Society: In Newport, Sir Harry Benson enthralls standing-room-only crowd during book-signing

NEWPORT — Sir Harry Benson's whirlwind visit to this island town earlier this week made quite a splash.

Oh, ha ha ha.

The Great Scot was in Newport for a lecture and a book-signing at the Redwood Library, which is Newport's equivalent of The Society of the Four Arts — if the Four Arts was 275 years old and founded by a man who was both a slave owner and a Quaker at the same time.

Kids, can you say "dichotomy"?

Sir Harry's highly anticipated appearance was enough to make the Topsider Set put down the Boodles and tonic and don the khakis purchased during the first Bush administration — you know, the new ones — before heading up Bellevue Avenue.

Handsome Harry was his usual self during the Q&A, witty and self-deprecating. He sometimes referred to his subjects as his "victims" and often answered "why" questions with "because my wife told me to" while Gigi, the wife in question, sat in the front row laughing.

The book, "Persons of Interest," is unsurprisingly fabulous, and quite hefty.

Truly, if he had charged by the pound instead by the book he would have needed a refrigerator to tote all that cheddar.

The two-day whirlwind included a small cocktail party hosted by family friend Caterine Milinaire Cushing at her home abutting Bailey's Beach, as well as a post-lecture cocktail buffet at the Victorian home of art collector Marie Samuels and her retired venture capitalist husband, Bill.

Seen at one or the other or both: Topsy Taylor (Topsy, Caterine and Gigi all worked together at Vogue back in the day); Sam Bolton (the talented photographer/designer who got the ball rolling for the exhibit, and curated and designed the contents of the glass cases with Harry’s magazine covers and letters from Jackie Kennedy and other first ladies); Pamela Taylor Yates (Eames was en route from Palm Beach with the car and the dog); Sukey Bolton with Tom Blake, Janna Chewning, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, that good-looking Dillon brood of siblings — John, Allen, Barbara and Palm Beach jewelry designer Cynthia; Kim Renk, Amy Hoadley, Polly Ober, Pamela O'Connor, Diana Oswald, Toby and Janet Pell, Charlie Burns, Elieen Otto and son Julian; Allison Kemmerer (director of the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, which will host an exhibition of Harry’s 60s photographs starting in December); Mimi Forer, Eaddo and Peter Kiernan with their photographer daughter Lacy, Elizabeth and Bill Kahane, Nanette Herrick, Chandler Hovey III,  Victoria Woodhull, artist Emily Randolph, Leppy McCarthy, Linda Buckley, Norah Diedrick, Sherrie Grace, Bill and Elizabeth Leatherman, Bettie Pardee, Kim and John Palmer, Regis and Sofia de Ramel, Andy and Robin Arkin, Joshua Janson, Peter and Shannon Reed, Jessica Hagan, Andrea Kass, Dee and Richard Gordon, Kathy Quinn (Anthony Quinn’s widow), Sue Petrovas, Paul Miller, Todd Romano, Penelope Green, Beverly Little, Maura Smith, Belinda Kielland and Walter Glennon, Esmond Harmsworth and Lisette Prince, who gifted the Redwood of the very gallery displaying Harry’s photographs.

It's a small, small world.

Especially when one is very, very rich.

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A girl's best friend

Speaking of making a splash, Palm Beach resident Christina Kramer, a member of the Garden Club, took home a blue ribbon for her entry in the Botanical Jewelry category at the Newport Flower Show.

The show's theme was “Eden … a Personal Paradise," and the parameters for the Fantasy Necklace category called for a piece made entirely of plant material.

Christina delivered.

In addition to the blue ribbon, she also earned the prestigious Robyn Kauffmann Spagnolo Botanical Arts Award for "the design that conforms to the schedule requirements, incorporating the principles of design and of exceptional quality in craftsmanship and skillful manipulation of all materials."

The judges' comments included: "Striking and exquisite assemblage of nature’s colors and forms!” and "We are envious! We want to wear it!"

Now that's something, because for these flower show judges, "constructive criticism" isn't constructive until the entry is watered with the the designer's copious tears.

We know from experience. For our first and only flower show entry, the judge wrote "Mother Nature is disappointed in you."

Not making this up.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Society: Harry Benson's book signing brings SRO crowd to Newport library