It’s hot as hades in New York as I write, as it was all day today, and yesterday, and the day before that. Dog days of summer, they used to call them. And it’s hot as hades in the West and across the Atlantic in Europe. Makes you wonder about global warming; also reminds you, it’s summertime.

Out in Southampton over the weekend, they didn’t escape the summer heat although on Sunday night they cooled off at the UA Southampton Cinema on Hill Street where they screened Curtis Hanson’s latest In Her Shoes starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Colette playing sisters and Shirley MacLaine playing their mother. The screening was hosted by thirteen sets of sisters, such as Samantha and Serena Boardman, Patricia Patterson and Geraldine Shephard, Alice and Lucy Sykes (Alice wasn’t there), Bettina and Donna Zilkha, Melissa Briggs Bradley and Fiona Druckenmiller (Fiona wasn’t there), Aerin and Jane Lauder, Eugenie and Fernanda Niven, Alex and Kate Hampton (no shows), Gillian and Lydia Hearst-Shaw (last minute cancellations), Alex and Olivia Chantecaille, Frances and Stephanie Currey, Hilary Geary Ross and Robin Pickett (no), and Andrea and Cristina Greeven.

This was considered a first dramatic role for Cameron Diaz who plays a gorgeous girl who can’t read but can get the guys and Toni Colette who is the not-so-gorgeous sister but is a lawyer and smart as a whip, and guess who gets the guy? Well, you’ll just have to plunk your dollars down at the box-office and find out. Shirley playing the mother reminded a lot of people of the lovely Terms of Endearment.

Afterwards everyone repaired to the new Nello’s, formerly Club Colette on North Main Street for a fabulous dinner and lots of talk.

A lot of talk was about the night before and the small dinner party that Sale Johnson threw at the Tavern (which we'll have pictures for tomorrow), in the VIP Lounge for her great friend Elvis White and his HOT new band. After the dinner, everyone went out into the Tavern and joined a bigger crowd for a concert by White and his band. Huge Success!

Elvis White, who is on Ms. Johnson’s private label “1720” has a recorded a debut album that will be released by Universal Records on September 26th. Meanwhile the band is embarking on a 21 city national tour. The night before Sale’s party and the concert at the Tavern, they played The Beacon Theater in Manhattan on 75th and Broadway, and then this past Sunday night, they played for the Black Congressional Caucus in Washington. Now it’s onto Miami, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, St. Louis, Philadelphia, New Haven, Baltimore, Nashville.

They were so popular out East that Sale is hoping to bring them back to the Hamptons either for the weekend of the Hampton Classic on August 20-21st and/or Saturday September 3rd during Labor Day weekend. If you just can’t wait another minute to learn more you can always visit their website: www.elviswhite.com.

Over on the isle of Capri (Cap-ree to some, Cuh-pree to others), Italian cashmere tycoon brothers Sergio and Pier Luigi Loro Piana organized 10 days of sport, fashion and fun for their nearest and dearest. They were on Capri for the 50th Anniversary of one of Italy’s oldest, most prestigious and most picturesque sporting events, the Regata dei Tre Golfi, a 170-mile race named after the Gulfs of Pozzuoli, Gaeta and Salerno.

Pier Luigi “Pigi” Loro Piana captained his sailboat, the 84 ft. long My Song, which he named after Keith Jarrett’s famous tune of the same name. Pigi and his 25-member crew, all decked-out in Loro Piana’s chic high-tech storm proof sportswear, came in 1st place in the preliminary trials.

On to Rome, where the International Horse Show, Piazza di Siena, was held for its 73rd year inside the Villa Borghese. The most elegant Luisa and Sergio, along with Pigi and Laura watched the show from their marquee filled with white peonies.

Marisela and Margherita Federici

The Loro Pianas have sponsored the Gran Premio for seven years. Half of Europe, the chic half of course, joined Loro Piana's, including Princess Alessandra Borghese and her best pal Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, Prince and Princess Ruspoli, Princess Pignatelli, Princesses Vittoria Windisch-Graetz, Count and Countess Federici and every other principe and principessa in Italia. Well, maybe not every one.

Maili Zegna, opera director Joseph Lee, and the American Ambassador to Italy, Mel Sembler also watched as the Loro Piana team claimed three gold medals, one silver and one bronze.

The competition ended later that evening with a dazzling performance by the hundreds of uniformed military men on horseback simulating battle during the fascinating Carosello dei Carabinieri, which the Loro Pianas and their guests celebrated, Italian style, with an appetizing speghettata.

International guests stayed at The Hassler, Europe’s ultra private, exclusive hotel owned by the fifth-generation Swiss hotelier Roberto E. Wirth, who personally greets every guest as they walk through the door (well, almost every guest). Famous guests have included Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, who spent their honeymoon at the romantic hotel; the Kennedy clan; Henry Kissinger; George Clooney; Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas; Hugh Grant; Tenors Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton Bill Gates, Madonna; Nicole Kidman, the automotive heiresses, sisters Anne and Charlotte Ford who stay there almost every summer before Anne goes off to Capri for her annual sojourn. Even the not-so-famous, like DPC’s stayed there a couple of times.

So as you can imagine, good times were had by all Mama Mia!

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