It Happens This Week
• Mets vs. Padres
• 2006 FDNY Firefighters calendar launch in Times Square
• Shoot ’em up, scavengers! Gangster-themed treasure hunt in Little Italy and Chinatown
• Boricua Festival! at Prospect Park band shell
• NYC premiere of Gus Van Sant’s Kurt Cobain–inspired ‘Last Days’

Deanhampton Falls Flat
Plutocrats stay away from Howard-hosted fund-raiser.
Where are the Hamptons Deaniacs? Some of New York’s wealthiest Dem contributors were no-shows at a $5,000-per-couple Amagansett DNC fund-raiser Howard Dean hosted at the home of Margo and Robert Alexander on July 9—prompting worries that the donor elite are shutting their wallets to protest Dean’s shoot-from-the-lip party leadership. Sources say big-shot supporters Hassan Nemazee, Robert Zimmerman, Carl Spielvogel, and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel played hooky. “Dean grew up in the Hamptons, and it was his first time back as chair, so he should have filled the room,” concedes a DNC official. “DNC staffers were really disappointed. It spoke to the lack of confidence in Dean among the donor leadership.” DNC spokesperson Karen Finney responds, “It was wonderfully successful and gave the governor a chance to really listen to what people had to say. Unfortunately, due to other plans, those folks couldn’t attend.”
—Greg Sargent