Why yes, we grownups have playtime, too! For me it was a weekend of fun, fabulous people having wondrous times.
After a wildly successful “Whodunit” weekend last year, co-founders East Hampton Mayor Jerry Larsen, his wife Lisa Larsen, Jackie Dunphy and Carrie Doyle did it again this past weekend!
It was my joy to have Dan’s Papers as one of the media sponsors, enabling me and the extraordinary, incomparable Dan Rattiner and his wonderful wife Chris Wasserstein to share the weekend’s activities.
We kicked off the weekend at the historic oceanfront Maidstone Club for a cocktail party, which gave me the opportunity to meet new friends and old, including Marty Cohen, chairman of the historic Guild Hall board, and his talented wife Michele Cohen, who is the chair of the unique Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan.
We had recently met at a fundraiser for Guild Hall held in Palm Beach, so it was a treat to reconnect. Ironically, Michele shared with me that in early May, her museum is holding an exhibit and sale of artists who design jewelry. My friend Donna Schneier, along with a friend, had conceived of BIJOUX at the Museum of Arts and Design under a different name and when she moved to Palm Beach, the show continued under its new name and was held at the Boca Raton Museum of Art this past March.
I’m addicted to collecting work from these wonderfully talented artists! Keep you posted with details regarding the upcoming show in Manhattan!
I was talking with Alissa London, who is based in Sag Harbor and Manhattan, and I told her that I publish Dan’s Papers. An enormous smile appeared on her face as she said that her husband, Manhattan attorney Cary London, was addicted to Dan’s Papers. She ran off to get him to meet me. He was there to lead a panel of crime writers and I listened intently as he shared his devotion to Dan’s Papers, our enormously popular weekly newspaper on the North and South Forks.
It’s always fun to meet fans because we put out our media daily and weekly and I can’t know all our readers, so I was happy to hear his delight in what we publish!
A few minutes later, I met Kristen Gibbons Feden, a guest of honor who was going to share her experience prosecuting Bill Cosby and other sex offenders while she worked for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. We bonded when I told her we own Metro Philadelphia and she joyously said, “oh, I love that paper!”
Later in the weekend, I sat front row center with Dan and Chris and was mesmerized by her story of her prosecution of the now infamous Bill Cosby. She shared how trying it was to work the case with all the publicity around his trial.
“I prepared for the prosecution and mapped my closing arguments, but when I heard Cosby laughing as I listed his crimes for the jury, I turned to the jury, threw out my playbook and passionately presented his outrageous injustices of sexual attacks perpetrated on drugged women. I won the case,” she proudly shared with the sold out spellbound audience at her lecture!
She went on to tell us about a case that broke my heart. A 10-year-old girl told her mom that her stepfather was abusing her, but her mother did not want her husband prosecuted because he was the one who supported the family. He was arrested and jailed and the family was given financial support to survive with him in jail!
Kristen was such a brilliant speaker, having shared her experiences being a public prosecutor and now doing it in private practice. No wonder the planning committee brought her from Philly!
I saw her after the festival ended as she was checking out of my friend Antonella Bertello’s Baker House. We hugged and promised to keep in touch! We will!
Later during the festival, we also heard the brilliant and beautiful New York Times No. 1 best-selling author Ashley Flowers speak about her latest novel, “All Good People Here.”
East Hampton’s extraordinary Whodunit weekend, “where mystery and true crime meet the sea,” is not to be missed! Make sure you put it on your calendar now for next April!
Messaging through art
After the festival, the Rattiners and I visited my dear friend, artist Hans Van de Bovenkamp, at his 8-acre sculpture garden in Sagaponack.
I noticed his new heart sculptures and when I asked about it he said, “with all the conflict in our world, we must remember to love!”
And then I saw a powerful sign in his studio that repeated that theme: “When you see my art you see my heart!” That said it all!
See more photos on QNS.com and DansPapers.com.
Love to you, my dear readers. Until next time!
