Holiday Parties

The Christmas-y scene at Doubles. 8:00 PM. Photo: DPC.

Georgette Mosbacher held her annual Holiday cocktail party last night in her Fifth Avenue apartment. This is one of the highlights of the Christmas/Holiday season in New York because Georgette gives a Very Good party. Because: there’s enough of everything and even too much if you’re in the mood, be it champagne, wine, hors d’oeuvres; and then there are the guests, the mix. Mae West once said: “one and one makes two, two and two makes four and four make ten ... if you know how to work it.” Georgette knows how.

Her main reception room is quite grand, as you can see. I don’t know if it’s the high ceiling and the sense of space that it creates, but Georgette’s guests are very friendly, almost universally. This is not always so in the upper echelons of New York life, especially as the upper gets more upper. For there is often a lot of working going on. Disguised by a lot of attitude. Competition. It can be found in the homes of some of the nicest people when friends and associates are gathered. It can be found outside their homes too: I am and You’re not. Or so they like to think, if in fact it has anything to do with thinking.

The Mosbacher living room at the end of the party after many guests had departed.

Not true at chez Mosbacher. I think it’s the hostess, the flame-tressed lady who’s lived a big life on both Coasts for a long long time (even though she’s still une poulet de printemps). She’s a babe doubling, tripling, quadrupling as entrepreneur, saloniste and CEO. She and her sister Lyn Paulsin, one or the other or sometimes both, are there at the door as guests arrive off the elevator. Everyone gets a big welcome, kiss-kiss. There is just a lot of bonhomie going on, especially conversation. You see all kinds of people, businessmen, bankers, ambassadors, media people including some famous faces.

Mrs. Mosbacher is a well known Republican and so it’s no surprise that many of the media personages on her guest list lean That Way. But not all. At least not in public. Last night, for example in the flow of rooms, around the buffet, quaffing the bubbly, were Monica Crowley, Bill O’Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh, separately, that is. Mr. O’Reilly in person looks like a long, tall, almost-ornery son of an Irishman. Mr. Limbaugh looks a little like Spanky from Our Gang, grown up in sunnier climes. And Ms. Crowley is a very pretty woman with a warm, friendly smile and bright eyes.

The spread.

It’s the environment too, a room that’s flatteringly lit with enough gilt and sparkle to flatter even more. This helps make the music. If there were serious conversations, they were out of my earshot. And maybe there weren’t. After all, it’s the Holiday Season and people are more primed to looking the other way when it comes to matter of gravity and the forces of nature. That are all around us.

Mrs. Mosbacher also had a plethora of Santas in her decor, here, there and everywhere, a nostalgia that amuses or at least arouses memory of other times, maybe better times, a thousand moments and beauties among them. Just enough to evoke at least a glimpse of the holiday cheer. That was last night at Georgette Mosbacher’s.

Richard Turley, Yanna Avis, and Jonathan Farkas

Allison Stern and Lyn Paulsin

Paula Zahn and Nora Ephron

Rush Limbaugh and Lyn Paulsin

Political consultant Robert Zimmerman passes a thought to the ear of political consultant Ed Rollins

Jolie Hunt and Georgette Mosbacher

Sharon Handler

Chris Buckley and Jolie Hunt

Lyn Nesbit with Dick and Francesca Stanfill Nye.

the shoot and boot of those fashion sisters, Somers Farkas and Amy Fine Collins

Pat Altschul and her son Whitney

Christy Ferer

Felicia Taylor

Christy Ferer and Felicia Taylor

Holiday decor at Georgette's

Judy and Ambassador Ed Ney with Mrs. Federbush

Faye Wattleton and Richard Cohen

Bill O'Reilly in in consultation

Jeanne Lawrence, Stephanie Krieger, and Brian Stewart

Lloyd Grove and Joanne de Guardiola

Laurie Dhue

Nancy Collins with Stanford and Sandra Warshawsky

Michael Gross and Sessa Johnson

Annette Tapert and Peggy Siegal

Adrienne Vittadini and Liz Peek

Daniel Gregory and Karen McCallum

Pam Taylor (right)

Annabelle and Alberto Mariaca

Dr. Karen Goulandris with Diahn and Tom McGrath

Annabelle Mariaca, April Gow, and Anna Christina Alvarado

Muffie Potter Aston talking to Lyn Paulsin

After leaving the party, I grabbed a cab to ride down the avenue to Doubles in the Sherry-Netherland where the Members were having their big holiday dinner. This is the work of Wendy Carduner, the chatelaine of the private club, and Mark Gilbertson, the Upper East Side social impresario who rallies the troops.

The Doubles table awaiting the guests.

A very different crowd than the one I’d just left. Generally, younger – 20s, 30s, 40s with an accent on youth. Many friends, a great dinner, beautifully decorated rooms, and afterwards dancing. Camaraderie abounding. More Holiday Cheer.