Rich People In Wealthy Enclave Host Fancy Dinner Party
There are some mornings when you open the paper and see a story that fills you with dread, because you know that, no matter how repellent—or, because it is just so repellent—everyone will be talking about it. And so we had a flash of such anguish on Saturday, when we caught the piece about Billy and Debbie Bancroft, a family who summer in the Hamptons and rest-of-the-year on the Upper East Side. The article caught the Bancrofts in a moment of party crisis.
In five hours, 12 guests were scheduled to show up for a barbecue — 12 whose ranks included several names of the boldface variety: Vera Wang, the bridal-gown designer; Patricia Duff, the political fund-raiser and bridal-gown wearer; Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd singer and bass player; Robert Wilson, the experimental theater director; and Sarah Jones, who wrote and starred in the Tony Award-winning play "Bridge and Tunnel."
And in the "possibly" category: Kelsey Grammer (known for his role as television's Frasier, he of the tossed salads and scrambled eggs) and his wife, Camille. "Kelsey hasn't told me yes or no for sure yet," Mrs. Bancroft said with a sigh. "I called him again yesterday to check, and some man answered, and I waited on hold for five minutes. I could try him again, but at a certain point, dignity kind of kicks in."
If only it had kicked in before they agreed to this article. There's so much to work with here: The Bancrofts' adorable, towheaded children; the fact that they refer to Sotheby's price-fixer Alfred Taubman as "Pop-Pop"; the tragedy of living "north of the highway"; the revelation that they call their house Da Crib; at this point, we're just kind of numb. We can't even rustle up any decent class-hatred today. The bastards finally beat us. Also, they never let us know whether or not Kelsey Grammer showed up to the dinner, which is just goddamn unforgivable.
