We met you at Swifty's- do you share Peachy Deegan's shining enthusiasm for Swifty's and what do you enjoy off the menu the most there?
Love Swifty’s. And I always order the tuna carpaccio to start and the roast chicken (with fries) or the crab cakes to follow.
Did you attend Fete de Swifty?
Almost every year since it was the Fete de Famille but not this year since I was invited to Bryan Bantry’s screening of The Social Network—and I wasn’t the only Swifty’s regular who was there.
What do you know now about the upper crust that you wish you knew at the beginning of your career?
That they can stop supposedly fearsome journalists from covering a book.
It came up in a Fitzgerald/Hemingway discussion that "The rich are different from us/Yes they have more money" what do you think of this and why?
Staff. It’s all about staff. They have staff and we don’t. And Gulfstreams. Rich today is Gulfstream. Everything else is upper middle class. Obama should tax anyone with a Gulfstream. Then tax them again. But I bet he likes riding in Gulfstreams too and the rest of us are gonna have to pay for that.
We loved 740 Park. If you could live there, would you and if so in what apartment and why?
First question is easy. John Thain’s jewel-box penthouse. Would I? May not be the relevant question...Could I, after writing that book, is a better one. But the answer is that if I could afford it, I’d probably choose a private house and not an apartment. With that much money, all the problems of home ownership would be affordable. Because I’d have staff to deal with the...
What can you tell us about your Los Angeles book for our West Coast Peachy readers please?
It’s 740 Park (the West Coast version) about the world’s richest neighborhoods, Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Same concept. VERY different cast of characters. Houses instead of apartments.
What publication have you enjoyed writing for the most and why?
Model, probably. Interviewing supermodels is a lot more fun than getting screamed at by the crabby paranoids in the art world, for instance.
What person which you've interviewed was the most captivating and what made them so?
Wow. Hard one. Patti Smith at Café Figaro right after Hey Joe came out? Nina Hartley for My Generation because she took her clothes off and did the whole thing naked? Christy Turlington, because she told me the truth about the Trinity? Tom Hoving, because he just didn’t give a shit who he offended? Karl Lagerfeld, because he was always good for a provocative quote? Lately, I’m happiest about interviewing Tony Curtis for my new book, because he died a couple of weeks later and I was very lucky to get him.
What do you think is key to being knowledgeable about gossip without being known as gossipy? That’s easy. Take it all in and give nothing out. Then you’ll know but not be known as a gossip. Or else, call it journalism. Or else, call it history. And be prepared to defend yourself.
What or who has had the most influence on your pursuit of excellence?
First my father, Milton Gross, who was a journalist and author before me. Then, the three editors who taught me my trade and gave me the chance to pursue it: Clay Felker, A.M. Rosenthal and Ed Kosner.
What are you proudest of and why?
Still working (in print) after all these years.
What would you like to do professionally that you have not yet had the opportunity to do?
See one of my books made into a movie.
What honors and awards have you received in your profession?
I think I won a fashion journalism award when I was at the Times and I was columnist of the year when I wrote for Tatler in the 90s. The greatest honor though was making the New York Times bestseller list. And the nest Reward, as opposed to Award, is whenever someone says they liked one of my books.
What is your favorite place to be in Manhattan?
This changes all the time. Lately, just north of the Wollman Rink in Central Park where I go with my Westie, Calpurnia.
What is your favorite shop in Manhattan?
Myers of Keswick
What is your favorite drink?
Chateau Haut Brion 1982 (but I finished the bottles I owned, so will happily accept donations).
What is your favorite restaurant in Manhattan?
Impossible to answer. I don’t have one. I have many. To start: Minetta Tavern, Da Silvano, The Four Seasons, Swifty's, The Waverly Inn, Esca, Amaranth, Philippe, Indochine, Mekong, The Modern, Le Veau D’Or, Benoit, Michael’s, Bar Boulud, DBGB, Mary’s Fish Camp, Bondst, Nobu, Nougatine, Shake Shack, and Carnegie John’s cart behind Carnegie Hall. But that’s just off the top of my head.
What is your favorite Manhattan book?
The Rich and Other Atrocities by Charlotte Curtis
If you could have anything in Manhattan named after you what would it be and why?
A carriage horse in Central Park because they’re a pleasure to behold, a reminder of a more gracious past and an integral part of what’s gracious about the present.
What has been your best Manhattan athletic experience?
Swimming in the NYAC pool.
What is your favorite thing to do in Manhattan that you can do nowhere else?
Walking in Manhattan.
What has been your best Manhattan art or music experience?
Again, too many to give one answer. So I’ll pick one of the first and one of the most recent. The Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden, Thanksgiving 1969. The Otto Dix show at the Neue Galerie last month.
What do you think is most underrated and overrated here?
Riding the subways is underrated. I remember when I first returned to Manhattan after college and someone told me with pride how they never took one. Personally, I’ll take the iron horse over a stinky cab with an idiotic TV, a fixed meter, and a driver who doesn’t know his way around any day. Currently, the use of the word curator is overrated. Curators work in museums. They don’t run stores or magazines.
Other than Movers and Shakers of course, what is your favorite Whom You Know column and what do you like about it?
Quotable Peachy rocks. Love a good quote. Here’s one of my favorites: The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. --George Bernard Shaw.
What else should Whom You Know readers know about you?
Je ne regret rien.
How would you like to be contacted by Whom You Know readers?