August 8, 2007
Tea with SJP; Firemen (again); and a reason to watch
summer TV
If you have to be in New York City this summer (as opposed to lounging on a beach,
yacht, or a villa in Italy, or France), what better way to spend a hot hazy afternoon in the City than having tea with Sarah Jessica
Parker? Well having cosmos or martinis with her perhaps, but tea was just great too. And that is exactly what
The Three Tomatoes had the chance
to do earlier this week at a very special and private event hosted by Lord &
Taylor on Fifth Avenue to celebrate the launch of Covet, SJP’s newest fragrance. Now before you turn totally green with envy, we want to remind you
that in last week’s newsletter, we alerted all of you to this unique opportunity. See what happens when you
don’t read our sidebars? So, here’s the story for those of you didn’t get to the event.
First the perfume
We were among seventy five Sarah Jessica Parker fans (or SJP as we, her newest
best friends now call her) who were escorted to L&T’s 11th floor to a private room where we got to sip tea, eat cucumber sandwiches
and scones, while SJP enthralled us with the story of how she created her first fragrance line “Lovely” and now its follow up, Covet. What’s
impressive is that this is not just another celebrity endorsed fragrance, but a line of products that she is actually and truly involved in creating.
Seems for 20 years she created her own scents, buying various scented oils and mixing them with drug store
fragrances to create a unique scent which ultimately is what Lovely is based on. Covet has been in development
for the past year and SJP was involved all along the way. Its essence is based on the smell of germaniums being pulled out of the ground, with some
musk and other scents thrown in. Weird as that sounds, the results aren’t. We like Lovely, but
honestly, we love, love the scent of Covet. Maybe that’s because as SJP put it, “Lovely is the girl you’d
take home to Mom”, but “Covet is the girl you’d think twice about taking home to Mom.” (In our next
life, we’re definitely going to be the latter girl.) So next time you’re in a department store just force your way past those dreaded
perfume sprayer people, and make your way to the Covet counter and try it yourself.
The stuff you really want to know
Okay, okay, now to the good stuff. First, she is actually
prettier in person than on screen. And tiny, tiny, tiny, but in a healthy looking way. She has a waist size
that Scarlett O’Hara would have envied and great toned arms that show you what yoga and dancing can do (well for some people,
anyway). She was wearing a killer dress -- strapless, black and brown horizontal designed sheath, with a casual brown belt
and of course, five inch Manolo Blahnik’s. Oh, and very large diamond studded earrings.
But the best part? She is truly nice, nice, nice. Very down to earth, and such a
New Yorker. During the Q&A, her first advice to one young woman who is moving to NYC, was get a Metro card and enjoy
everything this City has to offer. And a (stupid) question about how she would use her celebrity to bring a
message to the world, elicited the response that she hardly thinks the world is listening to what she has to say. Now isn’t
that refreshing compared to all those celebrities who think we can’t wait to hear their every thought on politics and how to save the
planet. But the best part was that after the Q&A, she spent a few minutes chatting with each and every guest at the event,
and charmed us all. So here’s a cosmo toast to SJP, who loves living and working in NYC, and manages to do so in
relative normalcy in relative privacy. Which is a major difference in general, with the celebrities who choose to live in NYC vs.
LA LA land. Amazing how the paparazzi will stay away when you don’t shave your head, wear panties, and
stay out of jail (unless it's a commercial).
Those Firemen Calendars will become collector’s
items
Now this is sad news indeed. Seems
some spoil sports at the New York City Fire Department have issued an edict that the 2008 NYC Fire Department Calendar -- you
know, the ones that feature the “fireman of the month” first published after 9/11 to raise money for the FDNY, and have been raising
our temperatures every month since -- will be the last. Seems the 2008 cover boy is featured in videos all over
the web, before he became an “official fire fighter” mind you, where he shows it all off. And no,
we’re not providing the link; you’ll just have to do that searching yourself. So cherish those
old calendars and be one of the first to buy next year’s.
Mad
Men - A reason to watch TV this summer
In a summer of really horrid shows, like the bachelor guy trying to choose
between the “kittens and the cougars”, American Idol rip offs, and Law & Order reruns, along came Mad Men, a new series about the “glory days” of the NYC ad agency
business in 1960. The show is brilliant and so captures the era where everyone smoked, and three martini lunches and male
chauvinism (although the term hadn’t been invented yet) were accepted as the norm. So TIVO it or download episodes
you’ve missed at ITunes. You’ll definitely be saying “we’ve come a long way baby”
-- unless you watch that Age of Love show where a good looking but empty headed 30 year old guy has to choose between the
“kittens” (twenty somethings) or the “cougars” (forty somethings”). Oh and Katie Couric
continues to get bashed for how she dresses on the nightly news and has been nicknamed Katie “Cougar” by the New York press because she
has the audacity to be dating a younger guy. And then there are the Sunday morning news show pundits who recently discussed
the political impact of Hillary wearing a “low cut” top under her conservative suit jacket.
Hmmm...well some things have changed -- three martini lunches got replaced with bottled water
and salads in the smoke free conference rooms.
Well here’s to those lazy, hazy days of summer.
‘til next week,
The Three Tomatoes
Copyright ©2007. The Three Tomatoes. All rights
reserved.
