The made up War of the Lists

A frosty winter Sunday night in the West Village. 9:10 PM. Photo: JH.

Peggy Siegal and Andrew Saffir are familiar faces to NYSD readers. For years now their faces have graced our Party Picture pages frequently, measuring, in fact, the velocity of their social engagement in Little Ole New York. Both are Out There in a big way. Collectively they probably know thousands of people between them.

For the past two decades or so, Peggy has been gathering the social troops with her private screenings and after-screening dinner parties, all held at the behest of (and under contract to) Hollywood movie studios and producers as part of their marketing. The guests invited to view are mainly media and prominent members of the community, along with the filmmakers and the stars; i.e. opinion-makers and drum-beaters.


	Peggy Siegal

Her technique has been very successful. And Ms. Siegal, equipped with a very outgoing and highly motivated personality, has established herself as a kind of social celebrity in New York with a bright if at times somewhat thorny reputation. Her power was also enhanced by the existence of her “List” — those she deemed worthy of an invitation to a screening. For some it meant they were invited to everything. For others, it meant they were invited to some. For still others, it meant they weren’t invited at all. Anymore.

These alterations also enhanced Peggy’s social popularity which went through transitions, like her List. Guests who were dropped were often afraid to ask why, and those who did might not get an answer, or at least not an answer they’d like. Nevertheless she was relentless in the pursuit of attention for the films and the studios she worked for while also creating a vast social network for herself, both private and public, in New York, Beverly Hills, Aspen, Palm Beach, St. Bart’s and all points east, south, north and west. She reveled in the social life it made for her and she had no competition. None.

Andrew Saffir is a New York boy who cut his teeth working for Ralph Lauren in marketing, but with a longtime (dream-time) interest in film and producing. A few years ago he joined forces with two women who had another “screening” idea that was a variation on the Peggy Siegal private screening. They called themselves “Grand Classics.”

The idea was to have a star or a well-known film personality choose a “favorite film” — an old film — which would be screened for a special guest list, many of whom may not have seen it, and afterwards the star would speak ostensibly about why he or she chose it.

Peggy Siegal with Bob Colacello, Nora Ephron, and Richard Meier.

Grand Classics also brought corporate sponsors into the game, to foot the bill for the after-party at places like Soho House, the hip private club in the Meatpacking District. They also had a “list” which included many who were on Peggy Siegal’s list and many who were not. (Peggy is/was a walking who-s-in-who’s-out list; and the obvious model for gaining social sway). I don’t know this for a fact, but in all likelihood, Andrew Saffir had a big hand in creating the Grand Classics guest list.

The Grand Classics idea flourished and became very popular. Then something happened between Andrew and his bosses and, much to his surprise, they dispensed with his services abruptly. It looked an awful lot like: we don’t need you anymore, kid, so ta-ta. Andrew was rather upset and put off by this sudden change in direction but in relatively short time he recovered and came up with a better idea: holding his own screenings. If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em.


Andrew Saffir (r.) with Daniel Benedict

So he started the Cinema Society, holding private screenings in the style of Peggy Siegal, with after-screening dinners. Although unlike Peggy, but like Grand Classics, he also found corporate sponsors to pay for these events, saving the movie studios a hunk of advertising and marketing change. He also held his screenings downtown (hipper). He also began to invite a lot of the younger stars. And, like Peggy Siegal, he developed a list that left people off. (There’s no better way to get to a New Yorker’s heart and soul than to tell them no, they can’t.)

Soon Cinema Society was flourishing, and with an audience of the younger, socially prominent set mixed in with New York-based stars and celebrities and media people. Mr. Saffir also added the omnipresent and insipid and unflattering Red Carpet entrance gimmick with a bank of photographers stationed in front of a scrim advertising the evening’s sponsors and the Cinema Society, in front of which the social and celebrity guests would be photographed (and later shown on pages such as NYSD).

Last summer, in the Hamptons, the Cinema Society seemed to have come into its own as a social barometer when Donna Karan opened her beach house to the screening guests for the dinner afterwards. Soon there was a buzz that Andrew Saffir was not only competing with Peggy Siegal but beating her at her own game.

Last Friday in the Wall Street Journal, there was a report making the same claim and implying that he was winning, pointing out also that while Mr. Saffir was 40, Ms. Siegal was 60 – nudge-nudge.

Andrew Saffir with Cate Blanchett, Ben Affleck, and Ncole Kidman.

I don’t see it that way. The Cinema Society is a stop along the way for Andrew Saffir. He’s already used this venture to raise his social, but especially his business profile. The “profile” is the ace in his game and he knows it. The connections that he’s made now look like a richly cultivated field for a shrewd and ambitious man who intends to make an imprint in the industry in some way other than running promotional screenings and dinners.

Peggy Siegal on the other hand is a movie publicist of the highest order, and although the order usually ain’t that high in flackdom, she is an influential persona. She loves her business and all of the ancillary social aspects of it. In New York she’s a conduit and a catalyst for individuals, studios, agents, publishers, and media. She’s on a first name basis with half the town and every day is a new adventure for her. In terms of screenings, she holds dozens more a year than Andrew Saffir. No doubt, if she wishes, she can go his route and find sponsorships. Aside from the WSJ articles with their numbers, and their age-ist digs notwithstanding, at the end of the day, the business of private screenings has its limits in terms of sheer growth in revenue, at least for an enterprising young man with excellent executive abilities and a profound interest in product.

Out in Hollywood, private screenings are held in studio screening rooms or the homes of the moguls and their highly paid employees. If I were casting this movie, I’d put Andrew Saffir in one of those screening rooms; maybe his own, with Peggy Siegal back in New York, or someone who’s learned from her, stoking those fires of ballyhoo for all they’re worth. Perfect casting.

Our friend Jill Krementz is one of this country’s most acclaimed photojournalists. Her literary archive spans five decades and includes photos and interviews with more than 1700 writers. Jill Krementz loves writers. She was married for years to one, Kurt Vonnegut, who passed away earlier this year.

Every year she publishes an appointment diary for the New Year coming up. Besides its daily calendar, the diary includes Jill’s “insider” view of the working lives and musings of some of the world’s most prominent authors.


	Click cover to order

This year’s appointment diary cover carries Jill’s portrait of Tom Stoppard. The same picture inside is accompanied by some of his words:

“Being a playwright, at least a playwright like myself, who likes to roll up his sleeves and be part of the process of getting the vent organized, it’s tremendous fun, and in the latter stages of it, you’re living a kind of life which reminds me much more of journalism than of writing for the theatre. The page is going at midnight, or this won’t fit, or we need a piece about him, can you make it four inches longer or shorter? The last part of getting a play on is completely different from the months you’ve spent writing it in the first place.

There I don’t know it to anybody, and I do it exactly the way I think it ought to be. Once it becomes shared with the actors, the director and the designer, the person doing the music and the lighting and the audience, then it turns into a different kind of creative activity, which I enjoy very much. You have to be careful with yourself not to compromise what you’ve already done.”

Among the writers in this year’s appointments diary are: John Berendt, Edward Albee, William Styron, Margaret Mead, Susan Sontag, Janet Flanner, Frank McCourt, Thorton Wilder, Gary Trudeau, MF Fisher, Oriana Fallaci, and Kurt Vonnegut. “The Writer’s Desk” is a perfect gift for the holiday season for anyone who loves writers and their work, including those who are writers. It’s available at Barnes & Noble. Only $1695.

Below is a Photo Journal that Jill Krementz contributed to NYSD back in March of 2002:

Broderick and Lane say "Auf Wiedersehen"

Playwright Tom Meehan


Betty Bacall

Dr. Lila Coleburn and John Weidman


	Producer Rocco Landesman and son Dodge

	Carolyn and Tom Meehan

Oh, lucky me. This past Sunday I was invited to join my friends Tom and Carolyn Meehan for Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane's last performance together in "The Producers." I had seen the show before, but this matinee performance was probably even more exciting than opening night.

As Matthew and Nathan made their first entrances on stage, they were welcomed with show-stopping applause of several minutes.

In the audience I saw Betty Bacall, Frank Rich and Alex Witchel, Playwright John Weidman and his wife Dr. Lila Coleburn, Edgar and Helen Doctorow sitting with Paul and Florence Libin, Rocco and Debby Landesman with their ten-year-old son Dodge who has seen the show close to a dozen times, and on the aisle, a few rows behind us, Matthew's wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, dressed completely in orange.

Throughout the performance Tom was laughing as if he and Mel hadn't written the book and, judging from the number of ad-libs, mostly by Nathan, a lot of the words were, in fact, brand new to him.

And then there were times when he and Carolyn were quite overwhelmed.
When the curtain came down, there was thunderous applause as the crowd arose as one to give the performers the standing ovation they deserved. Photographers ran down the two aisles to take photographs of the final moments when Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman presented Broderick and Lane with bouquets of long-stemmed red roses.


	Last curtain bow together for Lane and Broderick

Brooks thanked them for giving "this handsome little Jew the greatest third act of his little old life," and Stroman told them they need to come back "where you belong" after they complete their other commitments. (Lane is going to England to work in the film of "Nicholas Nickleby" and Broderick is off to Canada for a TV film of "The Music Man.")

After the audience had filed out of the theater, Tom remained. He chatted briefly with Mel Brooks near the orchestra pit, and then he invited me to accompany him backstage. The first stop was Broderick’s dressing room where I met Matthew’s mother, Patsy. I asked her if she had cried during the performance or at the end; she said she had cried a lot, not because her son was leaving the cast but because she was so sad that his father hadn't lived long enough to witness this extraordinary experience.


Above: Mel Brooks and Tom. Below: Nathan plays dead.


	Tom and Matthew backstage

When Tom and I heard this, our eyes filled with tears.

Then we went off to see Nathan. He and Tom toasted each other with Dom Perignon. Also in Nathan's dressing room was Scott Wittman, the lyricist for Tom's next musical, "Hairspray," starring Harvey Fierstein in the role that Divine played in John Water’s original “Hairspray” film. The musical will try out in Seattle in June and open on Broadway in mid-August.

When we left the theater, the stage door was mobbed with several hundred fans all screaming "Mr. Meehan ... Mr. Meehan ...." After Mr. Meehan had signed a lot of programs and posters, we walked over to Ruby Foo's for a party given by the producers of "The Producers."

Nathan and Matthew were presented with framed Al Hirschfeld portraits of themselves hugging each other. When Producer Rocco Landesman presented the actors with their gifts, he said the demands of the show had nearly killed Lane — at which point the actor rose from his chair yelling, "What do you mean, nearly killed me?" At which point he keeled over.