By Erica Schwiegershausen 8/23/12 4:44pm

Memorials

Michael Moore recounts his memories of Gore Vidal.

Dick Cavett and Friends Remember Gore Vidal

Longtime friends, colleagues and admirers of Gore Vidal gathered in the currently patriotically decorated Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre—where Mr. Vidal’s 1960 play The Best Man is playing through September 9—on Thursday afternoon to pay their respects to the recently departed writer. The mood was serious yet not solemn as many who were likely humbled to be counted among Mr. Vidal’s contemporaries took the stage to recount memories and share anecdotes from their own experiences with the man.

Reading selections from his own eulogy for Mr. Vidal and praising his friend’s great wit, Dick Cavett recounted many of Mr. Vidal’s most celebrated one-liners. His favorite, he told the audience: “Success is not enough. One’s friends must fail.”

“Whenever my friend succeeds, I die a little,” was another Vidal aphorism recalled to much laughter, and, reading a line from a message prepared by David Mamet for the memorial, Liz Smith decreed Mr. Vidal “smart enough to see through the self-interest of everyone except himself.” Yet none of this seemed to remotely deter the hordes of successful friends who seemed to be endlessly seeking his advice. Read More

By Aaron Gell 1/10/12 11:11am

Awards Season

7 Photos

Bérénice Bejo and Diane von Furstenberg

Doggone It! Harvey Weinstein and DVF Celebrate The Artist

Gossip columnist Liz Smith made her way through the dining room of the Monkey Bar on Monday afternoon, where Harvey Weinstein, Diane von Furstenberg and George Stevens, Jr. were hosting a promotional lunch on behalf of The Artist—the black-and-white silent movie that Mr. Weinstein is gently, persuasively shepherding toward an Academy Award for Best Picture—and surveyed the scene, perched side-saddle in a red leather booth. Ms. Smith, who is supposedly in her eighties, looked a few decades younger in a black leather jacket with white stitching from Carlisle. Read More

By Leon Neyfakh 1/19/09 5:28pm

Gentle Jason Ashlock Ignores Recession, Opens Literary Shop

Back in Jonesboro, Ark., they still don’t know for sure what Jason Ashlock is doing in New York City. Whenever he tells his friends and family he’s sold a book, they go to the bookstore and look for it on the shelf. “I’m like, ‘Wait 18 months!’” the boyish 28-year-old said on Sunday night, sitting Read More

By Matt Harvey 10/28/08 8:47pm

At Liz Smith Fete, Deborah Norville Gets Punchy About Sarah Palin

Last night, gossip columnist Liz Smith was toasted at the Pierre Hotel by the New York Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children for her work with children’s causes. When the Daily Transom caught up with the octogenarian columnist, who was wearing a light yellow pantsuit, she was chatting with a deeply tanned Deborah Norville, Read More