Bettina's Take: George Farias and Anne and Jay McInerney Host a Christmas Cheer Cocktail 2012
Photo: Patrick McMullan
Anne Hearst McInerney and George Farias.
Where can you find champagne, burgers, Santa and his vintage sleigh, a winter wonderland complete with fake snow, and an extraordinary mix of people at a private party? The answer would be, at Anne and Jay McInerney and George Farias's Christmas cocktail at "21".
"Be sure to have your picture taken with Santa," said Farias as I walked in, always the consummate host. Silly me, all I could think of was Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places. I avoided Santa like the plague. I later heard I missed a very distinguished and well behaved Santa. What else could I have expected from designer David Monn, who produced the entire event?
The guest list was an incomparable mix: from publishing and media, Martha Stewart, Candace Bushnell, Griffin Dunne, Taki Thoedoracopoulos, Joe Armstrong, Deborah Norville, Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski, Morgan Enterkin, Rob Wiesenthal, Alina Cho, and Robert Zimmerman; from the art world, Mary Boone, Will Cotton, Rose Dergan, and Hunt Slonem. The fashion, design and culinary people included Katie Lee, Alex Hitz, Nicole Miller, Dennis Basso, Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, Alex Papachristidis, Carolyne Roehm and Douglas Hannant. A smattering of real estate, business and medicine came as well, to celebrate what is undoubtedly the best time of the year - thanks to the easygoing graciousness of the hosts.
Guests stayed way beyond the official 8:30 ending. I even heard someone say, "I can't wait 'til next year."