Sunday, Jul 20, 2008
Harvey Weinstein's Election Night event in New York wasn't quite the bash he'd hoped it would be. But some of his guests had a good time.
Nov 3, 2004 | Media-world parties are pretty well-oiled machines. Planned and primped to the last detail, they rarely stray from the script of handshaking and business-card trading and sucking up. Except perhaps when they are Election Night parties -- then even the most efficient social engine can jump the track, and the most meticulously well-organized affair can slip into the chaos of unexpected despair.
The party thrown Tuesday night in New York by Miramax co-chairman and Democratic Party supporter Harvey Weinstein and Republican macher Georgette Mosbacher was billed as a bipartisan viewing party. And at its start, it looked like Mosbacher and her right-leaning flock were already experiencing party regret.
Clustered in a small corner of the Palm restaurant, they were not mingling well with the rest of the crowd. People were whispering that they weren't talking to the press; in anticipation of President Bush's imminent defeat, they had already begun to lick their wounds privately.
Indeed, it felt a lot more like a true-blue celebration for the Democrats, who were not filtering into the Palm but pouring in, in sweaty, boozy waves. The room fast became an overstuffed oven, and it seemed that everyone except the Republicans was patting each other on the back.
Still, with the networks having called only a handful of states, few partygoers were ready to go on the record with definitive confidence. "I'm in suspense," said U.S. News and World Report and Daily News Publisher Mort Zuckerman. Zuckerman declined to tell Salon whom he had voted for, but he was already imagining how things would get sorted out if John Kerry were elected with a Republican Congress.
"It looks like it's most likely going to be gridlock in the face of the most serious problems ever to face our nation," Zuckerman said, specifically pointing to "the worst fiscal crisis since the Depression" and the massive security threats posed by terrorists before grabbing "Inside the Actors Studio" host James Lipton and heading into the fray.
A half-hour later, the sidewalk outside the Palm was the most interesting place to be. Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons headed out the door, stopping to show Salon the message on his Blackberry from a friend in England, telling him that a Rupert Murdoch-owned publication was calling the election for Kerry.
"They get the real news over there," said Simmons, who had spent the day in Pennsylvania, speaking to 5,000 people and helping to get out the vote. "Over here they won't say it, but this is what's really happening," he said, indicating the electronic device on which the script was crawling.
"Russell, if this happens, it's going to be because of you," said a friend of Simmons, praising the mogul for his involvement in the GOTV process. "It was so inspiring today in Pennsylvania, seeing all these people who had never cast a vote before in their lives lining up," said Simmons, before heading off into the night with a jovial wave.
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