The Great Un-Pretender
“The only thing that’s left is work,” said Robert, 46, a doctor. “You’ve got so much to do, who has time to be romantic?” Robert told a story about how he’d recently been involved with a woman he really liked, but after a month and a half, it was clear that it wasn’t going to work out. “She put me through all these little tests. Like I was supposed to call her on Wednesday to go out on Friday. But on Wednesday, maybe I felt like I want to kill myself, and God only knows how I’m going to feel on Friday. She wanted to be with someone who was crazy about her. I understand that. But I can’t pretend to feel something I don’t.”
“Of course, we’re still really good friends,” he added. “We see each other all the time. We just don’t have sex.”
Narcissus at the Four Seasons
On a recent Sunday night, I went to a charity benefit at the Four Seasons. The theme was “Ode to Love.” Each of the tables was named after a different famous couple—there was Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, Narcissus and Himself, Catherine the Great and Her Horse, Michael Jackson and Friends. Al D’Amato sat at the Bill and Hillary table. Each table featured a centerpiece made up of related items—for instance, at the Tammy Faye Bakker table there were false eyelashes, blue eye shadow and lipstick candles. Michael Jackson’s table had a stuffed gorilla and Porcellana face cream.
Bob Pittman was there. “Love’s not over—smoking is over,” Bob told me, grinning, while his wife, Sandy, stood next to him, looking stunning. She was about to climb a mountain in New Guinea.
I went home alone, but right before I left, someone handed me the jawbone of a horse from the Catherine the Great table.
Love at the Bowery Bar: Epilogue
Donovan Leitch got up from Francis Ford Coppola’s table and came over. “Oh no,” he said. “I totally believe that love conquers all. Sometimes you just have to give it some space.”
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