Janice
08-05-2003, 11:47 AM
Simon says who's So Vain for $50G
by Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa
Boston Herald
Tuesday, August 5, 2003
EDGARTOWN - The answer to the musical question: Who did Carly Simon diss in her mega-hit, "You're So Vain,'' sold for a whopping $50,000 at the 25th Annual Possible Dream Auction last night as Martha's Vineyard's beautiful people raised more than $500,000 for charity.
NBC Sports sultan Dick Ebersol, being egged on by a posse of pals and his wife, actress Susan St. James, came up with the winning number as scores of well-heeled islanders gasped and cheered.
"I've kept this secret since 1972,'' Simon told the crowd as she kicked off the bidding with an a capella version of her biggest hit. Brandishing "Vain'' props like a toy "yacht,'' and apricot scarf that she tied around the neck of auctioneer, Art Buchwald, Simon told the crowd, "Now you have to bid.''
And bid they did. Ebersol drove out the tire-kickers crowded into the garden of the Harborside Hotel with an opening offer of $30,000. But he got into a furious war with another well-heeled Simon fan, former Mattel acting chairman Bill Rollnick, who finally quit at 50 grand.
For his dough, Ebersol gets lunch at Casa Carly with nine pals. She's serving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, vodka on the rocks and her deep, dark musical secret: the name of the oh-so-Vain swain. Then, she said, she'll swear him to secrecy. Damn!
Rumors have circulated for years about who the song was written for. Legend has it the island songstress penned the pop hit with Hollywood hound dog Warren Beatty in mind. But there's another Carly camp that swears it's really about rock 'n' roll rascal Mick Jagger.
There are also votes for her ex, James Taylor.
Carly's Dream was one of 50 nifty items up for grabs at the Martha's Vineyard Community Services annual bid-a-thon, where the island's well-heeled summer residents pony up unique, one-of-a-kind items that are auctioned to raise money for the Vineyard's less fortunate.
"Each year, the celebrities try to outdo themselves,'' reports auction co-chair Kerry Scott. "They try to top what they did last year. People like (``Arthur'' author) Marc Brown and Carly call us up and say, `I'd like to do something even MORE special than last year.' And what could be more special?''
Apparently, Simon had lots of ideas, but after five minutes on the phone with Buchwald, the Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist who's wielded the gavel at the auction for 24 years, he wrestled the Dream out of her!
The auction got under way last night at 5 p.m. under murky skies in the hotel's seaside garden with Buchwald saying it wasn't his swan song, but he was taking a hiatus.
"I've got an announcement to make - I'm not dead yet,'' said the funnyman dressed in a red jacket and straw boater. His donation - a family history written by the man himself - ultimately went for a whopping $22,000 after a testimonial by St. James, who bought the same Dream last year.
Chilmark's fave Hollywood couple, Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson, didn't make the auction scene. But their donation, a walk-on on either Mary's new TV show, "Joan of Arcadia'' or "Becker,'' her hubby's sitcom, went for $11,000.
Another longtime Dream donor, "60 Minutes'' guy Mike Wallace, who kicked in dinner for four at la-dee-da Le Cirque in New York that big-spender Ebersol bought for $21,000, said, "This is the most enticing groups of Possible Dreams since the first auction 25 years ago. It's all about people who care about the Vineyard, people who love the Vineyard.''
Other celebs we saw getting caught up in the auction were "Seabiscuit'' narrator and American historian David McCullough, whose personal guided tour of the The Adams House in Quincy attracted a whopping $25,000 bid; and Jack Valenti, the prez of the Motion Picture Association of America.
Some of the other Dream-y lots included tickets to the next super-hot "American Idol'' semifinals and finals as well as an invite to an apres- "Idol'' bash thrown by Fox, which sang out for a $9,000 winning bid, as well as a round of golf at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs with presidential pal Vernon Jordan, which sold for $8,000. Mulligans not included.
The take of the annual auction of fab services and chances of a lifetime goes to fund visiting nurses, women's support services and early childhood programs on the island.
"You can get everything but be born and buried courtesy of Martha's Vineyard Community Services,'' said Scott.
File under: Sweet Dreams.
http://www2.bostonherald.com/inside_track/inside_track/track07052003.htm
by Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa
Boston Herald
Tuesday, August 5, 2003
EDGARTOWN - The answer to the musical question: Who did Carly Simon diss in her mega-hit, "You're So Vain,'' sold for a whopping $50,000 at the 25th Annual Possible Dream Auction last night as Martha's Vineyard's beautiful people raised more than $500,000 for charity.
NBC Sports sultan Dick Ebersol, being egged on by a posse of pals and his wife, actress Susan St. James, came up with the winning number as scores of well-heeled islanders gasped and cheered.
"I've kept this secret since 1972,'' Simon told the crowd as she kicked off the bidding with an a capella version of her biggest hit. Brandishing "Vain'' props like a toy "yacht,'' and apricot scarf that she tied around the neck of auctioneer, Art Buchwald, Simon told the crowd, "Now you have to bid.''
And bid they did. Ebersol drove out the tire-kickers crowded into the garden of the Harborside Hotel with an opening offer of $30,000. But he got into a furious war with another well-heeled Simon fan, former Mattel acting chairman Bill Rollnick, who finally quit at 50 grand.
For his dough, Ebersol gets lunch at Casa Carly with nine pals. She's serving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, vodka on the rocks and her deep, dark musical secret: the name of the oh-so-Vain swain. Then, she said, she'll swear him to secrecy. Damn!
Rumors have circulated for years about who the song was written for. Legend has it the island songstress penned the pop hit with Hollywood hound dog Warren Beatty in mind. But there's another Carly camp that swears it's really about rock 'n' roll rascal Mick Jagger.
There are also votes for her ex, James Taylor.
Carly's Dream was one of 50 nifty items up for grabs at the Martha's Vineyard Community Services annual bid-a-thon, where the island's well-heeled summer residents pony up unique, one-of-a-kind items that are auctioned to raise money for the Vineyard's less fortunate.
"Each year, the celebrities try to outdo themselves,'' reports auction co-chair Kerry Scott. "They try to top what they did last year. People like (``Arthur'' author) Marc Brown and Carly call us up and say, `I'd like to do something even MORE special than last year.' And what could be more special?''
Apparently, Simon had lots of ideas, but after five minutes on the phone with Buchwald, the Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist who's wielded the gavel at the auction for 24 years, he wrestled the Dream out of her!
The auction got under way last night at 5 p.m. under murky skies in the hotel's seaside garden with Buchwald saying it wasn't his swan song, but he was taking a hiatus.
"I've got an announcement to make - I'm not dead yet,'' said the funnyman dressed in a red jacket and straw boater. His donation - a family history written by the man himself - ultimately went for a whopping $22,000 after a testimonial by St. James, who bought the same Dream last year.
Chilmark's fave Hollywood couple, Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson, didn't make the auction scene. But their donation, a walk-on on either Mary's new TV show, "Joan of Arcadia'' or "Becker,'' her hubby's sitcom, went for $11,000.
Another longtime Dream donor, "60 Minutes'' guy Mike Wallace, who kicked in dinner for four at la-dee-da Le Cirque in New York that big-spender Ebersol bought for $21,000, said, "This is the most enticing groups of Possible Dreams since the first auction 25 years ago. It's all about people who care about the Vineyard, people who love the Vineyard.''
Other celebs we saw getting caught up in the auction were "Seabiscuit'' narrator and American historian David McCullough, whose personal guided tour of the The Adams House in Quincy attracted a whopping $25,000 bid; and Jack Valenti, the prez of the Motion Picture Association of America.
Some of the other Dream-y lots included tickets to the next super-hot "American Idol'' semifinals and finals as well as an invite to an apres- "Idol'' bash thrown by Fox, which sang out for a $9,000 winning bid, as well as a round of golf at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs with presidential pal Vernon Jordan, which sold for $8,000. Mulligans not included.
The take of the annual auction of fab services and chances of a lifetime goes to fund visiting nurses, women's support services and early childhood programs on the island.
"You can get everything but be born and buried courtesy of Martha's Vineyard Community Services,'' said Scott.
File under: Sweet Dreams.
http://www2.bostonherald.com/inside_track/inside_track/track07052003.htm