Once a year, Scully and Scully invites to shop, sip, snack and gather inspiration from the decorated tables created by what Holly Peterson might call New York’s “meritocracy.” This year, journalist turned best selling (“The Manny”) author, Peterson, was signing copies of her new, fast-paced, social satire, “The Idea of Him.” Its characters were seemingly expected, going by the place cards bearing their names in one of the elaborately set tables that are the hallmark of this event.
“The book is all about falling in love with the idea of someone, the phenomenon of that,” Peterson told us. “And what we do once the reality hits provides the narrative pulse of the book: our fear of being alone, our ability to make good choices, reinventing of ourselves and all the fears and excitement going along with that. It’s about the heavy hitters who run the city. I call them the meritocracy class, because the people who have knocked the ball out of the park in various industries, from fashion to business, art to publishing, are really a special breed of New Yorkers. They’re not necessarily the moneyed class, but, people who’ve achieved a lot.” As a former journalist who hit that home run with best seller, “The Manny,” Peterson known a lot about those achievers, who are “kind of neurotic, crazy and nuts about what they do” and “incredibly well-read.”
The Fund for Park Avenue President Barbara McLaughlin and Michael Scully greeted such guests as Muffie Potter Aston, Sydney Biddle Barrows, Kristina Baynes-Reid, Charles Bergman, Geoffrey Bradfield, Cornelia Bregman, Sharon Bush, Lucia Hwong Gordon, Eleanora Kennedy, Michèle Gerber Klein, Karen Klopp, Earl Kramer, Francine LeFrak and Richard LeFrak, Kevin McLaughlin, Alison Minton, Melissa Morris and Chappy Morris, Ann Rapp, Anna Safir, Georgina Schaeffer, Marcia Schaeffer, Dennis Scully, Jean Shafiroff, and Jane Wyeth.
Walking around, we spied Swifty’s owners Pat Attoe & Stephen Attoe and Blaine Caravaggi & Robert Caravaggi, whose table sported a large silver ship. “Jay Jolly, our director of catering, and I wanted to do afternoon tea because they’ve never done it before,” Pat Attoe explained. “Jay spotted this big beautiful ship for the centerpiece. It reminded us of import/export: the shipping of the tea.”
The Park Avenue Fund maintains the Park Avenue Malls through the seasons solely through private donations.
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Author Holly Peterson with Michael Scully and Barbara McLaughlin. (Photo: Annie Watt) |
