LALLY’S WEDDING BLUES AND WHITES
Let’s just say that Lally Weymouth left no fax unsent in her attempt to create a picture-perfect wedding for her daughter, Katharine Weymouth. The invitations specified that the 470 or so guests should wear “summer formal.” But that provoked so many questioning phone calls that the mother of the bride had her office send out faxes, instructing the men that they were to wear blue blazers or white jackets. Weymouth, the New York Post columnist and daughter of Katharine Graham, allowed the bridesmaids to pick their own gowns, as long as they were sleeveless and black. Several guests reported that the bridesmaids in their uncoordinated black dresses were the only discordant note at the wedding. Lally and her ex-husband, Miami architect Yann Weymouth, both escorted their daughter, 32, a lawyer for the family’s Washington Post, down the aisle as she married Richard Scully, 35, an attorney at Baker & McKenzie. Among the hundreds of guests were such Hampton irregulars as Warren Buffett, Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell, and Oscar and Annette de la Renta. Senate hopeful Charles Schumer took to the dance floor, nearly bumping shoulders with the man he hopes to unseat, Al D’Amato.
A FREUDIAN FRIEND; A CBS RUMOR’S END
FAMILY AFFAIRS: Rupert and Anna aren’t the only Murdochs facing a divorce. Their daughter, 29-year-old Elisabeth Murdoch, recently separated from her husband of five years, her former business partner and Vassar classmate Elkin Pianim. Currently living in London, where she is the general manager of British Sky Broadcasting, Elisabeth made a memorable appearance at News Corporation’s Sun Valley retreat this year, shooting clay pigeons every afternoon. According to a friend, she brought along Sigmund Freud’s great-grandson, the British P.R. pro Matthew Freud, 34. A source in Freud’s office explains that Sky Broadcasting is one of the company’s accounts, insisting that Freud and the media heiress are “just close friends.”
THEY HEARD IT ON THE STREET: Talk about letting the secret out of the boardroom. A group of CBS honchos spent a few hours on July 24 quietly scouting out real estate around Broadway and 8th Street, where they are considering building a new state-of-the-art studio. Currently CBS News, Sports, and a slew of soap operas are taped in a Tenth Avenue building that isn’t wired for high-definition TV. Rumors that the network is looking for a new studio site have been circulating for months – and were given credence that Friday afternoon. Staffers in the news division, faced with the breaking story of the shooting in the Capitol, had to reach an executive who was in the Village, thereby discovering his secret mission. CBS’s spokesman says that they’re “looking at a wide variety of options, including staying where we are.”
MATT DILLON: CRAZY LIKE A FOX
Matt Dillon had a tough time landing his role in There’s Something About Mary, but he sure isn’t having such troubles now. According to Hollywood insiders, the producers of Mary were hard-pressed to persuade the honchos at Fox to give Dillon the comic part, which earned him raves from critics. Says a source, “Fox didn’t want Matt in the movie; now they want him in every movie.” Dillon’s manager, Vic Ramos, concedes that “it wasn’t obvious casting,” explaining that “Matt saw possibilities that the people at Fox wouldn’t automatically think of. He had to prove that he could do it, and he did.” Apart from the Fox offers, says the insider, Penny Marshall has tapped Dillon for her next project. Says Ramos, “That’s just in discussion; it’s not a definite.”
PENN & TELLER SHARPEN THE KNIVES
Who in his right mind would volunteer to be a guest on a Penn & Teller show? Actor Thomas Gibson has agreed to be the next victim on the macabre magic team’s television weekly variety show, Penn & Teller’s Sin City Spectacular, which will air in August on fX. Gibson will make the appearance in return for the comic duo’s appearance on Gibson’s show, Dharma and Greg, in April. In the episode of the ABC hit show, Teller was given the role of a man convinced he was a cat. To thank the actor for taking on the less-than-Shakespearean role, Gibson has agreed to appear in a Penn & Teller segment called “Fruit Toss”: Gibson will be onstage acting as emcee while Penn throws fruit in the air and Teller tries to spear the flying objects with knives he hurls in their direction. The normally tight-lipped Teller insists, “I like Thomas immensely. I promise any Dharma and Greg fans that none of his blood will be shed.” According to a producer at the Penn & Teller show, Gibson is, if anything, blasé about the antics: “He wanted to be decapitated, but we didn’t have that bit ready.”
Additional reporting: India Landrigan.