(1) The 9th annual Art For Life Benefit took place on Saturday at Russell Simmons' East Hampton house. Despite tickets not selling out as fast as usual, the event played host to Aretha Franklin, Christy Turlington, Lorraine Bracco, Soledad O'Brien, David Paterson, Diddy, Padma Lakshmi, Brett Ratner, LA Reid, the cast of Real Housewives of New York, Al Roker, Kelly Bensimon, Alina Cho, Simon de Pury, and Porschla Coleman—whose break up with Simmons, judging by their behavior, is either incredibly amicable or no longer in effect. [PMc]

Writes socialtwit and model/publishing heiress Lydia Hearst in her Page Six mag diary this week, "We shot [a short film] o the grounds of Bette Davis' legendary L.A. mansion, which is now owned by actress Carrie Fisher. She was home while we were filming, though she never came out to say hi." If you don't think that's an under-the-radar neg, you don't know socialites very well... [Page Six Mag]

If Heatherette designers Richie Rich and Traver Rains stop working together, per persistent rumors, who will get custody of their celebutante muse, Lydia Hearst? She's been dating Rains' pilot brother, Matt, but is hosting a party tonight for Rich's new solo shoe line. Such a dilemma might be stressful to some, but luckily Lydia doesn't give the impression of worrying about much beyond what color hair dye to use. [Fashionista]

Old-money model-heiress Lydia Hearst (great-granddaughter of the tabloid magnate) wants to position herself as a classy model-heiress by letting us know, "I went to college. I'm a supermodel. I have a legitimate career in journalism, television, fashion and designing. I'm a Hearst, not a Hilton!" We can only assume that by a "legitimate career in journalism," she means her monthly column in Page Six Magazine—which is hardly a career in journalism, honey! (Neither is blogging, but we can't all be born heiresses.) Other ways that Hearst is more similar to Hilton than she may think:

Everyone wants to be on Gossip Girl: after cameos from Lisa Loeb and (an amusingly wooden) Lydia Hearst, now Nicole Richie has reportedly signed on for a guest appearance. While she's surely a little old for a school uniform, the vaguely reformed wild child has a lot in common with Ed Westwick, aka Chuck Bass. The 20-year-old Brit actor, when not posting saucy pictures of himself and his friends on the internet, has been seen carousing around town with Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.

Every year, the most awful people in New York jet to Vienna for the Lifeball, a fancy-dress fundraiser for HIV/AIDS research. On the Austrian Airlines private charter this year: pseudo-heiress Lydia Hearst, the character upon whom Ugly Betty's Amanda Sommers should have been based; ubiquitous plump-lipped tranny Amanda Lepore; club kid Richie Rich; gender-bending party promoter Andre J.; scene photographer Patrick McMullan; and a disgusted Gawker spy. The Lifeball's worthy cause typically protects the absurd celebrity freeloaders-but not this time. Here's Lydia Hearst at the first night's cocktail party, abandoned by her airplane snog-buddy, Markus Schenkenberg. After the jump, our correspondent's shocking tale of mile-high blow and blow-jobs.

[Gossip girls Michelle Trachtenberg and Lydia Hearst at NYLON's "Young Hollywood Issue" party in New York last night; image via INF]

[Lydia Hearst Shaw, heiress/writer/nuisance, at an Entertainment Weekly up-fronts party. Don't forget: she's going to be on "Gossip Girl" next Monday!; image via Splash]

23-year-old socialite-model Lydia Hearst's influence is diffused throughout the zeitgeist like a fine Evian mist. Did we know, for example, that she's "been called the real-life inspiration for Gossip Girl? (She just filmed a small role for the show.) Anyway, that's what she tells us that a magazine told her, via her Page Six magazine column. Then she makes us sit through an item about musician Joe Barney, who just "happens to be my boyfriend."

[That's socialite and occasional Page 6 contributor Lydia Hearst (great-granddaughter of the villainous William Randolph) with Ed Westwick, in a scene from an upcoming episode of "Gossip Girl." She'll apparently play some sort of bitch. Image from LA Times]

Newspaper heiress/Page 6 Magazine contributor Lydia Hearst doesn't have a website that she's not paying the bills for. She writes us, "I wish I did not have to contact you, as I'm sure you will most-likely print this (but if you do, please respect me enough to keep my E-mail address private), but I'd like to clear something up. I do not own the site to which you are referring. I have never had an official web page, nor am I aware of who owns the site claiming to be my 'official' page. I do however have an official fan-page on Facebook. Say what you will, but please check your facts. Also, if you actually look at the page it is obvious that whoever owns it just typed those words across the screen. Have a lovely weekend. All the Best, Lydia"

Even if your great-grandfather started the Spanish-American War, it doesn't always mean you can pay your bills on time. Lydia Hearst, the newspaper heiress who writes for Page 6 Magazine on occasion, has a website that was suspended for non-payment some time ago. How sad. It's just like that time last year when I came home and they'd shut off the cable and I sat on my bed and cried. Except I had $10 in the bank, not a billion.

Page Six Magazine continues to publish the ramblings of Lydia Hearst and we love them for it! This week's installment of The Hearst Chronicles finds the publishing heiress weighing in on the presidential race. The great-granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst (who has dropped dad's last name, Shaw, faster than she dropped those 15 pounds to become a model) is tired of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's "obnoxious" Hollywood endorsements and "petty" throwdowns. The heiress writes: "this young lady is pretty bored with the whole thing. Not only are the Democrats losing their grip on my vote, their divisive antics just might be driving my crowd away entirely." You hear that Hill and Barack? She's bored. Quick, put on something shiny! Meanwhile, we have a hard time believing that socialites would fault others for petty in-fighting. After all, they did practically invent the concept. Just ask Olivia Palermo who, after being literally elbowed from the society scene by Tinsley Mortimer & Co., has slinked back to The New School from whence she came. To see the scan, click the thumb and watch it grow!

Guest of a Guest wants us to guess which wrist tattoos belong to which young It Girls. Duh, it's societress-model Lydia Hearst with her ill-advised "Factory 2.0" skeleton key tattoo, jailbait soap actress Levin Rambin, and Leighton Meester, aka Blair from Gossip Girl. [Guest of a Guest]

Lydia, daughter of Patty Hearst and great-granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, is moving into her first Manhattan pad, yay! It's in the Sheffield 57 on West 57th, reports Page Six. It's "very San Simeon," the model/self-promoter said, back in November, referring to the Hearst Castle in California (and the inspiration for the vast, deserted Xanadu in Citizen Kane). OK, we get it already—you're a Hearst. "But on a much smaller scale," she added. For reals! You can't buy much of an apartment in Midtown for only $1.49 mil. [Page Six]

Lydia Hearst is an heiress, social fixture, model, columnist, and aspiring actress. The great-granddaughter of media titan William Randolph Hearst, Lydia is the daughter of infamous kidnappee Patty Hearst and Bernard Shaw, her mom's former bodyguard. She was raised in suburban Connecticut and attended Sacred Heart University in Fairfield before beginning a career as a model during her freshman year. In 2004, she landed her first cover, with Vogue Italia, and has since modeled (topless more than once) for Vogue, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, and numerous fashion designers. She's had a long partnership with Puma that, along with modeling, has included a few design projects, most notably a sporty purse collaboration. Her acting credits include an episode of Gossip Girl, a handful of indie films, and a music video for a cover of the Talking Heads' "This Must Be The Place." Continuing the family media line, she briefly wrote a column for the New York Post's Page Six Magazine.

According to Page Six, socialite and girl genius Lydia Hearst is peeved that Darfur benefit-throwers kept "slapping" her name on their invites after she did a single party with them. Well, now we hear the other side of the story, in a lengthy letter from Malcolm Harris, of Designers for Darfur. EXCLUSIVE! MUST CREDIT THE PEOPLE OF WESTERN SUDAN!

Oho! WE HEAR that model-heiress Lydia Hearst has been shunted aside at Page Six magazine to make way for a similar gal-about-town column by 17-year-old soap star Leven Rambin. Wonder what she thinks of the subway fare hike? Update: Oh, ok, Lydia is "not fired," it's just that Leven will have a column also. The more the merrier.

Again, there's cause to wonder: does Page Six Magazine purposely refuse to edit the ramblings of heiress-model Lydia Hearst so that their magazine will be mentioned online? "It's absurd that the MTA is raising the rate of the monthly MetroCard but keeping the single rate fair [SIC!] at $2, so the tourists keep their discount. As a New Yorker, I feel like I am being penalized because I ride the subway more often than not and buy the unlimited 30-day card," begins Lydia's latest.

Model and heiress Lydia Hearst sat down in her dark corner with her glass of tequila and lime juice, all Hemingway-like, and pumped out another column for Page Six magazine. Thank God. Besides some musings about her new hair color and the traffic that kept her from her Puma bag launch breakfast, Lydia has some unsolicited advice for Brooke Astor's troubled son Anthony Marshall.