Social Diary 8/17/04 - Nicky Hilton and Todd Meister were married

Photo-Relationships

Nicky Hilton at her graduation party at Cellar bar, June 2001. Photo: JH.

Nicky Hilton. July, 2004
(AP Photo/Jennifer Graylock)

Nicky Hilton, the 20 year old hotel heiress and Todd Meister, a 33-year-old New Yorker with ties to Wall Street, Southampton and Palm Beach, were married over the weekend in one of those Las Vegas marriage mills about 2:30 on Saturday night/Sunday morning. The surprise (to the world) led many to draw a conclusion and comparison to Britney Spears and her 55-hour matrimonial circumstance — a natural conclusion, considering the publicity machines that operate about both young women.

Todd Meister
(Patrick McMullan)

The new groom is also, in a way, “the boy next door,” as he’s been part of the Hilton family orbit for several years now. But any comparison between him and the Spears groom ends there – at least socio-economically. Meister is the son of the very wealthy Robert Meister, vice-chairman of the multibillion dollar Aon Risk Services international insurance brokerage. The son, the groom, is said to be in the money management business and besides whatever that entails for him, he’s a young man with the time and the money to get around. It may be splitting hairs, but chances are the bridegroom’s immediately family is richer than the bride’s.

Five years after they seemingly just “appeared” on the scene, the Hilton sisters, despite the legions of the reproachful incredulous who never “understood” their celebrity, continue to excite the paparazzi and the international tabloids, not to mention the “vast wasteland” to use the now ancient words of long FCC chairman Newton Minow, of television programming. Two nice looking young girls, sisters, without much in the way of personality or talent, unobtrusive yet glaringly prominent in the light of cameras, somehow remaining some kind of ideal to millions of girls somewhere out there, as well as a sexual fantasy to millions of boys (and men) somewhere out there as well as every place else.

Aby Rosen and Samantha Boardman
(Patrick McMullan)

The new bridegroom is well known on the social party/circuit here in Manhattan, as well as the Hamptons and Palm Beach. He’s New York bred, a Harvard alum who for years dated a contemporary, the beautiful Samantha Boardman, one of two daughters of banking heiress Pauline Pitt of Palm Beach and Dixon Boardman, who a few years ago divorced his first wife and married the beautiful Princess Arrianna Hohenlohe, a woman about the same age as his daughters. After her breakup from Meister, Ms. Boardman began a relationship with Aby Rosen, the German real estate tycoon and art collector who owns (and restored) Lever House on Park Avenue. Mr. Rosen is a number of years older than Ms. Boardman. After the breakup, Mr. Meister dated the lovely Elizabeth Kieselstein-Cord, a contemporary of the Hilton sisters, and then Charlotte Freund, also about nineteen. He’s been chummy with Nicky Hilton for some time now although most people thought of it as “just friends.” Many believed Meister was still carrying the torch for Ms. Boardman.

So the Meister-Hilton merger came as a big surprise to all those kids out there in television-land, which includes Palm Beach, Southampton and the isle of Manhattan. However, to those who think the bride is too young, her mother married her father when she was nineteen and it’s been a very successful relationship and family.

“Life is a cabaret old chum,
So come to the cabaret.”

Reviewing some of our early layouts of the Hilton sisters over the past few years, we see that they look much the same now as they did four years ago, with the exception of Nicky’s dark tresses (she went from blonde to dark brown around the time of the Rick Solomon-Paris Hilton sex video revelations). The pictures at her high school graduation party which took place in Cellar bar of the Bryant Park Hotel include Lizzie Grubman just weeks before she made headlines at the nightclub at Conscience Point in Southampton. There’s also the groom-to-be present, wearing a wig (dressed as a pimp at Lara Shriftman and Chris Heinz' "Pimps and Ho's" birthday bash) and a blue baseball cap at Paris' 21st birthday party, as well as another future/now past girlfriend, Elizabeth Kieselstein-Cord.

Reflecting on these one is reminded of the now classic film starring Marisa Berenson and Liza Minnelli and that Kander and Ebb now classic:

“Life is a cabaret old chum,
So come to the cabaret.”

Todd Meister and Rena Sindi at Lara Shriftman and Chris Heinz' "Pimps and Ho's" birthday bash. April, 2001. Photo: DPC.

Kathy Hilton, Paris Hilton, and Todd Meister at Paris Hilton's 21st birthday party at Studio 54. February, 2002.

Nicky Hilton's graduation party at Cellar bar, June 2001

Jessica Meisels, Lizzie Grubman, and Nicky Hilton

Jessica Meisels, Lizzie Grubman, Nicky Hilton talking to Rick Hilton, and Paris Hilton

Catherine Saxton and Marc Bouwer

Paris Hilton

Jessica Meisels, Lizzie Grubman, and Paris Hilton

Nicky Hilton and Rena Sindi

Devon Aoki and Paris Hilton talk over their friend

Noemie Lenoir with friends

Paris Hilton with Marisa Bregman and Amanda Hearst

Kathy Hilton and Rena Sindi

Elizabeth Kieselstein-Cord and Rena Sindi

Todd Meister (in the blue hat)

Hungry?

Nicky with more friend

Nicky's graduation party comes to a close ...

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Back in January of 2003 Nicky Hilton threw a party to launch a special collection for Samantha Thavasa New York and to give a sneak peak of the Bungalow Bag