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The hottest controversy in the Hamptons right now is the ongoing Westhampton eruv saga: In the latest news, at a town meeting to discuss the eruv — a special fenced-in zone around the synagogue in which people can do things on the Sabbath — a bunch of people jeered and walked out when a panelist read anti-Semitic e-mail the temple had received. Meanwhile, looking ahead to less touchy topics, Courteney Cox, Sean Lennon, Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx and Candice Bergen will all be (we think?) at a Darfur fundraiser Saturday in Water Mill where some lucky person will win the chance to play golf with David Arquette in Los Angeles.
Chevy Chase hit a line drive, Alec Baldwin umped, and Lori Singer and B. Smith also took part in the star-studded 60th Artists vs. Writers baseball benefit game, which the artists won four to two, their second victory in two years. In other sporty news, Michael Phelps fever has sparked a rage for swimming lessons here, with one instructor charging $200 an hour. And wow, hair and makeup guru Paul Labrecque sure has a gorgeous, $1 million home in Wainscott right near Ron Lauder’s place.
Now that Eli Zabar runs the Amagansett Farmers Market, tomatoes are $8 a pound … but don’t expect to buy staples like Tampax and aspirin here like you used to! Royal tennis consorts Steffi Graff and Andre Agassi headlined a benefit this weekend, apparently making for Agassi’s first time in the Hamptons. And meet the eco-conscious town official behind the strikedown of Southampton’s ban on clotheslines.
The guy who owns the one-screen Art Deco movie house in Sag Harbor wants to sell it for $12 mil but also wants it to stay a cinema-cum-performing arts space. “Dave from the Hamptons” (i.e., Guv Paterson on vacation) called in to WFAN to lament the end of the Mike and the Mad Dog show’s nineteen-year run. And in a really big property transaction, East Hampton, Suffolk County and New York State paid former talk-show host Dick Cavett $18 mil for 77 acres of gorgeous Montauk bluffs overlooking the ocean.
British jetsetter Tamsin Lonsdale says she’s hosting a Halloween murder mystery night at a “16th-century” Hamptons home. (Wow, we didn’t know that Hamptons homes dated to the 1500s.) At the Keszler Gallery, fancy Hamptons types mixed and mingled at the latest showing of Russell Young’s diamond-dusted paintings of icons like James Dean and Liz Taylor. Also this past weekend, supposedly, a documentary filmmaker squired around a cleaning lady from Ohio to film her reaction to the wacky, over-the-top, richy-rich Hamptons.
An Iraqi and his relatives who were persecuted by Al Qaeda are moving to North Haven, guests of the media-studies director at the Ross School in East Hampton. And finally, in a very emotional and moving video clip, Kooky DIY fashion icon Lauren Ezersky gets all choked up talking about the importance of horses at the recent Amaryllis Farm Equine Rescue benefit.
