Hampton Habitues

As we head deeper into 2020, the Year of the Rat, let’s hope that the Chinese zodiac is correct. Traditionally seen as signs of wealth and surplus, rats also represent the beginning of a new day.
The year has already started out pretty nice for some of our friends and neighbors. We’re looking at you, Scarlett Johansson, Renee Zellweger, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez, Robert De Niro, and Jenno Topping, who were either involved with or directly nominated personally for standout entertainment during the 2020 awards season.
In addition to her small screen success in “The Politician,” Paltrow has also been seen on “The Goop Lab” on Netflix. The six-episode series explores “boundary-pushing wellness topics, including: psychedelics, cold therapy, female pleasure, anti-aging, energy healing and psychics,” according to the network. Based on the Amagansett resident’s popular lifestyle brand, the provocative show promises to get hands-on with the Academy Award-winning actress and her staff.
We’re also excited about a new venture that’s coming to the big screen. DiCaprio, a frequent Hamptons visitor, recently confirmed that he and acting legend (and Montauk homeowner) Robert De Niro are set to star together in Martin Scorsese’s next film. It’s called “Killers of the Flower Moon,” based on the best-selling non-fiction book by David Grann, and it’s set to start filming in March. Can’t wait to catch that one!
Also in March, a few more of our favorites will have renewed reason for celebration. Honorees for the 35th annual Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Achievement Awards include Dorothea Rockburne, Salman Rushdie, Barry Sonnenfeld and Ted Hartley. Rockburne will receive the award for Visual Arts, Rushdie for Literary Arts, Sonnenfeld for Performing Arts, and Hartley will be recognized with a much deserved Special Award for Leadership and Philanthropy. Well done.
Just a bit later that month, Bridgehampton Chamber Music, formerly the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, will present “Mozart Portrait with Alan Alda.” The concert, which will be held on March 21 at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, explores Mozart’s life through narration and readings from letters, interwoven with chamber music for flute, piano, and strings.
Part of the BCM Spring series, the encore performance with the legendary actor and longtime East End resident, is a real crowd pleaser that first staged in 2002 and was reprised in 2016.
“I just love being in Mozart’s presence. The best surprise was not just reading his words, but then sitting among the musicians while they make music,” says Alda. “To be among them while they do it is an extraordinary thing — it hits you right in the chest!”

Moving right along, Robert Downey Jr. has apparently been considering some of his body parts as well. The Amagansett homeowner, who most recently starred in “Dolittle,” will be bringing his “Sherlock Holmes” character back for a third film next year, declared that he is adopting a plant-based diet in order to do his part to impact climate change. Good on ya!
In other food news, Water Mill residents Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez have launched a line of affordable meals for busy families. Named Tiller & Hatch, the frozen meal line features eight restaurant-quality, nutritious, chef-developed dishes that cost less than $3 a serving, according to the product’s website.
Featuring dishes such as Chicken Tortilla Stew, Santa Fe Style Pasta and Southwestern Style Minestrone Soup, the line of “artisanal pastas, hearty stews and rustic, refined meals” are available online and at Wal-Mart. In keeping with the couples’ philanthropic outreach, a supply is also being donated to shelters and food-based charities across the country.
Lastly, and not to put a damper on all the fun, we do have a good news / bad news situation for fans of East Hampton’s Jon Bon Jovi.
The bad news first. Don’t expect to see the “Wanted Dead or Alive” singer out East much this summer. But the good news is that the iconic rocker is heading out to perform again.
The Bon Jovi 2020 Tour kicks off on June 10 in Tacoma and ends with a pair of concerts at Madison Square Garden on July 27 and 28. In the meantime, we’ll be “Livin’ on a Prayer” that we at least get in our annual Hampton Classic sighting.