PAGE SIX AT THE BILL CLINTON BOOK PARTY
By RICHARD JOHNSON with PAULA FROELICH and CHRIS WILSON
New York Post
June 22, 2004 -- BILL CLINTON let the jokes fly last night as he presided over the Big Apple's hottest party, celebrating the publication of his memoirs, "My Life."
Clinton, along with his senator wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea, were the stars of the Metropolitan Museum of Art gala, with Chelsea's boyfriend, Ian Klaus, also getting plenty of looks.
"By the time I finished working on the book, I was about down to the minimum wage with all the time I put into it," Clinton quipped to the crowd of movers and shakers who came to toast him.
He added, "I hope my publisher gets his money back."
Among the 1,000 guests who showed were: Barbara Walters, Star Jones, Andy Rooney, Don Hewitt, Charlie Rose, Ken Burns, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Judy Collins, Phoebe Snow, Maurice Tempelsman, Toni Morrison, Lauren Bacall, Natalie Portman (slumming it in shorts and high heels!) Sirio Maccione and Jonathan Tisch.
Also there were Clinton's former press secretary George Stepanopoulous, Al Franken, Winona Ryder, Larry King, Paula Zahn, the Rev. Al Sharpton, scribes Walter Mosley, Anna Deavere Smith, Fran Lebowitz, Pete Hamill and Calvin Trillin. Among the others attending were Anna Wintour, John Kerry's sister, Peggy, Mark Green and Bob Torricelli.
Introducing her husband, Hillary called Bill "the former president and future best-selling author, Chelsea's father and my constituent."
"I want to thank the senator," Bill told her, adding, "as one of your constituents, I'd like to see sewer and natural-gas systems expanded in Westchester [where they live]." The ex-prez also revealed that the "worst thing" about being a civilian again was "walking into a room and not having a song played."
Security at the invitation-only bash was tight, but one protester outside was able to wave a sign criticizing the former president for both his infidelity and his failure to capture Osama bin Laden. |
