Mangling the Met

Whispers has been to three Metropolitan Museum Gala Balls. It was before Vogue's Anna Wintour took over. We once accompanied artist Andy Warhol who at the time was probably the most outrageous guest. But that was a different era in New York City were we once lived and have visited many times.
The heady days of New York in the 70s and 80s have long past as the city has picked up an homogenized "Westfield" shopping centre feel to it much like most of the Mediterranean resorts including the once exotic Morocco where fascinating cities like Tangier and Marrakesh are almost indistinguishable from Manchester or Melbourne. Every bit of local 'colour' now has a forced tourist attraction feel to it especially when you see billboards advertising Gucci or Fendi near the old souks. The days when Whispers sat alone at a tiny Marrakesh coffee shop and within an hour found ourselves invited for drinks at Yves St Laurent's magnificent house and dinner with Madame De Gaulle are long past. Now St Laurent's house is a museum.
When designer Jasper Conran opens a hotel in the old city you know the good days have finally passed.

The Greek writer Taki Theodoracopulos, an admitted snob, has ripped into the Met's Gala Ball in only the way he can. But he's spot on.

"Once upon a time, the Metropolitan Museum’s gala ball was fun. Serious social-climbing multimillionaires competed openly for the best tables and for proximity to blue-blooded socialites like C.Z. Guest and her ilk. Pat Buckley, wife of William F., ran the show with military precision, allotting the best seats to those who had paid a fortune for them, but also to those who were young and handsome and whose pockets were not as deep. I used to be a regular. Then something happened. Anna Wintour took over after Pat’s death and the party turned into a freak show no self-respecting circus would allow on its premises.

Last week the uglies were out in force, the newspapers and glossies revealing themselves as fake-news purveyors by calling the show exclusive and impossible to get an invitation to. Do the people who write such crap take the rest of us for total idiots? The Met Gala is reserved for a few D-list celebrities, fashionistas, and advertisers. Proper souls wouldn’t be caught dead on the premises, especially near the Kardashian table. The ugliness of some of the attendants assaulted one’s frontal cortex, and I only saw the photos; imagine the horrors of seeing it live. Clinging like a barnacle to the Met’s hull, Anna Wintour’s horror show diminishes a great American institution. The freak show should be staged in Times Square, in the exact spot where the peep shows of old used to be."

Ouch !

You can read the rest here.

New York Letter #44

Paris Hilton at the Designer of The Year awards..and with brother Barron & Nicky Rothschild

 Some snaps from Whisper's resident New York City spy the ubiquitous social snapper Patrick McMullan. 
It's just a hint of the Big Apple's social scene and golly, there isn't a newsreader or footballer to be spotted.
left : Richard Gere at the Carnegie Hall 125th Anniversary dinner 
right : Henry Kissinger at the Carnegie Hall dinner

Donald Trump's ex Ivana Trump with Karl Wellner & Larry Kaiser at the Designer of the Year awards

singer Neil Sedaka (you remember him: mega hits) & wife Leba at the Designer of The Year wards.

Meanwhile Downtown at the Lucky Bee Restaurant in Soho owned by Aussies Rupert Noffs & Matty Bee, writer Sir Salman Rushdie paid a visit for dinner- pictured here with Noffs

Rupert & Matty Take Manhattan

There's more than one Aussie Rupert wielding power in New York. Whilst Rupert Murdoch oversees a global media empire from his NYC base, fashion entrepreneur Rupert Noffs is carving out his own successful career with his unique Gideon Shoes that are fast becoming the favourite footwear of young celebrities and popping up for sale in more and more US fashion stores.

Rupert Noffs (left) and Matty Bennett

Just last September we reported on the wedding of Noffs, grandson of Sydney's Wayside Chapel founder Rev Ted Noffs, when  Rupert married his long time partner Matty Bennett.
Now Bennett, known affectionately as Matty Bee is opening a restaurant with Noffs on Broome Street (where Whispers lived for 2 years in a loft) on the fashionable Lower East Side.

 To be called The Lucky Bee, food will be South East Asian inspired "from farm to table" and will join the small number of popular cafes and eateries run by Aussie ex-pats such as The Fashionable Cow and former model & photographer Lincoln Pilcher's Kingswood.
# When Whispers lived in Broome Street we were advised by the local plod to avoid walking home late at night. How times change.  Below : the location for The Lucky Bee