Hello! You’re reading Heir Mail, the only newsletter to come from me (hi) setting a Google Alert for the word “heiress” and then just writing about whatever pops up.
Okay so the above is, briefly, a lie. But I have a new search term I think we all can enjoy, for one week only: “Kathy Freston1 book party.”
Friday evening, I was doing normal Friday evening stuff: sitting, eating, and ignoring both my friends and the movie we were watching in favor of Googling pictures of Wendi Deng2 with Ghislaine Maxwell. Like, there must be some, right?? From what I can tell there was only one (one!) once (once!), taken by Patrick McMullan and no longer available to me. Devastating!
But it’s location introduced me to the very concept of a Kathy Freston book party.
Kathy is the author (duh) of at least nine vegan cook/diet/lifestyle books: The Lean, 72 Reasons to the Be Vegan, Quantum Wellness, — I’d say “etc.” but the lack of consistent branding here is a marvel, the other titles could be anything.
Kathy is ~56 years old but she looks the no age age of the very rich and very vegan. \ @kathyfreston
It also happens that Kathy was married to a man named Tom Freston; Tom is the American entertainment industry executive who came up with “I want my MTV.” He ran Viacom for nine months in 2006, but Shari Redstone’s dad fired him because he didn’t buy MySpace. In 2012, Kathy and Tom split up, but Wikipedia says they “remain friends. [citation needed]”
Anyways, apparently, Ghislaine and Wendi were together at the 2011 party for Kathy’s book Veganist, co-hosted by Wendi and SuperPumped star Arianna Huffington at Arianna’s L.A. home. Already: wow, tell me more?? I will.
Also in attendance (according captions on Patrick’s archives for which the images are largely broken so honestly who even knows): I Love Lucy’s Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban, producers Brian Grazer and Lawrence Bender, Jessi Spano, Disney’s Bob Iger, Katie Lee formerly Joel, George’s and Rod’s ex Alanna Hamilton Stewart, Al Gore’s ex Laurie David, Lorne Michaels, Moby, Les MoonVest3 and Julie Chen, Candice Bergen and her daughter Chloe Malle, future president Marianne Williamson, blogger Xeni Jardin, Don’t Trust The B in Apartment 23’s James Van Der Beek, noted conspiracist and somewhat surprising Virgo Oliver Stone, Director of When Harry Met Sally Rob Reiner, Tracey Ullman, and shipping magnate Jeff Bezos.
And those are just the people whose names I recognized without having to Google.
One thing is abundantly clear: this Kathy Freston knows how to have a book party thrown for her. Busy and world-beating people, some of whom, if stereotypes are true, have likely never been to a school event for their own children, showed up en masse to her book party.
Perhaps a book party sounds somewhat glamourous, and perhaps it is in this case, but this is a type of event that usually isn’t any good4. Mostly, there’s depressing, small, and rare food and a boring speech, and excitement comes only from the ambient fear of getting too drunk. And Kathy’s party, notooffensevegansIrespectyourchoicesmuchmorethanmyown, was a vegan cookbook book party. Like, I’m just saying, that’s power.
Hoping to find more images from this incredible but mysterious event, I typed “Kathy Freston book party” into Getty. I came up short in particular but was quickly reminded: Kathy didn’t write one book. She didn’t have one book party. Kathy has in fact had many, many book parties. She’s even throw a few for other people! And yes, they were terrifyingly well-attended! Let’s take a tour!
Where to start, where to start. Well, how about here?
Taken at the 2009 launch party for Quantum Wellness Cleanse: The 21-Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Body, Mind and Spirit at Pure Yoga in NYC we have, from left: the dude who runs Equinox, the last President’s Middle East advisor-in-law, the guy who founded Rolling Stone, our girl Kathy, her now-ex, and the grabby hands and mangled penis that launched a thousand #MeToo ships. A normal party!
Also in attendance at this event: Janie Buffett (wife of Jimmy not Warren), Crash star Lizzie Grubman’s dad Alan, pop artist Peter Max and his wife Mary5 , Wendi, THE Judith Miller6, RHONY’s Harry Dubin, at least one of the DuPont twins (which would be a whole thing to explain), the co-owner of Nobu, friend of Roy Cohn and Liza Nikki Haskell, Cornelia Guest, model and woman who’s been correctly calling Chris Noth shit since the ‘90s Beverly Johnson, Baby Jane Holzer, the lady from Netflix’s upcoming docuseries Bad Vegan, and my main newsletter rival Graydon Carter. As per the photos, the vibes were the high end version of what still to me looks like PierOne zen: lots of glassware, low lighting, people doing yoga, shiny material, golds and browns.
It’s a different vibe, somewhat, from the 2008 party for Quantum Wellness (no cleanse), which was covered by Vanity Fair. This one’s Hamptons-y, despite being in the city, but maybe just because it was June. Pastels, kelly green, chandelier earrings, no visible yoga. It features (again) my nemesis Graydon, Wendi, Katie Lee, Harvey, but adds designers Donna Karan, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Russell Simmons, along with a painting of Kathy:
Technically this event was called “Donna Karan & The Urban Zen Foundation, Lisa & Mehmet Oz, Wendi & Rupert Murdoch, Marianne Williamson Celebrate The Weinstein Publication of KATHY FRESTON'S QUANTUM WELLNESS.”
Russell and Harvey have similar interests, making this picture: fucking eek! Let’s leave this party now!
Skipping the 2012 bash cohosted by Arianna and Wendi (again!) and attended by Harvey (again!); passing over the 2014 soiree that Kathy, Victoria Jackson (not the one from SNL), and Dean Ornish (the doctor behind Ornish Lifestyle Medicine, and author of a book called Eat More, Weigh Less) threw for Arianna (Ellen and Portia went); and ignoring the 2008 party Tom and Kathy threw for president Marianne (inviting Donna, Erica Jong, Ellen Burstyn, a woman named Patricia Duff who seems to deserve more attention, and Parker Posey), we’ll flash back to 2006, where luminaries gathered to celebrate Kathy’s The One. Here where we find a picture that is more than one thousand words; it’s at least a season of television.
If you told me I could have a new 10 episodes of Succession right now, or hear just a few minutes of a conversation between Rupert and Les, I’d be hard pressed to decide. The internet can tell us so much, but you can’t satisfyingly Google “Do Rupert Murdoch and Les Moonves like each other?” You can assume no, but know you can’t exactly know. Mostly, you just find a lot of lists they’re powerful on and paltry reports of ski chalet conferences they attended.
But speaking of weird fucking Freston power parties, here’s only other event I can find where Les and Rupe are pictured together: before Tom’s firing from Viacom, a roast had been planned for him; afterwards, the roast went ahead anyways. It’s from 2006, the same year as the picture above, just a few months later. There’s a Times article about it, including who wrote the jokes, here. Also in attendance: Russell, Stephen Colbert, Harvey, Bono by satellite.
Back to the The One party, when times were high and Tom wasn’t fired yet! There were a lot of friends we’d seen before — Harvey, Jann, my nemesis, Alanna H-S, Dr.’s daughter Lisa Oz, cohost of the painting party.
There are some repeating but previously unnoted faces, too: Dana Hammond Stubgen — who Sotheby’s describes as a “mother of five, socialite and philanthropist” as well as “one of too few serious women wine collectors” — and who definitely went to the Quantum Wellness Cleanse party. Judy Taylor, SVP of events of Equinox, was at both too, as was Myra Scheer, who hosts a Sirius radio show about Studio 54. Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun was also at Tom’s roast. Gerry Byrne, an exec, and Bill Freston, who’s gotta be a brother. Plus new friends: Factory mainstay Patti D’Arbanville, “Don’t Cry Out Loud” co-writer Carole Bayer Sager, her executive husband Bob Daly (who Wikipedia — I’m getting lazy now — says ran “CBS Entertainment, Warner Bros., Warner Music Group, and the Los Angeles Dodgers,” and currently consults for Paramount), Calvin Klein. Seemingly every person, and there a lot I haven’t listed, is a Who in the Who’s Who sense, a New York story of connection and wealth and power in the pre- and post recession aughts. It’s a lot to think about.
So, for fun, here’s Wendi with her arm around author and unwitting spiritual advisor to this newsletter Dominick Dunne, along with a viciously uncredited Southern Charm star Pat Altschul on the left.
OUCH, Pat.
Okay, that’s all, thanks bye!
Kathy has not been termed an “heiress” by anyone, so I am not making her name bold, as is the style of this newsletter.
Wendi Deng, a longstanding fascination of mine, has not been called an heiress either (although her daughters have), but I would never, ever dare not to bold her name. If she pushed the button that released the big one — not an impossible scenario, frankly — and the planet exploded and all life was extinguished, I’d be sad that everyone I ever loved died, but I’d also be like '“yesss, you are it, no one can tell you anything.”
Les was CEO of CBS for the 9 months Tom was CEO of Viacom, and beyond.
Once I went to a Bethenny Frankel book party and saw Jill Zarin try to attract all the attention to herself. This is my only even remotely good story.
Warning, stop reading! Peter later descended into dementia and Mary, enmeshed in a battle over his care, died by suicide. Sorry, I learned this horrible thing and if you refused to heed my warning, you know too.
On whom I once got a good burn in on Twitter (since deleted).
Loved the newsletter! Kathy Freston's book parties are star-studded and captivating. The guest list includes influential figures like Wendi Deng, Ghislaine Maxwell, Harvey Weinstein, and Rupert Murdoch. Kathy's success as an author with her vegan books is impressive. Can't wait for more intriguing stories in your next newsletter! Keep up the fantastic work! Cheers! https://www.coin-master-freespins.com/2020/12/coin-master-free-spins.html