Palin. When Obama is declared victor, I hope, it will be a glorious coda to the Bush years. HP>>
October 27, 2008 - Stewart Heckled By Wall St. Crowd Over Obama
The other evening I went as a guest of friends to a dinner to raise money for a hospital in New York. This was the same hospital where my twins were prematurely born. On entering this world they weighed only 2lb and 3lb respectively, but went on to thrive. So I was glad to be at this event with friends whose company I always enjoy. HP>>
October 26, 2008 - Laugh, Baby, Laugh
I love the concept of the “Smash Shack” the store opened in San Diego, where according to CBS News, victims of the credit crisis are taking out their frustrations by buying fragile objects and hurling them against the wall. HP>>
October 22, 2008 - How I Became an Expert on High-Class Hookers
Recently, CNBC interviewed me for an hour-long special documentary on high-class prostitution, due to air on November 11 at 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET—a date when hopefully we will no longer be worried about politics and our minds will be back on the important stuff: illegal sex. CNBC just posted a promotional clip for the documentary, and just in case my parents see it, I would like to clarify the following… HP>>
October 20, 2008 - Uh-Oh, Now I’m In Love With a Vampire
Back before the fall of Lehman Brothers and the global economic collapse, I had a dirty little secret: my weekly addiction to the TV series Gossip Girl, about the absurdly rarefied lives of a fictional group of wealthy New York teenagers. Now ratings for the show are soaring: more than ever, people want cheap escapism. HP>>
October 13, 2008 - How Poor Are You?
“How poor are you?” That’s what formerly rich guys ranging from hedge-fund kings and tech pioneers to bankers and trust-fund heirs are now asking each other at dinners around town. HP>>
October 6, 2008 - And a Small Glass of Chateau Plonk, Please
Last week saw not just the initial failure of Hank Paulson’s bail-out bill but also the death of the $800 bottle of wine. “It’s just not OK to have that on your expenses at a time like this,” one restaurateur says… HP>>
October 1, 2008 - Will’s Cup of Tea
On June 16 royal photographers waiting to capture Britain’s Prince William, 26, in flowing velvet robes outside St. George’s Chapel, in Windsor, were caught by surprise. Just before the start of the 660-year-old ceremony, in which the Prince was to be made a Royal Knight of the Garter, a car containing his younger brother, Prince Harry, drew up to a side entrance. Climbing out of the car with him and following him to the Galilee Porch of the church was Catherine “Kate” Middleton, a lithe, five-foot-nine-inch brunette, who has been Prince William’s girlfriend for more than four years. HP>>
September 29, 2008 - Lose Your Job and Watch Friends Vanish
Alberto Vilar once promised so many millions to both New York’s Metropolitan Opera and London’s Royal Opera House that his name was engraved in both places — only to be removed in 2005, when prosecutors charged him with stealing most of his fortune. HP>>
September 22, 2008 - Explaining the Lehman Culture Clash
I understand why the British are livid,” said a friend (American) who is high up at Lehman. My friend was talking about the Sunday front page headlines – screaming that a $2.5 billion bonus pot was being retained – from the English bankruptcy court - by Barclays to pay eight US senior executives who had reportedly been guaranteed $10 - $25 million salaries for two years. HP>>
September 22, 2008 - Women Should Beware Male Spinsters
For some reason, in the last week or so I’ve had a series of lunches and dinners with friends who are male, single, over 35 and never-married. Men like this were traditionally labelled playboys, a term implying they possessed a rakish charm and a wariness of settling. HP>>
September 15, 2008 - Lehman’s Collapse Rattles the Really Rich
The phone has rung off the hook all weekend. “Are you OK?” I’ve asked friends whose husbands have been at Lehman Brothers. No, of course they are not. They just saw everything they’ve worked for go down the drain. A lunch barbecue with a Lehman executive who has been there 16 years was cancelled. No explanation needed. HP>>
September 8, 2008 - Be Very Afraid of the Hockey Moms
Like 37 million Americans last Wednesday night, I sat transfixed as I watched the previously unknown figure of Sarah Palin turn herself into the angel of the Republican party. But the burning issue in my mind was: what is a hockey mom? HP>>
September 1, 2008 - Not Even a Woman Can Win it for McCain
John McCain made a brilliant move in choosing Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska, to be his running-mate. This appointment ought to make up for all his own deficiencies. Palin is young. She’s female. She’s attractive; she’s got some celebrity, having been the runner-up in a Miss Alaska beauty pageant. HP>>
August 18, 2008 - Will Hillary Rain on Obama’s Parade?
The story I’d been hearing for some time has finally come out in the open: Hillary Clinton, Bill, and many of her major financial supporters, known as “bundlers”, are so livid at what they see as underhanded play by the Obama team that they intend to eviscerate what ought to be Obama’s coronation at the Democratic Party Convention in Denver this week. HP>>
August 11, 2008 - Creative Brits are the Talk of the Town
In New York, the pre-movie hype about Woody Allen’s latest movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, had all been about the kiss between Penélope Cruz, onscreen and real-life girlfriend of male lead Javier Bardem, and America’s modern version of Marilyn Monroe, Scarlett Johansson. HP>>
August 4, 2008 - It’s Official: Guys Can Wear Shorts to Work
For women, dressing for summer here is a whole lot easier (and cheaper) than in London. You know that stepping outside will feel like walking into a blast furnace, so you choose pretty light sundresses and then you buy a cardigan to battle the freezing air-conditioning inside. HP>>
July 28, 2008 - I’ve Almost Put My Sons on the Stage
The light-bulb went off while I was driving home last weekend. From the back seat of the car, my twin five-year-olds burst into song: “I’m a joker, I’m a smoker, I’m a midnight toker …” HP>>
July 21, 2008 - Divorce is Up, Personal Trainers Down
Last week, in the wake of the near-implosion of mortgage insurer Fannie Mae, and with rumors swirling about the fate of Lehman Brothers, where the stock has plummeted 70 percent, I got an email from a friend. Instead of his usual pithy jokes — he sent me his investment fund’s second quarter report. HP>>
July 14, 2008 - Beacons of Hope Glimmer in Dark Financial Times
New York’s billionaires, it seems, have not really noticed the downturn. They still spend their summers on lavish yachts in Europe, and are still flying in their own planes. Hearteningly, they also continue to give philanthropically on a vast scale. HP>>
July 7, 2008 - Oh, For the Days of Divorce With Dignity
The headlines here recently seem to have all been about sex - and costly, illicit sex at that. HP>>
July 3, 2008 - Time For Obama to Grow Up
A few months ago I went to a luncheon on New York’s Upper East Side and saw Michelle Obama speak, without notes, without hesitation. HP>>
July 2, 2008 - Good Luck Angelina!
As Angelina Jolie bravely brings twins into this world, she has my good wishes—and encouragement, since raising twins, as any parent of multiples knows, is something completely different from raising siblings one at a time. HP>>
June 30, 2008 - The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Supermodel
I know what it’s like to face a birthday and ponder the meaning of life. This Thursday is my birthday, and thinking about turning a year older has been keeping me up at night. HP>>
June 30, 2008 - Trial Runs for Wall Street’s Finest
It’s muggy here - a point emphasised by the increasing number of sweating brows I’ve watched on TV the past week. These brows mainly belong to men in suits who are on their way in and out of courthouses on charges of white-collar crime. HP>>
