Athletes, celebs, and the social set wandered the grounds of the Bridgehampton Polo Club VIP tent for the Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge (which ran for six consecutive Saturdays in July and August). The annual sporting event benefits the South Fork Breast Health Coalition and includes sponsors such as Panasonic; Yahoo! Music; Folio, LLC; Sergio Rossi; Exsus Travel; and the Island of Barbados Tourism Authority.
The Sheet's Joan Jedell played with her new digital Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 (with a Leica Lens) camera, and snapped away those strutting their stuff inside the oh-so-social confines of the invitation-only tent. Enjoying one of the summer's hottest cocktail parties, the partygoers came dressed as colorfully as the fruit-blended martinis they knocked back.
Star Jones Reynolds petted her Maltese as Kyle Mac-Lachlan remarked on how a few years ago, he had brought his own canine companion and was denied entry into the tent. When an overly fawning magazine publisher (we won't say who) asked actor Woody Harrelson if he needed anything at all, from a car to a helicopter, the former Cheers star pondered the offer before replying, "I need a beer." Enough said.
Wedding Crashers star Owen Wilson, one of the event's hosts, was less than gregarious with reporters, whom he sent packing with the help of his security team. He choose, instead, to focus on actually watching the match (imagine that!) rather than schmooze with all the pretty people. Victoria Gotti was a good sport and stepped in for Wilson to award that week's winning team, the Black Watch, their prizes.
Other notables mingling: Q-Tip, Ines Rivero, Matt Dillon, Nacho Figueras, Gillian Hearst-Shaw, Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky, Lydia Hearst, Karolina Kurkova, Antonio Esfandiari, Katie Lee Joel (Billy's wife), Samantha Cole, Andrew Saffir, Jesse Metcalfe, Amy and Jennifer Goldman, Amy Palmer, Marisa Bregman, Zani Gugelmann, and Greg Bello. Playing the field has its fine rewards!
We bumped into Annette and Matt Lauer while shopping in Southampton and commented on their absence from the Polo VIP tent. Matt replied, "We really like to watch the game, so we sit in the bleachers (in other words, the un-VIP section) and Jack [their son, 4] loves it…. His big thrill was when one of the players fell off his horse."
