No Sleep Till Bridgehampton: A Hamptons Kickoff
The social season in the Hamptons got underway last Saturday at the Bridgehampton Tennis and Surf Club. A coterie of elected officials from New York City and New York State attended a fund-raiser for Long Island’s LGBT Network.
Many of them sounded ready to sink the recently announced presidential candidacy of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Asked if she planned to endorse him, Letitia James, the New York attorney general, replied (with a big grin), “no comment, no comment, no comment.” Ritchie Torres, a New York City councilman who is running for congress, said cryptically, “the mayor’s presidential prospects are as great as mine.”
Also mingling were David Kilmnick, the LGBT Network chief executive; Corey Johnson, the speaker of the New York City Council; and Vanessa Gibson, a councilwoman from the Bronx.
Jean Shafiroff, the social dragonfly, attended with her publicist, Matt Rich, and her friend Rebecca Seawright, a New York State assemblywoman. Someone (cough, Mr. Rich) offered to donate $500 to the LGBT Network if Ms. Shafiroff could hula hoop for one minute, and in front of the cameras, she obliged.
As the sun began to set, Ms. James, who became attorney general in January, was on a patio overlooking the ocean. “This is Memorial weekend and I am in the Hamptons, on the beach with great friends and family, drinking a mimosa and having a good time. It’s taking off a little bit of the stress, and I needed this.”
And who was her posse for this beach weekend?
“I’ve got a girl posse, I’ve got a gay posse, I’ve got a black posse,” she said. “All in my body.”
–NYtime.com written by: By Ben Widdicombe