out and about
Added: November 22, 2006, 5:38 pm	Share    Print    Email

Simon Doonan Photo by PatrickMcMullan.com

So by now we're sure you know of the Tom Cruise and Kate Holmes carnival de marriage. I mean every Himalayan sherpa and Aboriginal clan leader has been saturated with news about the famous couples' nuptials attended by major A-list Hollywoodites. Definitely not on the list we hear were Penelope Cruz, Katie's Dawson Creek co-star of six years Joshua Jackson, and most of Katie's family and friends. In attendance were Jim Carey, Richard Gere, Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. J-Lo-Hello? Where were friends Paul Newman, Steven Spielberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., and our East Hampton honey Rene Zellweger?

This just reads so much like an old fashioned studio orchestrated publicity show with a few masterminds pulling the strings to help burnish the image of a shaky career. The real marriage took place in Los Angeles last week. Wonder if any of these new friends at the wedding will soon show up in a Cruise/United Artists production. Just wondering.

We don't know what Scientologists celebrate this time of year, not that we're worried about Katie's stocking being filled, but we do look forward to all the glitz we can get right now and at least one of our friends is not letting us down.

The East End's most famous elf for more then the proverbial 15 minutes, Simon Doonan, creative director of Barney's is seeing to it that we'll all have a glittering Happy Warhol-iday this year.

Simon whose outrageously themed windows for the chic purveyor have been drawing gasps and howls for now 20 years has dedicated their lavish annual display to an over the top paean to legendary pop artist and king of consumerism, Andy Warhol.

Dear Simon always on the cutting edge has been planning this ever since he learned Sienna Miller had been signed to star as society girl gone downtown Edie Sedgwick, the one time muse and confidant of Warhol. With the 20th Anniversary of Andy's death just around the corner – next February to those counting the minutes – it's also so timely.

The holiday windows cover four periods of Andy Warhol's life: the young going to make it in New York designer, his Factory years with portraits of his idols Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, his man-seen-everywhere around town years from trashy drug dens on the lower East Side to Studio 54 and Park Avenue Ballrooms, and Andy as the ultimate collector.

Simon - and Barney's too – has so got Warhol fever. There'll be Andy everywhere from advertising to shopping bags to their collections item Christmas calendar and lots of Andy products. The catalogue has already become a collector's item. He would love it!

Matt Cavenaugh and Albert Maysles Photo by PatrickMcMullan.com

Just so, he would love Christopher Von Hohenberg's new book "Andy Warhol: the Day the Factory Died" which is filled with pictures of Andy's pals most shot at his movie premiere-like funeral, attended by Keith Haring, Robert Mapplethorpe, Francesco Clemente, and Julian Schnabel. Other personalities included Debbie Harry, Diane von Furstenberg, Bianca Jagger, Halston, Liza Minnelli, Paloma Picasso, George Plimpton, Ahmet Ertegun, Dominick Dunne, Henry Geldzahler, Claus von Bulow, Leo Castelli, Holly Solomon, Steven Sprouse and many others. I'm sure Andy, a good Catholic boy, is in heaven chuckling and only sorry he can't be here for all the hoopla. If you'd like to check out who was hanging with the platinum haired artist get the book or better yet head over to The Ferregut Tower Gallery at the top of Job's Lane. Yolanda Merchant has a terrific little display of Andy's work and Christopher's pictures!

Sad news – we told you some weeks ago about Atlantic Record's founder Ahmet Ertegun's nasty accident at the Beacon Theater. Well, Ahmet is hanging tough but not out of the hospital yet but totally devastated by the death of rhythm and blues Queen Ruth Brown this weekend. Miss Ruth was so important an artist in Atlantic's early days they called the label, home to the likes of Aretha Franklin, "the house that Ruth built." We saw Ruth in one of her last appearances in New York and she knocked us out as much as she did twenty years ago in her Tony award winning turn in "Black & Blue."

On a brighter note here's some good news from one of our most talented young actor friends. "Grey Gardens" star Matt Cavenaugh who already does double duty in the dual roles of Joseph Kennedy, Jr. and Jerry in "Grey Gardens" will moonlight or should we say daylight as Adam Munson in the long-running CBS soap opera "As the World Turns". Cavenaugh will first appear on the soap on November 29. Previously the hunky young Matt starred as Bud in the Broadway musical "Urban Cowboy" coming off the role of gay college student Mark Solomon on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live".

Now that a divorce with Supermodel Christie Brinkley seems inevitable, is Peter Cook seeking expert advice on his financial affairs?

On Thursday evening Cook was dining at Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club with a bevy of blonde real estate ladies and hedge fund hunk Dan Khoshaba CEO of KSA Capital Partners. If Peter Cook is lonely without his soon to be ex, on Sunday nights, he can come back to Bruno Jamais for "disco Sundays" beginning December 10th.

For more information, click here.

Got a juicy bit to dish? Just send a quick email to ispy@hamptons.com, call 631-734-2393, or fax 631-734-2385.