Social Diary 7/14/03 - The launch of Tiffany's "Singular Sensations"

The weekend past

On the Great Lawn in Central Park. Sunday at 4:00 PM.

Women represent the warmth of life — they're frail and vulnerable. They only become unpleasant when they feel the need to create a defence, and they exaggerate. That's why they become divas. I instinctively work against this defence mechanism. Women always demand the same thing, that you deserve their complete confidence, because they don't know how to defend themselves unless they become arrogant.

From an interview with Franco Zeffirelli by
Andrew Clark for the FT Weekend.

We used to be neighbors – Mr. Zeffirelli and I – back in California. Neighbors in that part of the world being those who live within walking distance. Up in the hills off Doheny. The maestro rented a house every year from a New Yorker named Dorothy Strelsin, farther up the hill from my house.

Neighbors very often don’t get to know one another these days, at least in big towns like L.A. and New York. In the car culture of Southern California, like the suburbs anywhere, it’s even more difficult because you only see people driving somewhere. But it turned out that we had a bond, Mr. Z. and me; albeit a brief one.

I used to walk my dogs a couple of times a day on the only sidewalk on that part of the (rather steep) hill – a nice concrete paved walk that wound up the through the area what is often called Birdland because all the streets are named after birds (e.g., Flicker, Robin, Swallow, Kingfisher, Warbler, Oriole, Blue Jay, Thrasher, Thrush).

The sidewalks of Doheny Drive winding up through Birdland.

There were quite a few celebrities up there including Madame Alex, the most famous madam on the West Coast, as well as Eddy Murphy, Larry Flynt, Ricardo Montalban, Vanna White, Britt Eklund, and of course I often saw them (or they saw me) during the walks.

Zeffirelli in the L.A. days in the 80s.

I, of course, wasn’t a celebrity and so it never occurred to me that I had a special identity also: the big tall man who walked his three small dogs (and occasionally the dogsitting dogs), the only neighbor ever seen walking those immaculately manicured lanes.

I lived on the corner of Thrush. Mr. Z lived way up at the top of Robin. And evidently when driving up (or down) he would occasionally see me with the dogs. This I learned when we met at a luncheon at someone’s house and on introduction, he said with a sunny exclamation: “oh the man with the dogs!”

Then I learned that he had dogs – Jack Russells. And, it so happened, I had among my group, a Jack Russell (named Rum Rum, who actually made the move to New York with me, and lived to be fourteen). There’s something about Jack Russells, more than any other dog I know, they seem to bring out the fraternal in many.

Polo and Rum Rum in L.A.

I never saw Mr. Zeffirelli again after that briefest of encounters about man and dogs. However, the following Christmas I received a beautiful card with a watercolor rendering of the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph and along the bottom, looking almost like an artist’s comment, was written in a most casual European penmanship, “Happy Christmas to you and the dogs – Franco Zeffirelli.”

Flattered by his memory and gesture, of this brilliantly creative and busy man, I have thenceforth always held a charmed impression of him. That was twenty years ago. So it was with that that I came upon the piece in this past weekend edition of the Financial Times. And, it did not disappoint the memory that lingers, as you can see for yourself (“Aperitivo with FT; Franco Zeffirelli) by clicking here.

The launch of Tiffany's "Singular Sensations"

Beth Canavan, Jacqueline Williams, and Nancy Stahl

Cosby George with Mary and Ian Snow

Tiffany launched their "Singular Sensations," a special exhibition of exceptional pieces by their world famous jewelry designer, Jean Schlumberger, at the New York store on Fifty-seventh and Fifth. There was a cocktail reception in association with (and benefiting) the Boy’s Club of New York, hosted by Tiffany Executive Vice Presdident Beth Canavan, Sara Ayres, Muffy Miller, Monica Noel and Alexia Hamm Ryan and in honor of Nancy Stahl.

The invitation

Big crowd anxious to see the wonders of the very gifted Schlumberger that have adorned some of the most beautiful and famous women of our time including Jacqueline Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor.

In the big crowd: Sharon Baum, Anne Bass, Laurie Bodor, CeCe Cord, Martha Glass, Jamee Gregory, Audrey and Martin Gruss, Jo and Paul Hallingby, Sharon King Hoge, Eleanora Kennedy, Jonathan and Somes Farkas, Elizabeth Bartlett, Wendy Carduner, Allison Mazzola, JoCarole Lauder, Pat Kennedy Lawford, Donald and Muffy Miller, Nancy and Joe Missett, Deborah Norvile and Karl Wellner, Sandra McConnell, Elizabeth Loomis, Kitty and Bill McKnight, Alexandra Lind Rose, Geraldine Shephard, Betty and Virgil Sherrill, Stephanie Stokes, Peter Tarantino, Amanda Taylor, Barbara and Donald Tober, Daisy and Paul Soros, Bettina Zilkha, Jim Zirin and Marlene Hess, Thorunn Wathne, Nancy Phelan, Mrs. William Manger and many many more great fans of Jean Schlumberger.

Gloria Gurney and Roberta Sandeman

Jacqueline Stahl and Carol Bellidora

Jen Pierson and Julia Kleyner

Sara Ayres

Nicole Russo

Nora Ariffin

Jamee Gregory

Wendy Carduner with Kitty and Bill McKnight

Mariela Vicini, Cathy Irwin, and Francis Shelton

Mai Harrison, Michael Kaye, and CeCe Cord

Muffy Miller, Wilber Ross, and Hillary Geary

Mai Harrison and Alexia Hamm Ryan

The work of Jean Schlumberger

Dance at Sunset Beach sponsored by Banana Republic

Leslie Klotz and Donna Karen

Reza and Marjorie Raein and friend

Andre Balazs, Ross Bleckner, Coco Brandolini, Bob Colacello, Katie Ford, Marjorie Gubelmann, Kelly Klein, Leslie Klotz, Jenny Landey, Adam Lippes, Alex Von Furstenberg hosted The AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA) 2003 Hamptons benefit, “Dance at Sunset," at Andre Balazs’ Sunset Beach resort on Shelter Island, sponsored by Banana Republic.