Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The “Living Landmark” award, given this year to prominent married couples in New York and presented by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, prompted some serious introspection in front of a crowd of 400 guests Tuesday at Cipriani 42nd Street.
The wife of Governor Cuomo, Matilda Cuomo, said she had asked her husband what the demarcation meant.
“If we’re landmarks, we’re not allowed to have a face-lift,” Mrs. Cuomo said her husband had replied.
The broadcaster Tom Brokaw also relayed an exchange with his wife about the award. “My wife and I have a clear-cut division of responsibilities,” he said. “She said, ‘I’ll take the living part, you can take the landmark part.'”
Honorees included the Cuomos, the Brokaws, Norman and Norris Mailer, Howard and Amy Rubenstein, and Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg.
Mr. Rubenstein, a public relations impresario, said he had started to wonder how he could best preserve his living landmark status.
“The solution was obvious,” he said. “Why not make me a permanent landmark in New York?”
He then showed slides depicting his face projected onto the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and Yankee Stadium (not failing to mention that the owners of the Chrysler Building, Rob and Jerry Speyer, and the owner of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner, are his clients).
He did not forget his wife: He imagined the couple appearing together on the Palisades.
Mr. Diller had no choice but to appear alone at the event: His wife had been called on business to Shanghai. He said that he and his wife had agreed that building new structures that might one day become landmarks — his on 18th Street, hers on 14th Street — was a way of giving back to the city they both love.
The emcee of the event, Liz Smith, teased the honorees about exotic gestures they could make at the event. “Barry Diller could just pass among you and give you each a $1,000 bill,” she said. She also suggested that Ms. Rubenstein could give each a guest a free steak at Peter Luger, the restaurant her family owns.
Such things did not come to pass, but there were some sweet rewards for guests. In the goody bag was a conservancy mug filled with candy, in deference to the event’s falling on Halloween, and a copy of the book “Touring Historic Harlem” by Andrew Dolkart and Gretchen Sorin.
