"I hope you brought tissues," said Brooke Geahan, whose Accompanied Literary Society hosted a screening of Stephen Daldry's The Reader at the Tribeca Grand on Monday, Nov. 24. "It's a crier!"

Mr. Daldry's film is an adaptation of German writer Bernhard Schlink's bestselling novel starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, and 18-year-old David Kross. The story focuses on an underage boy's brief affair with an older woman, who he re-encounters years later when she is tried for crimes committed while serving as an SS guard during WWII.

The Transom does not cry, but we noticed that a significant portion of the audience had, in fact, been moved to tears by the film's end.  read more »

While Allison Sarofim's annual Halloween party took place the weekend before Halloween, most people celebrated on the actual day since this year it fell on Friday--and there were plenty of masquerades and balls for New York's socials to attend. Some stopped by the several parties going on around town, while others camped out and grazed on bottle service at one location. Here's the Daily Transom's roundup of who went where, as what, and with whom, based on some careful perusal of the Patrick McMullan website. 

The biggest socialite turn-out seemed to be at the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel, where the bar's creative director Nur Khan and One Management modeling agency president Scott Lipps threw a Halloween party hosted by Jeremy Piven and model Jessica Hart. The costumes trended to the traditional, with Fabiola Beracasa and Genevieve Jones dressed as nurses, Alex Kramer as a school girl, Julia Restoin Roitfeld as a sexy maid, and Russian designer and gallerist Dasha Zhukova as a sailor.  read more »

In an age where Damien Hirst errata have joined gold and United States government bonds in the shrinking pantheon of safe investments, can contemporary art still be dangerous?

More to the point, can contemporary art be dangerous when it's held in something of a polyurethane uterus, a haute-culture billboard designed by deconstructivist goddess Zaha Hadid, deposited on Rumsey Playfield in Central Park (after stints in Hong Kong and Tokyo), and paid for by Chanel—in these hard times is Lagerfeld really the Teutonic Karl we need?—whose iconic quilted handbag the melting plastic womb is said, implausibly, to resemble?

In a word, yes, if the traumas suffered by the Daily Transom at last night's opening party for the so-called CHANEL Contemporary Art Container—styled "Mobile Art"—are any indication.  read more »

Irina Aleksander called around to find out the costumes prominent New Yorkers are wearing this Halloween. Celerie Kemble's going to need a lot of hairspray!

Ms. Aleksander also moseyed down to Diane von Furstenberg's meatpacking district store, where the fashion empress was throwing a party for Paper mag's Kim Hastreiter's new book about Geoffrey Beene.

And Spencer Morgan rang his old friend Chris Wilson to find out the real story behind his scandalous tale of sexual deviancy on board an American Airlines flight. It's, uh, not what you think!

“I have zero investments, for better or for worse,” said 26-year-old Ben Zoltowski, a senior print project manager at the advertising agency McCann Erickson. “I feel like New York is already difficult enough to live in financially! I’m used to living paycheck to paycheck and living frugally, because we sort of have to. Most of us have to!”

Mr. Zoltowski, who lives in Williamsburg, went to Ithaca College and graduated in 2003; he moved to New York in July 2006. Like most of his peers, he seems to think that things can’t really get any worse, because he’s already living hand-to-mouth! But it probably hasn’t dawned on him that he might not even be able to afford last call at Greenpoint Tavern when all this shakes out.  read more »

Sep. 17, 2008

The Best-Dressed at
the New Yorkers
for Children Benefit

On Tuesday, Sept. 16, the post-work crowd on 42nd Street was treated to a procession of coquettish cocktail dresses and floor-sweeping evening gowns worn by Manhattan's uptown set as they exited their chauffeured cars--or pedicabs as we saw in the case of one unfortunate couple--into Cipriani's for the annual New Yorkers for Children gala. While some opted for the eye-catching tiered gowns like Julie Macklowe, portfolio manager for Sigma Capital Management and wife of William Macklowe, president Macklowe Properties, who arrived in a voluminous blue dress. Others, like Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, went for the simple sparkly black mini, T-shirt and blazer.

We've selected our 10 favorite looks from the gala; click the slideshow above to take a look.

Wednesday night's party on the Mini Rooftop in Chelsea thrown by V magazine in honor of its new issue was a downsized version of last week's Interview magazine bash—same crowd, different venue. The only difference was that everyone appeared a little more worn down by the elaborate Fashion Week festivities that have taken place since.

The roof—a new addition to New York's hip party venues—has a grassy knoll in the center with globular seating cavities resembling bathroom sinks where fashionable guests reclined with fruity cocktails, waiting for the Swedish indie artist Lykke Li to perform. (Ms. Li was also the special guest at a small gathering in Soho last Sunday which attracted Kirsten Dunst and Adrian Grenier.)   read more »

On Sunday afternoon, Sept. 7, at Herve Leger's Spring '09 show, the Daily Transom was—shivers of excitement!—seated across from a front row filled with uptown gals.

From left to right, in exact order, were: Genevieve Jones, Derek Blasberg, Fabiola Beracasa, Lauren Remington Platt, Zani Gugelmann, and Maggie Betts. (One of the chairs was labeled "Arden Wohl," but alas she never showed.)

Ms. Platt, clad in a binding (and blinding) white Herve dress with black detail, had arrived by herself and unfashionably early. There she was standing in line up for nearly twenty minutes like everyone else waiting to be let into the Promenade, looking around and checking the time periodically.  read more »

Even though the Bridgehampton Polo match on Saturday, Aug. 2, was canceled due to rain, Hamptons socials still tottered onto the muddy fields in flowing white summer dresses and 3-inch heels. The Transom spotted the beautiful Argentine polo player and the face of Polo Ralph Lauren, Nacho Figueras, posing for photos with bevies of giddy ladies.

“It’s a shame because we have people here, but there’s not much for them to watch,” said Mr. Figueras. He wore jeans, flip-flops, a blue button-up shirt and a baseball cap, which covered his lustrous shaggy hair. “One of my goals is to make polo a more well-known sport.  read more »

On Friday, March 14, the socialites Lauren Santo Domingo and Derek Blasberg took knitwear heiress Margherita Maccapanni Missoni out for  read more »