1 Perri Peltz and Eric Ruttenberg
PEDIGREE: She’s the daughter of socialite Lauren Veronis and the stepdaughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz; he’s the son of billionaire businessman Derald Ruttenberg. THE GUEST LIST: Matt Lauer, Sandy Golinkin (she publishes Lucky), Harry Crosby (son of Bing). THE INSIDE SCOOP: Toss kids and dogs (both are welcome) into the mix with this gazillionaire couple, and you’ve got a casual Southampton weekend torn from the pages of a fifties Town & Country. Guests get their own cottage and, come Saturday morning, choose between golf with Eric at the National or tennis with Perri right on the property’s courts. Elegant dinner parties in the formal dining room usually have an Asian bent (know how to use chopsticks), and the guest list is eclectic – his financier friends, like investment banker Jeffrey Leeds, and her pals from TV.
2 Ron Perelman and Ellen Barkin
PEDIGREE: He’s the famously well-divorced, short-tempered, short-of-stature billionaire businessman whose holdings include Revlon; she’s the modestly successful movie star whose holdings include Ron Perelman. THE GUEST LIST: Penny Marshall, Michael Douglas, Julianne Moore. THE INSIDE SCOOP: At 57 acres, The Creeks is the Hamptons’ largest estate (until Ira Rennert finishes his); the copper-topped main house is exclusively for Ron and Ellen and the two youngest kids. Guests are housed in an outbuilding where each room is stocked with soft drinks and snacks. If you like cigar smoke, you can hang with Ron on the brick patio and watch security guards wave off boaters on Georgica Pond. On Saturday nights, guests get either a kosher meal at home or trayf at Nick & Toni’s. Later, there’s a new release in the Creeks’$2 100-seat screening room, furnished with chaises longues and cashmere blankets.
3 Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg
PEDIGREE: He’s the most famous film director in the world; she’s an actress and mother to their tribe of seven children. THE GUEST LIST: Gwyneth, Ben, Brad, Tom (Cruise), Hillary and Bill. THE INSIDE SCOOP: The host is famously gracious and the guests are bigger than life at Quelle Farm, Spielberg’s twelve-acre estate. Everybody brings the kids, to be watched over by a small army of nannies. Saturday-night dinner is often a discreet table on Nick & Toni’s front porch, and Sunday morning the gang shows up for egg-white omelettes at East Hampton’s Babette’s. Distractions include private stables and a riding ring, boating on Georgica Pond, an in-house chef, and high-speed Internet connections in every room – but no screening room.
4 Marty Richards
PEDIGREE: The gregarious Broadway producer and widower of Johnson & Johnson heiress Mary Lea Richards. THE GUEST LIST: Steve Martin, Denise Rich, Chita Rivera, Lady Sharon Sondes. THE INSIDE SCOOP: Don’t expect a quiet weekend in the country if you’re invited to By the Sea, Richards’s oceanfront Gin Lane “cottage.” Dinner parties start at nine and end the next day. Saturday-afternoon lunch for 25 or more is a tradition. On Sunday, a breakfast buffet is laid out for guests who awaken at all hours. Guests swim in one of Southampton’s only saltwater pools and are treated to a tankful of gas from the estate’s own pumps before heading home.
5 Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi
PEDIGREE: She’s the filmmaker responsible for dewy-eyed hits like Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail; he’s a best-selling author and co-writer of Goodfellas. THE GUEST LIST: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Meg Ryan. THE INSIDE SCOOP: A weekend at Nick and Nora’s definitely does not include a table at Nick & Toni’s. In fact, their high-profile celebrity boarders hardly ever leave the low-profile East Hampton farmhouse. There are – gasp! – no servants, and the hosts prepare home-cooked meals from Nora’s famous recipe notebook. For lunchtime barbecues, hot dogs arrive via plane from Nate ‘n Al’s in Beverly Hills. And instead of Saturday nights at Jet East, the power couple hosts a mean game of charades or dollar-ante poker.
6 Chris Barish
PEDIGREE: He’s the owner of uptown club Light, and the offspring of producer Keith Barish (The Fugitive, Sophie’s Choice) and socialite Ann Barish. THE GUEST LIST: Don Johnson, Sylvester Stallone, Luke Perry, Jennifer Grant. THE INSIDE SCOOP: Volleyball and other beach games take up the daylight hours at this 100-year-old oceanfront estate where regulars like Johnson and Stallone, friends from Keith’s Planet Hollywood days, are joined by Chris’s own Tinseltown troupe, including Jennifer Grant (Cary’s daughter) and Luke Perry. (Once when Ann was on the phone frantically trying to get a break in the fence fixed, Perry grabbed a tool kit and got to work.) Last summer, Chris, an NYU film grad, hosted the Hamptons premiere of Nurse Betty, a benefit for his alma mater.
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