Rachel, Laura, Rebecca, Gabrielle, four skinny stunning staffers — size 0, size 2 — surrounded NYC’s first lady. Had any eaten an entire grape, she’d need a paramedic. So I ask Chirlane: “What’re you, size 8?” . . . “No. Size 4.”
Despite my IQ, she couldn’t brush me since I was hosting lunch so she could meet some of our town’s ladies — actresses Ellen Burstyn, Kim Cattrall, Estelle Parsons, Elizabeth Ashley, Melissa Leo, Parker Posey.
Phylicia Rashad’s Indian coat was purple silk. Me: “Get it in New Delhi?” She: “No, Minnesota.” Minnesota?! Besides busses out, whothehell gets anything in Minnesota?
Tyne Daly to Barbara Walters: “I’ll only stay a minute. I’m due elsewhere.” One hour later, Tyne was mingling. She’s probably still in my living room.
Chirlane: “I’m 60. [The hubby, whose name escapes me, is 52.] I’m a real New York story. Came from Boston in 1977 with $35 in my pocket and worked in publishing for Redbook, New York Magazine, Condé Nast then freelance at Essence.”
A vegetarian, over couscous and salad, she met St. Martin’s president Sally Richardson, Harper’s Bazaar’s Valerie Salembier, Hearst Editorial Director Ellen Levine, and “Fear of Flying’s” Erica Jong, who said her next book, “Fear of Dying” is “funny.” Right. Dying is always a hoot.
So Mme. McCray de blasio: “Our administration already filled twice as many potholes . . . We’ve hired over 50 percent women . . . This city’s about people. Not taxis, skyscrapers or buildings — people. All with the same needs. We must invest in our people.”
She told TV types Gayle King, Deborah Norville, Rosanna Scotto, Pia Lindström, Jill Brooke: “This is a roomful of trailblazers. I understand trailblazers. September 1991, City Hall, I met Bill, who says my dramatic red and green batik outfit with great flair, complete with the colorful headwrap, captivated him. I still have that dress. But my memory is it had no headwrap.”
Last month I asked what she needed most. “Rest.” Now: “I cope with stress because my mother taught me to mind my manners. Always ‘please . . . thank you’ . . . and know about teatime. Also I was a good student at Wellesley.
“For us personally, I make sure there’s family time together. And that he gets home at a decent hour so we have dinner together. I’m no great cook, but last night was pasta and salad. Not all homemade. I bought the salad.”
Realtor Dolly Lenz asked when she’s into Gracie Mansion “Soon, when Dante starts school, where he may pick up bad language, but won’t be the first he’s heard those words.” And like Roosevelts, Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes, De blasios stick in one business. What’s her son want to do when he graduates? “Politics.”
Chirlane segued from Sandra Bernhard, Caroline Hirsch, producers Fran “Pippin” Weissler, Daryl “Kinky Boots” Roth, Sydney Biddle Barrows, who definitely knows from entertainment, Mrs. Spike Lee, Mrs. Steve Buscemi, FIT prexy Dr. Joyce Brown, ex Gov. Paterson’s ex-wife, Michelle, former Chief Judge Judith Kaye, and those with last names like Catsimatidis, Farkas, LeFrak. She spoke with American Express CEO Ken Chenault’s wife, Kathy, and Cuomo’s sister Margaret.
Hizzoner Bill once told me: “Chirlane hands cut-up fruit to me in a car when I’m spending all afternoon out. Because she found me, I have to tell you my life is protected.”
She, of Caribbean and Ghanaian ancestry: “I was working as a Human Rights Commissioner. Every day in City Hall but had never seen him. After I did, my stomach did a gigantic flip-flop. He took me home for Christmas. I took him home for Kwanzaa. Date 3, outside Dojo, a Japanese joint, was our first kiss.”
Not everyone arriving at our lunch was this lady’s fan. Exiting, everyone was. Clo Cohen, who ran Jimmy Choo, model Carmen Dell’Orefice, Mrs. Jim Dale, Mrs. Andrew Tisch, designers Nicole Miller, Mary McFadden all were taken by her. Easy, gracious, polite, goes with the flow — and smart. Very smart. Like really really smart.