My spies were pinging me all weekend about the ongoing Hamptons Film Festival controversy around “NAZA.” The Sag Harbor Cinema screening on Saturday was flooded with protesters outside. Security at the cinema was high, with attendees’ bags being checked at the door (a first). As mentioned last week, the Guardian-produced documentary about the IDF’s military operations has been an extremely contentious HIFF selection. Police said the protests concluded peacefully. “NAZA” screens in East Hampton this Friday, so watch out for more fracas.

In today’s ~almost overly full~ newsletter, for paid subscribers, three stories you won’t read anywhere else:

• Pollock-mania hits the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs.

• A deep dive into every East End detail of the most charming Sag Harbor wedding I’ve ever seen (and I got married in Sag Harbor myself!).

• The alleged Ralph Lauren selvedge thief returns to the scene of the crime.

Read more

Since spending some time reporting at the Shelter Island Justice Court this week, I’m keenly aware of all the different ways one can reach the 0.08% blood-alcohol intoxication level that leads to D.W.I. busts. (Most D.W.I. defendants list every drink they consumed when they show up to court.) Ne…

Read more

When the clouds from this week’s nor’easter part, the fall season will be in full swing, with The Hamptons International Film Festival, which runs October 2 to October 12. At this week’s Chanel lunch at Locanda Verde for its “Through Her Lens” female filmmaker initiative, I sat with Beth Kojima and Crystal McCrary, two producers of “The Drug in Our Pocket,” a documentary premiering at the upcoming Hamptons Film Festival. Alas, the two screenings are already sold out. Lotta Jonathan Haidt acolytes in the Hamptons. (It’s always worth trying the rush line.)

In today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers: what the 10th anniversary of Robert Rubin’s The Bridge car show reveals about American wealth today; a real-estate bulletin including Chris Burch’s giant animatronic giraffe; Tracy Anderson’s poodle-gate; the location of the next Summer House; a 13th-generation Sag Harbor woman on her whaleboat competition win; and the best hostess gift for fall.

Read more

Read more

I don’t believe in an off-season. That’s part of the reason I started this project: to tell the many, many stories that keep unfolding after BFA stops taking pictures and Bethenny Frankel closes the Supermodel Café. There’s so much I’m excited to share with you this fall, from a few juicy trials that you won’t read about anywhere else, to on-the-ground dispatches from the Hamptons Film Festival, to real-estate scoops, to interviews with movers and shakers.

It was fun meeting readers yesterday at a live taping of Puck’s “Fashion People” podcast on the topic of “taste” with Lauren Sherman, Poshmark’s Elizabeth von der Goltz, and Indre Rockefeller (In case you missed it I talked all things Hamptons Chronicle on an earlier episode in August). We discussed Ina Garten’s observation on Kara Swisher’s podcast that taste should feel like connecting with your inner voice, and what you liked as a child. I used to play newspaper as a kid, so this project is a delight to create. I’m considering making a Thanksgiving print issue.

In today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers: the story of the late artist Lucien Smith’s last work, to be shown in Wainscott in the coming weeks; a beloved ice-cream truck driver shares the weird ice-cream bar old people can’t get enough of; a member of the Shinnecock Nation shares a dispatch from the 80th annual Shinnecock Powwow; a fracas erupts over Adam Lindemann’s Julian Schnabel sculpture; and Jon Hamm disappears.

Read more

I know multiple people from out of state who rent houses in September out east. If you don’t have kids in school, that’s the hack: Prices dip by over 50%, dew points reach perfection, and you can actually get into the seasonal restaurants which stay open. Keep that pool heated, and it’s an endless summer into October.

It was delightful meeting so many of you at my talk this week at The Hedges Inn with moderator Crystal Meers (a Daily Candy OG), Victoria Wolff of Our Amagansett House (whom I profiled this January for the Times), and Carson Griffith from Rich People Shit. In the Q&A, a dapper gentleman asked what the heck was going on at Sag Harbor’s The Corner, which stalled after The Clam Bar’s John and Kelly Piccininni’s friends-and-family soft opening. The following day, the Piccinninis announced that they would be “parting ways” with the Hildreth Real Estate Investors group, which owns the property. “The parties’ visions for The Corner were not aligned,” said the Piccinninis in a statement. Hildredth still plans to bring a business in by Spring 2027, if not sooner. Locals are looking forward to another spot with $58 cacio e pepe.

In today’s free newsletter, so many Bills: a Clinton dosa fetish; a baseball card mints a child millionaire; a Hamptons Ten questionnaire with interior designer to the stars Billy Cotton, and a summer recap with Sag Harbor Tavern’s Billy Durney.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Billy Cotton’s Beyoncé Fixation

If I could afford an elite interior designer, I’d want to work with Billy Cotton. His work is rich and inventive yet somehow spare. He’s a favorite of artists like Lisa Yuskavage and Cindy Sherman. He designed the Lily Allen and David Harbour Brooklyn townhouse that made its way into the title track of her breakup album, West End Girl (“Billy Cotton got sorted / All the furniture ordered”). Cotton shares a place in Springs with his partner Aaron Cator, an art expert at Freeman’s Auctions. In his Hamptons Ten questionnaire, Billy derides Hamptons lobster rolls and scented candles, and tries to manifest a friendship with Beyoncé.

Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
Tennis with Gabriel at Sportime Amagansett, Balsam Farms for vegetables, Stuart’s Seafood for fish. Lunch at home, Two Mile Hollow Beach for as long as possible, in the ocean for as long as possible. Repeat lunch at dinner with more friends.

What’s your favorite spot for a drink?
Wiborg Beach at sunset.

What’s your secret shopping spot?
He doesn’t want me to give out his number. But get the Springs “fish man”’s number. He alerts when his friends have a great catch.

Who would you love to bump into at the farmer’s market?
Beyoncé.

What’s your main gripe about the Hamptons?
People griping about the Hamptons.

What would be your dream dinner: spot, order, company?
My dinner table, striped bass freshly caught, vegetables from a local farm, Beyoncé.

What’s your advice to newbies about a visit out East?
Limit your time in restaurants, limit your traveling to other towns, and go to the beach and in the ocean every day. Eat the vegetables.

Where do you go in the Hamptons to be alone?
My TV room.

What’s your go-to gift for hosts/hostesses?
Anything that’s not a scented candle.

Who makes the best lobster roll?
I am from New England: You do not eat lobster rolls in the Hamptons.

What’s the perfect book to read in the Hamptons?
“The Rules Do Not Apply” by Ariel Levy.

Who should fill out this questionnaire next?
Beyoncé.

Burger King

When Billy Durney, the Brooklyn restaurateur behind Red Hook Tavern, opened Sag Harbor Tavern in 2024, he hoped to stay open year-round. But as many East-End entrepreneurs have learned the hard way, staffing and demand become painful in winter months. The restaurant, which operates out of the still-active American Legion, lost $70,000 in its first December. Now it’s closed from October to April.

When I sat down with Billy this week on the patio outside his restaurant, the genial, tattooed chef talks about how he would love to retire in Sag Harbor, cooking in the back of the restaurant in the fall and winter instead of bopping around his restaurant empire (He also runs Hometown Bar-B-Que locations in Brooklyn and Miami).

Billy, whose grandmother was a WWII nurse honored at the Brooklyn Legion, is gung-ho about the Legion connection. “If we were ever able to buy this real estate, that would be the greatest thing in the world,” he says. “I would stay all year-round. And we would of course give the Legion an infinity lease.”

September is Billy’s favorite month out east, so he wanted to host a “Billy and Friends” event with some of his chef pals just as the air started to crisp. The first “Billy and Friends” took place in 2018 at the James Beard House and included Mark Iacono of Lucali and Missy Robbins of Lilia. This week, he invited Charlie Mitchell of Saga, Jason Stanhope of Sullivan’s Fish Camp, Trigg Brown of Win Son, and Grant Reynolds of Parcelle Wine Group. They collaborated on a menu that included raw Carolina shrimp and melting chicken wontons.

This week’s “Billy and Friends” was presented by Chase Sapphire, which has been riding the trend for exclusive dining experiences. The fashion-friendly Sapphire, hawked by Hailey Bieber in its ads, offers cardholders the ability to book events like this one. It’s been following the money to the Hamptons, bringing Los Angeles supper club Delilah to Montauk for two years running.

For Billy, it was an opportunity to bring his chef friends, two of whom stayed at his rental, to Sag Harbor. He took them on a boat day, and they ate lunch at Duryea’s in Orient. “I don’t want to cook alone,” he says.

[Disclosure: I am not a Chase Sapphire member. I was invited by its press team to the restaurant to try the food. I was, however, one of the few paying customers who went to Sag Harbor Tavern in December 2024.]

Before you go, do check out Julia Rothman’s lovely illustrated essay for The New Yorker about her time at the Folly Tree Arboretum’s residency, one of The Hamptons’ oddest and most wonderful spots.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

I was there to pay my respects to Andy Cohen, one of our first Hamptons Ten subjects. But the energy around the show drew me in, and I’m also rooting for two acquaintances who are part of this season: Carole Radziwill and Daisy Toye. Radziwill’s comeback to the show is a big deal for Bravoheads, who screamed during the screening when she navigated alternate-side parking in her busted old Jeep. I met Daisy, who’s Martha Stewart’s longtime makeup artist, years ago when writing about her famous boss. Daisy’s warm and has an incredible work ethic; you have to be pretty hardcore to please Martha for 17 years. Martha appears in this season so much that she’s almost like the eighth housewife. “She can’t help herself,” says Daisy.

In today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers: a spilled-milkshake fracas; the chaotic scene at the public auction for Libbie Mugrabi’s mansion; the return of “The Black Hamptons”; a full report on the merch at the Hampton Classic; and all the sold-out items of the summer, including Dotti estrogen patches and yes—Ambien.

Read more

Deals that get made here affect the entertainment industry at large. That’s also true in politics, finance, sports, and fashion. When powerful people and decision-makers are “off,” supposedly relaxing at the beach, on the golf course, or at dinner parties, they’re often plotting. It’s part of the reason I wanted to start reporting more on this area: It’s a string of small towns with global impact.

I’m excited to share the cover of The Hamptons Chronicle’s second print issue, with a photograph from the great Jessica Craig-Martin’s 2007 series “American Summer.” If you were one of the many people I spoke to who watched Barbara Kopple’s 2002 documentary “The Hamptons” this summer, you’ll recognize the Y2K-era catering and footwear tropes.

The photographer, whose memoir will be out in November, revisits the series for THC: “I focus my lens on pockets of extreme wealth and privilege. The Hamptons beckoned, representing as they do the old world northeast WASP high society, with their genteel frayed collars, blue blazers and notoriously “exclusive” (ahem) beach clubs, and the nouveau-riche hedge funders with their art collections, Patek Philippe “cheeseburger” watches, and Humvees—cars made to drive over villages rather than through them. The Hamptons have long been an ultimate place to display American wealth. But what do these people do for fun? Hoping to find out, I spent a summer attending local events.”

Regarding the photo featured on the cover, “Real WASPs, Wrong Party,” she says, “On entering the event, this true WASP couple paused. I felt they were assessing the flashy crowd. They shortly slipped away, having decided this was not their sort of function.”

I’ve been dropping the paper at locations including Sagaponack General Store, Marie Eiffel, and Jack’s and TWP in Sag Harbor (follow along on Instagram for more drop spots). If you’re not local and interested in seeing it, I’m running a promotion through the end of the weekend: Annual newsletter subscriptions are 20% off, and I’ll send you the first two print papers. Link here.

In today’s (free) newsletter, Whoopi Goldberg will have a five-star weekend on Shelter Island this September, everything you need to know about the John Mayer concert, and a look at The Full Ask, the new real-estate platform that’s taken over your algorithm.

Subscribe now

Scene Report from the John Mayer Concert

My former colleague Taylor Ford, InStyle’s social-media supernova and a dyed-in-the-wool John Mayer fan, reports on one of the events of the summer:
As a 12-year-old girl who first experienced the feeling of being horny to the No Such Thing music video on MTV2 while getting ready for Roslyn Middle School, when I got served an IG contest that John Mayer would be playing a private show at Stephen Talkhouse (all of my safe words) I immediately started coming up with ways to tell my husband that it was time to use my hall pass reaching out to every contact I had at SiriusXM, Uber and Talkhouse to score a media credential on behalf of my role at InStyle Magazine. Luckily one came through (thank you Uber, sorry husband!) and I was already wearing my complimentary sweatshirt double-fisting Talkhouse Encores before the 7pm SHARP show start time when Andy Cohen gave a brief intro to “America’s boyfriend,” John Mayer. I was about seven rows back from the stage for the first notes of the “Last Train Home” opener, but was still distracted by wanting to turn back to the VIP area to see if I could tell if Josh Hart was grooving to the Dead & Co.-inflected jams of JM’s full band alongside Hamptons mainstays Howard Stern, Christie Brinkley and daughter Sailor Brinkley Cook, Brooke Shields, Neil Patrick Harris, and the bartender from Townline BBQ. Mayer did Seinfeldian bits between songs as he does on SiriusXM show “Life With John Mayer,” and encored with a Dolly Parton guitar interlude in ‘Gravity.’ While the closest I’ll get to Slow Dancing In A Burning Room with my every-summer-since-2001 crush was in that hot tent, I really felt in the words of Andy Cohen—that I had won the Golden Ticket.

Subscribe now

A Cottage Industry

Real-estate media is booming, with the savviest agents and brokerages like The Modern House becoming content producers in their own right. Add to that the endless house tour videos in the vein of Caleb Simpson, and it’s a frothy stew. Rob Goldstein, a former Manhattan real-estate agent who’s worked in product development at tech startups, created The Full Ask platform this summer to be a “marketplace” of listings. The vibey properties, many of them in Manhattan and the Hamptons, are catnip for the kind of person who has a great source for vintage Berber rugs and wouldn’t be caught dead with an Eames lounge chair. A recent Instagram post for a “Shelter Island Art Barn” attracted interest from the likes of Cat Power. Here’s Rob on how he’s using AI and his own eye to create a one-man farmhouse hype factory.

How do you curate the selection of properties?
The curation starts with some AI agents I’ve built for myself to browse the internet and find properties that have different elements to them—whether that’s a keyword like a beam, or a designer attached to the property. From there, there’s a human curation part, which is me. I go through them and hand-select the ones I think will resonate with the audience I’m building.

How would you describe your demographic?
Mostly people who are architecturally curious. You don’t necessarily have to be in the market selling or buying, but you have a strong appreciation for real estate that is well considered. That’s another way of saying curated. I don’t like using the word curated, it’s overused.

We’re looking for approachable. Not in the millions and millions of dollars. Something where people don’t feel out of touch with what they’re looking at. I see that in the data and the impressions on the posts we get: Cottages and small villas with a ton of character perform the best. That informs what should be posted next.

How is your audience split between people looking for eye candy and people actually in the market for a house?
At the end of the day, I’m looking to build a marketplace. That doesn’t mean that if you’re looking two years out you can’t use this as a tool to find inspiration. People can also use my Instagram and the marketplace if they’re renovating their home. A lot of people comment asking where a couch or a chair is from, and I find that interesting.

But the core usage is being built for people to connect with the listing agent directly on homes they really like, so they can go see them in person. Naturally that provides value to the agent and the seller, getting it in front of an audience that might appreciate it more than if you just dropped that listing on Zillow and got mixed up with all these different listings.

What’s the business model?
Right now we accept submissions from all different personas, from an agent, which is the primary submission route, to a developer or an interior designer. We’ve had photographers submit their work on listings. There’s a fee for that placement, and the placement can take different sizes. We sell placement on the website homepage, placement in our newsletter that goes out every Sunday morning around 8:30, and then the Instagram posts, which feed into all of that. Initially I was charging around $40, and that was the only option for a post. Now it’s grown to somewhere between $350 and $2,500 depending on the placement. If a home is, say, $10 million, the cost for a post will be slightly more than if a home is priced at, say, $1 million.

How do you see content fitting into the real estate industry right now?
People tend to see what’s out there and not love it, because of how people position things. We are not the type of brand that wants to jump in front of a camera and start shouting at you on TikTok. We want slow music and cool imagery, and to just do things differently.

So we’ve been starting to do a little bit of media production on some of the properties we’re posting. We want the media to align with the property. For example, we recently shot a house up in Cornwall, Connecticut. It had a lot of cool features and was very vintage, so we shot the whole thing on film. That’s not something I’ve really seen done; most real estate photographers stand in the corner with a wide-angle lens, hit the button a bunch of times, and call it a day. We incorporated film and also added some life to the property to show it being more lived in. The pillows don’t have to be perfect. The dog can stay where it is, lying down. So it’s a bit more relatable and less sterile.

I saw a Shelter Island art barn listing blow up recently on your Instagram. Why do you think that particular property popped off?
There’s a very tight-knit community when it comes to artists supporting artists, and the internet has network effects — sharing, commenting, things like that. And it’s also the property itself. The way we present it is much different from how the listing would live on “insert brokerage name here.” If the property is about a painter who lives there and that history, we want the imagery to speak to that. We don’t want to show drone imagery that doesn’t show the paintings of the person who lives there. We want to lean into the cool aspects of the home. When you have big names commenting, that obviously helps other people jump into the comments too.

It is interesting to see high-profile people commenting “link, please.” You’d think they’d be more concerned with privacy.
I’d agree with you. But it’s lighthearted, in the sense that it’s not like they’re saying they’re buying it. They could want the link simply to learn more, because the listing pages are structured to be a bit editorial as well. Someone might be interested in who the painter is that we’re referencing in the caption.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

The Ram’s Head Inn is a fixture of Ram Island, an estate-heavy extension of Shelter Island. It’s where retirees go to drink martinis and complain about taxes by the fire in the winter. Ram residents I’ve spoken to are shocked at the conference’s fringe-libertarian agenda. A few told me they’d no longer feel comfortable grabbing a drink at the hotel.

Brand is the latest boldface name to ruffle the East End. Aidan McLaughlin wrote a story for Vanity Fair earlier this month on presidential hopefuls quietly fundraising in the Hamptons. Politicians aren’t the only notable figures following the money: Gwyneth Paltrow’s much-discussed dinner with OpenAI’s Sam Altman is this weekend. A full map of the most-talked-about appearances in the Hamptons this August is for paid subscribers below. We also get into the week’s gossip, from Southampton’s most notorious water hogs to a celebrity tick PSA. And as always, the elite events worth booking a babysitter for.

Read more

Read more

Standing near a pack of girls in miniskirts snarfing some knots, I overheard them saying some Knicks were rumored to be on their way. Like Justin Bieber, who rented a house in the Sagaponack area this summer, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart have become white whales. In June, the pair joked that OG Anunoby should float their Hamptons house, given his $212.5 million contract. Since then, Brunson has been spotted dining at Alex Rossi’s great new East Hampton spot Lion’s Nook Bar & Grill, at Duryea’s Montauk, and working out with East Hampton varsity ball players. Hart went to Babe’s Diner and posed for selfies. Something tells me they’re not staying in Anunoby’s guest room.

In other feel-good news, I was heartened by a North Fork couple buying 40 acres of Cutchogue land for nearly $10 million with plans to preserve it. Call them the anti-Solovievs. The Suffolk Times reports that their family trust is named “What Am I, a Farmer?” after a line from “30 Rock,” which makes me like them even more.

In today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers, a deep dive into the secrets of one of the most talked about home flippers in the Hamptons, Blythe Graham-Jones, plus our elite events of the week from Ballerina Farm matcha to rare Peter Hujar photographs.

Read more

Read more

It’s enough to make me nostalgic for the 32-ounce $4.50 Razzmatazz I’d order from Jamba Juice in Berkeley in the early 2000s. It lasted for several hours and was at least partially responsible for my freshman fifteen.

In today’s newsletter, for the paid subscribers who keep this smoothie-analysis factory running, a poetic profile of Chris Kelly, the Hamptons’ most in-demand beekeeper; a $90-million-dollar flip of Lee Radziwill’s former estate on East Dune Lane; and our Elite Events roundup, with everything from the star-studded “The Big Chill” to a pop-up of one of the best vintage stores in the world.

Read more

Read more

Today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers, is bursting with news you’ll read later in other publications. And you’ll think, thank god for THC, keeping me ahead of the curve on local happenings with global import. In today’s edition: a roundup of the best Hamptons food with a cult following and no storefront; a comical clam “crime”; our Elite Events section including the perfect Authors Night itinerary from Robert Caro to Neil deGrasse Tyson; a Sag Harbor institution returns; and a shocking blind taste test of Jamagansett’s $80 pie.

Damn Clams!

On July 30, a young man called 911 to report a pile of smashed clams on the pavement near Georgica Beach. Moving shellfish from one area to another, and dumping shellfish waste are both forbidden. The East Hampton police department reported “what appeared to be roughly eight crushed clams in the area.” (This may very well have been the work of a seagull.) The police report concluded: “Negative signs of commercial dumping at this time.”

Read more

Read more

I was straining to identify other big fish at my first visit to The Bridge, one of the country’s most exclusive golf clubs, with a reported $1 million-plus initiation fee. I couldn’t tell the bigwigs on the golf course apart, but it was easy to spot the art: Founder Robert Rubin is pals with secret golf enthusiast Richard Prince (do read Nate Freeman’s great Vanity Fair profile of the elusive artist). As you drive into the club you’re greeted with a Prince billboard of “Vanishing Point.” The modernist clubhouse is filled with pieces by artists including Prince and Tom Sachs, much of it car-themed. The Bridge is located on a former race track and hosts a high-end car show in the fall.

The first print issue of THC is out, and I’ve been dropping it at coffeeshops and galleries and movie theaters all over the east end. If you nab one, please tell me what you think, and let me know if you’d like me to drop one at your business. (I’m putting every dollar I earn from paid subscriptions into printing the paper, so today would be a great day to upgrade!) In today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers, a look at the devoted tree stewards of East Hampton, the most extravagant valet situation in Southampton, and elite events from a Jocelyn Wildenstein documentary to a Belle Burden talk.

Read more

The Palo Alto-based Pivotal is doing a public demonstration of its one-person flying cars in the Shagwog Marina area through Saturday. In a promotional video, a Pivotal rep described driving as boring, and said,…

Read more

The influencer crosswalk was in full effect this Sunday, as Sunset Beach set up a giant outdoor screen for the World Cup finals (a generous gesture that was only slightly undercut by the screen freezing at a few key moments). Sunset Beach upheld its “Mediterranean” reputation, with women in thong bikinis and men smoking giant cigars wandering by. The hotel’s proprietor, André Balazs, held court in yellow-tinted Jacques Marie Mage-ish sunglasses and striped sneakers.

High summer means stogies and skimpy swimsuits, but it also means a clusterschmuck of traffic—especially across Route 27. In addition to a car smashing straight into the beloved Elaia Estiatorio restaurant in Bridgehampton (everyone’s OK, minus some chairs and tables), Jay-Z and Beyoncé had an unexpected visitor at their estate. More on that, as well as a fire-sale of the Mugrabi mansion, for paid subscribers below. Plus: the launch of our “Elite Events” section, with a carefully curated list of things you’d actually want to do, including talks by Maggie Haberman, Derek Blasberg, and John Waters and a Julian Schnabel screening.

Read more

Read more