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PETER SIMONCaroline Kennedy chats with New York district attorney hopeful Cy Vance Jr. at a fund-raiser on Martha’s Vineyard. (Peter Simon) |
Names
The action begins on the Vineyard
The muckety-mucks on Martha’s Vineyard aren’t waiting for President Obama to get the party started.
Perhaps because the island will be overrun by Secret Service and all manner of media once the commander-in-chief arrives Sunday, at least a few folks are cutting loose now.
Last night, the big shots at BET threw a star-studded shindig to celebrate its new network Centric. The party, at the Oak Bluffs restaurant Mediterranean, was hosted by BET boss Debra Lee with a performance by Erykah Badu. The guest list for the fancy affair included the likes of Vernon Jordan, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, talk-show host Wendy Williams, NAACP president Ben Jealous, Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier, writer Jill Nelson, comedian Larry David, Essence editor Angela Burt-Murray, and former PBS correspondent Charlene Hunter-Gault. Other VIPs mentioned as possible guests included Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and Lenny Kravitz.
“It looks a little like Hollywood in here,’’ Mediterranean manager Michael Ritchie told us yesterday. “Since it’s going to be insane out here next week, I guess they wanted to have the party early.’’
The night before, former New York City prosecutor Linda Fairstein hosted a fund-raiser at her Chilmark home for Cy Vance Jr., who’s running to succeed Robert Morgenthau as Manhattan district attorney. The 90-year-old Morgenthau was in attendance, as was Caroline Kennedy, state Attorney General Martha Coakley, Harvard Law prof Alan Dershowitz, former Mattel CEO Bill Rollnick, photographer Nancy Ellison, and “Brady Bunch’’ producer Douglas Cramer.
Thanks to the Secret Service, Obama’s itinerary is still a mystery, but we do have a few educated guesses about his likely whereabouts. Island sources say the president will play a fair amount of golf during his family’s weeklong stay at Blue Heron Farm, and he already has a tee time arranged with Vernon Jordan at the Vineyard Golf Club. (Jordan played there the other day with Bill Clinton.) In addition, we’re told, the president wants to treat daughters Sasha and Malia to a ride on the Flying Horses Carousel, the nation’s oldest operating platform carousel, located in Oak Bluffs.
And what would a vacation on the Vineyard be without a fishing trip with Captain Buddy Vanderhoop’s boat. Over the years, Vanderhoop has taken his share of celebs angling, including Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, director Michael Mann, musician Taj Mahal, director Spike Lee, and Obama friend and mentor, Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree.
The president and first lady will surely be dining out during their visit, and it’s possible the power couple will drop by Deon’s, a new Caribbean-themed restaurant in Oak Bluffs. Owner Emily Thomas told us yesterday that the Secret Service was in her place a week or so ago, but she hasn’t heard anything since.
“Would I like it if [Obama] came in? Of course, I’d love to have him,’’ she said, adding that Ogletree was in for dinner Wednesday night.
At least we know what Obama’s buddy Oprah will be eating. Winfrey, it seems, has a taste for the products of the Centerville Pie Co. While on the Cape last week for Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s funeral, the talk-show mogul’s traveling party ordered 20 pies, including chicken, custard, and banana cream.
Dream team
Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Randy Moss, and Tedy Bruschi took a practice break at Gillette Stadium yesterday to hang out with some of their young fans affiliated with the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Pictured with Welker, Moss, and Brady are (from left) Jeffry, a 16-year-old from Lake Elsinore, Calif.; Matthew, a 17-year-old from Belchertown; and Andrew, an 11-year-old from Laconia, N.H.Her kind of ‘Town’
Actress Georgia Lyman stopped at Patrice Vinci Salon on Newbury Street yesterday for a cut from Stephen Bruno, who styled her hair while she was shooting “Valediction’’ with Eliza Dushku and Ben Barnes this summer. Lyman has made a nice career for herself with roles in Boston movies. Besides “Valediction,’’ she’s had parts in “On Broadway,’’ “Bride Wars,’’ and “My Best Friend’s Girl.’’ She was in town yesterday to read for Ben Affleck’s upcoming movie “The Town.’’Tale of two kings
“Entertainment Tonight’’ is sending crews to Worcester’s Hanover Theatre tonight to interview Michael Jackson impersonator Kenny Wizz and Elvis lookalike Leo Days. Tonight’s “The Kings of Rock & the King of Pop Together’’ show is Days’s last before he heads to Las Vegas to work with Cirque du Soleil. Green Beantown festival
The Click 5, a pop band straight out of the Berklee College of Music, helped kick off Boston GreenFest, a weekend-long festival celebrating all that is good for the Earth. There will be live entertainment and green campaigns at City Hall Plaza through Sunday.
Stephanos doing well
Fox 25 anchor Maria Stephanos is just fine after being rushed to the hospital from Fox’s Dedham offices yesterday. The station says Stephanos was dehydrated after her morning run, but was home and healthy by the afternoon.More ‘Fighter’ filming
The Lexington Flick movie theater was closed yesterday for the filming of “The Fighter,’’ the biopic about Lowell boxer Micky Ward. Mark Wahlberg, who plays Ward in the film, and Amy Adams, who costars as his wife, were at the Massachusetts Avenue cinema into the evening to film in front of the Flick building and inside one of its screening rooms. “The Fighter,’’ which costars Christian Bale, is set to wrap soon.Harvard picks fellows
Harvard’s Institute of Politics has announced its latest round of visiting and resident fellows, and it includes a few fellows who were looking for work anyway: former Minnesota senator Norm Coleman, who lost his seat to Al Franken, and Terry McAuliffe, the former DNC chair whose gubernatorial bid in Virginia was unsuccessful. Others include former Obama adviser Stephanie Cutter, former NOW president Kim Gandy, and onetime Reagan aide Peggy Noonan.Read the Names blog at www.boston.com/namesblog. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253. 
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