Authors Night/ Paula Abdul at SHE Summer Hamptons Evening

Famously, you cannot get near the famous authors at the yearly event of the season, Authors Night to benefit the East Hampton library. For books by Misty Copeland, Robert Caro, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Paulina Porizkova, the lines are long. No matter, writers in abundance are just happy to schmooze with one another. Susan Isaacs sat beside A. M. Homes, favorites conferring behind stacks of their most recent books. Similarly, Vanity Fair writer Marie Brenner could not say enough about Alice Carriere, seated beside her with a memoir about growing up the daughter of artist Jennifer Bartlett and French actor Mathieu Carriere, even when Katie Couric stopped by to say hello. Alafair Burke, daughter of novelist James Lee Burke, does her famous father proud. Another father, Geraldo Rivera was on hand to support his daughter Sol Rivera who has written a book of poetry. Page-turning author  Jean Hanff Korelitz spoke about book clubs she organizes in private Park Avenue homes. Allison Yarrow, passionate about women’s reproductive rights, held forth beside Amy Zerner and Monte Farber, regulars at this mega-gathering with a new book registering astrological verites for each birthday. Crazy as it may sound to some, they always get it right. Looking up mine, I did learn a “karmic lesson:” “the life and fun of a party,” I should, at overwhelming times, “change activities and cultivate more determination.” Good to know!

Moving on, off to dinner at the annual SHE event to raise money for Northwell Health’s Katz Institute for Women’s Health-- just in time to see Paula Abdul perform in a cloud of smoke with her dancers. The crowd whooped to lip-sync with her lip-syncing. Abdul told everyone about her inspiration at age 10, seeing Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain. She got to meet him once and even danced with him. While I would not say her style matches his, hers looking more aerobic, she works hard. Petite, she was told she would never make it in the dance world. Ha! An opulent party -- with calla lilies adorning every table and cornucopias of fruit and cookies at the private Watermill estate of Victoria Moran Furman, a major support for women’s health—the SHE event gets it right too.