Emperors Club this is not: Carlos Lopez and Daniela Zuniga, of Queens and New Jersey, respectively, were arrested in Southampton for operating a prostitution ring out of two Hamptons homes, servicing 30 to 40 customers each night and recruiting women from New York City and Jersey for one-week stints in the brothels at “$40 a trick.” Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg munched on a wiener at the 34th annual Hamptons Classic on Sunday, noting, “I’m not into this fancy food, like shrimp, caviar, and lobster I love hot dogs.” Bethenny Frankel doesn’t approve of Jill Zarin’s gallivanting around Southampton with D-list dads like Jon Gosselin and Michael Lohan, so she refused to make her a skinny-girl margarita. Barbara Walters gabbed with Paul McCartney and his latest lady, Nancy Shevell, at Philippe East Hampton. Shevell, meanwhile, has been keeping a safe distance from McCartney’s ex, Heather Mills, who’s been staying dangerously close to his Amagansett home. And Avril Lavigne was partying hard at Georgica and Axe Lounge without her Sum 41 hubbie, Deryck Whibley, which obviously means they’re getting a divorce.
Andre Agassi was honored at the Ross School Tennis Center yesterday, where Alec Baldwin and Christie Brinkley faced off against pros Murphy Jensen and Petr Korda. Rufus Wainwright and Norah Jones performed at the Watermill Concert 2009: Last Song of the Summer. A hair thought to be Andy Warhol’s was found underneath the paint of the Michael Jackson portrait sold at East Hampton’s Vered Gallery, potentially increasing the artwork’s value. The Jewish Center of the Hamptons commissioned a scribe to write a new Torah scroll by hand.The median price of a Hamptons home is currently $770,000, down from $1.1 million in 2007. Water Mill’s 11976 Zip Code and Bridgehampton’s 11932 both hit Forbes’s “500 Most Expensive Zip Codes in America” list at numbers 14 and 15, respectively, while Southampton came in at 77 and East Hampton landed spot number 154.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, and Kate Capshaw browsed through Stella McCartney’s three-day-long pop-up shop, while McCartney strolled among guests, noting, “I basically have spent every summer of my life in East Hampton, before it was fashionable.” Paltrow also filmed a public-service announcement for volunteerism at Jerry Della Femina’s East Hampton home. Katie Lee Joel tweeted about her Sunday Carvel sundae. Martha Stewart served as honorary chair for East Hampton’s “Garden As Art” garden tour. Bill Cunningham rode the Jitney and hit the streets of East Hampton. Jeff Gordon had red-velvet cake at his Lily Pond birthday party. And county officials warned against swimming at Sag Harbor’s Havens Beach due to storm-related bacteria.
