Sagaponack author of Isn’t That Rich? Life Among the 1%, Richard Kirshenbaum (above), is one of the most exciting personalities in New York City.  For most people, the idea of life inside the golden triad of Park Avenue, Sagaponack, and St. Barths is just as exotic as the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle.  Richard Kirshenbaum has a VIP pass to the Upper East Side and is willing to share the wealth—of gossip.  His New York Observer column on uptown social life provides a fascinating glimpse behind the gilded curtain into the swanky restaurants and eye-popping vacation destinations where the one percent gathers.

Isn’t That Rich? features highlights from Kirshenbaum’s monthly column as well as several brand-new essays.  From cash-strapped blue bloods willing to trade their good names for a taste of nouveau riche treasure to the fine art of donning a cashmere sweater in Capri, Richard exposes the preoccupations of the posh. His insider sources may be anonymous, but the light he shines on their world is dazzling and fabulously fun.  KDHamptons catches up with Kirshenbaum at his stunning Sagaponack home in this NEW Lifestyle Diary, below: 

KDHamptons: How long have you lived in the Hamptons?

Richard Kirshenbaum: My wife Dana (at top) and our three children; Lucas and Talia (15 year old twins) and Georgia (aged 10) have lived in the Hamptons for 15 years, and I have been visiting the Hamptons since I was 7 years old.  My first school trip was to the Montauk
Lighthouse.

KDHamptons: What does your perfect Hampton day look like?

Richard Kirshenbaum: I love getting up in the morning and cooking the family breakfast. Usually steak and eggs for my son and omelets and smoothies for the kids.  I have to start my day with an espresso and I am good to go.  I then work out in the Gym in Sag Harbor.  After my workout I buy the papers and get a coffee at Provisions and sit outside.  After a long hard winter I love anything outdoors.  I then get lunch at the Sagg store and we drive my 1961 Cadillac convertible and have a picnic lunch at Peters Pond Beach.  After lunch, it’s time for the afternoon sun and a glass of Rosé back at the house.  Perhaps Music and a Jacuzzi.  After cocktails I take a bath and write my column or a book I am working on.  Then it’s time for dinner somewhere I love like the Palm or Babettes.  Perhaps a movie… and do it all over again!

KDHamptons: Are you inspired to write in the Hamptons?

Richard Kirshenbaum: The Hamptons is the perfect place to increase your creativity.  The light and the air are amazing.  One year, before we bought our house in Sagaponack we rented next to
Ross Bleckner, the painter who owns the house that Truman Capote used to own.  I think Breakfast at Tiffany is the great American Novella and Answered Prayers is just wicked.  And Amazing.  This year I had lunch with Liz Smith, who is 92 and is a fan of the column and she was friends with Truman and she told me that after Answered Prayers he was run out of new York, socially.  She told me to keep on doing what I was doing and that she loved my writing…. but to be careful!

KDHamptons:  What inspires your to write these pieces?

Richard Kirshenbaum:  Living on the Upper East Side and raising my family there I have seen some truly absurd behavior.  In order to deal with the craziness one has to have a sense of humor and the column is a great outlet for me to comment on what I see.  It actually in some ways allows me to live there.  When I didn’t have the outlet I was less happy.  Now the humor propels me.  I look at everything as great material; i.e: Drivers are the New Dads, or the fact no one eats the filet mignon at a charity event but that one Social Swan who was on the benefit committee told me, “One has to have Steak at a table if you are going to charge $50,000 a table. Even if no one eats it.”  And it was a charity event for the homeless.  Now that is a great story.

KDHamptons:  Identifiable people question, do they ever mind?  Has anyone gotten angry?

Richard Kirshenbaum: I would never betray a friend or someone who tells me something off the record.  I actually have nicknames for my dear friends like the Impossibly Blonde and Glamorous Socialite and L’actrice and the Silver Fox.  Some people know who these people are and I adore them so much, it’s always going to be a love letter or positive.  That said, I will not reveal someone if they ask me not to and I would never “turn someone in”.  There are people who see themselves in the columns and they confront me.  I tell them “it’s not you, I promise”. They get upset, I think because in some ways they want to be in the column.  One high profile couple literally verbally attacked me in Capri two summers ago and the wife pointed a finger at Dana and said, “How can you be married to him?”

She also told me, “You should not be writing about these things!” which only makes me want to write about it more.  I hate “shoulds”.

KDHamptons:  How is life among the 1% different today than, let’s say 20 years ago?

Richard Kirschenbaum:  In my book there is a chapter on LA currency vs. New York currency and a very famous old- school Producer talked to me about the fact that so many more people have money today.  He called it “reality show money”.  In fact, he said that when he was starting out in the business in the 40’s/50’s that if someone had money they came from a credible fortune.  The best line which really summed it up was, “It was so much more fun when it was real”.   He actually feels sorry for us now.

KDHamptons: What is the most absurd thing you have encountered in this stratosphere?

Richard Kirshenbaum: There are some things I can’t even write about as it would betray a trust or confidence.  Some of the most absurd things are so absurd they have to be kept confidential.  Sexual exploits and the like.  People like to tell me things.  At first, I thought it was because they wanted to shock me.  Now, I know for sure it’s that people want to be heard.  I think absurdity is in the eye of the beholder… or the withholder.  That said, I always loved the business woman who married her much younger hairdresser.  They lived in luxury, they would travel to all the best hotels in Europe and she was perfectly coiffed every day.  I do recall them walking down the Via Condotti in Rome hand in hand.  While I don’t think (for obvious reasons) they were sleeping together, there was genuine affection there.  It was actually nice to see.  And they both got exactly what they wanted.

KDHamptons: What is your favorite new piece in Isn’t That Rich? Life among the 1%

Richard Kirshenbaum:  I have a number of new pieces in the book and one of my favorites is
a piece I have titled “the Reverse Brag”.  Today with the distribution of wealth and the explosion of the luxury goods market everyone can have the same watch or bag you have …so the table stakes for what the uber wealthy do has gone to another level (i.e. hiring the world’s most famous people to perform at your birthday party or bottle service for your 15 year old). One way to let people know how rich and successful you are is to not overtly brag, which is a new money tactic but to reverse brag which suggests boredom and that one is so successful they don’t care or to project ennui.

An example of this would be someone saying “ I saw so and so (the worlds most famous singer) perform at my friends 50th birthday party but I wish they would have only done 3 or 4 songs.  I already saw them at my other friends party.  I really just wanted to dance to the DJ.”  That is classic reverse bragging.

* For more information about Richard and to order the book, please go HERE.  Interview by Dini von Mueffling and photos of the Kirshenbaum home by Tria Giovan via HC&G