“Of course I do!” said Rudolph Giuliani jovially when the Transom asked if he remembered the 1987 release of the original Wall Street. “I was the U.S. attorney when that movie was done the first time. It was about my cases! Boeski, Milken, Levine. Sure. I remember it in great detail–the accurate parts and the inaccurate parts!” He wagged his finger like a scolding yenta.
The former mayor waited to be shepherded to his seat with wife Judith at Sunday evening’s Southampton Cinema screening of Wall Street II: Money Never Sleeps. The Watermill residents arrived soon before the theater dimmed and were instructed by publicist Peggy Siegel, “You have to step over Alfred Taubman!” She waved toward two vacant seats in the middle of a row at the back of the theater.
Minutes earlier, real estate mogul Aby Rosen also squeezed past Mr. Taubman into the deeper vacancies of the row, causing the shopping mall magnate to exclaim drolly, “Aby, you’re a jock!”
Mr. Taubman took advantage of his coveted position on the aisle, stretching his cognac suede loafer into the walkway, a vermillion sock revealed in the extension. The retail giant splayed his knees to make way for Mrs. Giuliani, who offered an uncomfortable, “Hi, Al, how are you?” while shimmying past.
The screening assembled a convenient coterie of finance heavyweights, including Leon Black, Steve Schwartzman and Pete Peterson, as well as Martha Stewart. White Birch Paper billionaire Peter Brant, whose explosive divorce from model Stephanie Seymour made fodder for the cover of the Times Sunday Styles section that morning, attended the screening with sons Harry and Peter Jr.
Howard Stern arrived with wife Beth Otrosky, who clung sweetly to her husband in a clingy striped shift dress.
“Oh my God, I don’t even remember. I just remember I loved it,” said the radio personality of his first time seeing the original. “I was in New York, I was working at KROQ,” he recalled, “and I don’t remember anything specifically about that time–just that I loved the movie.”
What does the couple do in the Hamptons on a rainy day?
“Come to the movies,” Ms. Otrosky said.
“Play chess,” countered her husband.
“This is my first summer out here, and this is the first time I’ve experienced the rain,” admitted London native and Jimmy Choo creatrice Tamara Mellon. “So today I stayed in and watched DVDs with my daughter.” What did they watch? “Disney movies.”
Ms. Mellon, teetering in python heels, told the Transom nostalgically of her first time seeing the original film: “Oh, it was one of my favorite movies of the time, I was in London. I think I had just left school in Switzerland and I was starting my first job working at Brown’s.”
Asked if she knew anyone then with a job like the ones depicted in the film, the designer shrugged wistfully, “I was too young.”
An A-list overflow forced latecomers and second-stringers to a second theater. Ms. Mellon opted to join the Siberia-bound in lieu of a first-row seat. The designer, who wore an haute army jacket, discovered a shortage of seats as her plus-one beckoned her to the two front-row seats he had saved.
“Is there nothing else?” she asked.
W editor Stefano Tonchi, in a black suit that glimmered with the subtlest iridescence, paced up the aisle exasperated. When approached by the Transom, he put up both hands like the victim of a holdup, “I’m sorry, I must find a seat.”
Polo preeminence Nacho Figueras and wife Delfina Blacquier chatted at the back of the theater with David and Julia Koch, who were seated in the back row. Ms. Koch eagerly asked where the couple were sitting.
“We have to go to the second screening room, I think,” Mr. Figueras said.
Ms. Koch then asked if the couple would be coming to the post-screening dinner held at a private Southampton residence, to which the polo couple replied deftly, “Yes, if we find someone to watch the kids.”
What does Billy Joel ex and gourmet du jour Katie Lee do on rainy Hamptons days? Cook, of course!
“Today I made a barbecue brisket in my slow-cooker and had friends over and ate and lay around. It was a really good day for doing nothing,” said the pale brunette, hair down and frizz-less despite the downpour.
What were you doing in the late ’80s when the first Wall Street was released in theaters?
“Well, I guess I was a toddler.”
“I’ve seen Wall Street 1 tons of times,” Closing Bell co-anchor Maria Bartiromo told the Transom, “but I don’t remember the first time I saw it.”
Ms. Bartiromo, who has several cameos in the sequel, added, “But, you know, in this one there were some cameos with some CNBC people, so we’re excited.”
Have you ever seen yourself onscreen before?
“Actually I have; I mean, I’m on every day.”
After the introduction of the film, Ms. Siegel notified guests, “I just want you to know there are a ton of cameos, so it’s O.K. to cheer for your friends!” (The only theaterwide cheering was for Ms. Siegel’s own brief appearance in the film.)
Shuffling out of the theater, author Tom Wolfe, birdlike and genteel in his Twainian white suit, told the Transom of the sequel: “I thought it was very nice that money solved everything. You know, a hundred thousand at the end and everyone lived happily ever after, you’ve just gotta know where to put your money.”
“No, Mr. Wolfe, 100 million,” the Transom pointed out.
“I mean a million,” the writer amended, waving one hand to indicate how irrelevant the increment.
