By Jonah Wolf 10/09/12 7:51pm

Shindigger

Susan Benedetto and Tony Bennett. (Eugene Mim/Patrick McMullan)

Let Him Sing Forever More: Tony Bennett Explores the Arts

Tony Bennett’s wasn’t the only gala dinner in Manhattan last Thursday, but that’s where Shindigger was, arriving at Cipriani 42nd Street for cocktail hour, just in time to catch a glimpse of Alec Baldwin. “Oh my God, he’s lost so much weight—I didn’t even recognize him!” we heard one guest whisper to another, eyeing the star who would kick off 30 Rock’s final season later that night. Mr. Baldwin’s wife, Hilaria Thomas, flaunted her Hebrew for the night’s honoree, entertainment lawyer Allen Grubman, before the couple headed off to the Norman Mailer Center benefit at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Mr. Bennett, whose nonprofit Exploring the Arts operates in New York public schools, apparently lacked Ms. Thomas’s linguistic talent. Or so we learned when we asked the 86-year-old crooner, whose third Duets album pairs him with the likes of Marc Anthony and Gloria Estefan, about his Spanish. “No habla Español,” answered his 46-year-old wife, co-host and translator, Susan Benedetto. We changed the subject to Mr. Bennett’s next album, a recently announced full-length collaboration with Lady Gaga. “I know that she’s one of the great singers of all time, but people don’t know that,” Mr. Bennett explained. “They just see another, you know, big new star coming up, but she is one hell of a singer. She can improvise as great as Ella Fitzgerald.”

We stopped at the bar to take in the student artwork, alongside photographs of Mr. Bennett (himself a talented painter) with young dancers and musicians. A disembodied voice urged us to our table, where pink paintbrushes matched the flower arrangement.  Read More

By Max Abelson 9/18/06 12:00am

Strictly Ball-Room

The hit HBO series Six Feet Under met its end in 2005, and ever since, its creator, Alan Ball, who got his start in the New York theater scene, has been pining for home.

“I sold myself to television and moved out here,” he explained on the phone from California. “I mean—I love L.A., but Read More

By Deborah Schoeneman 7/16/01 12:00am

Grubman Crackup: It Was a Bad Night at Conscience Point

Less than 24 hours after 30-year-old publicist Lizzie Grubman put her Mercedes in reverse and allegedly plowed into a bouncer and a group of 15 people who were waiting to get past the velvet ropes at Southampton’s Conscience Point Inn, the damage to the well-worn Cape Cod-style nightclub had been patched up and painted over Read More

By Kate Kelly 3/27/00 12:00am

Lizzie Grubman and Peggy Siegal: P.R. Marriage of Year

Seated at a banquette at Balthazar on a snowy March afternoon, publicist Lizzie Grubman was remembering a previous joint effort with Peggy Siegal, her brand-new business partner.

“She did the majority of the work for Two Guys and a Girl at Moomba,” said Ms. Grubman, between sips of diet Coke. “I got her the location Read More