Hampton Habitués

Good News Gossip About Our Notable Friends and Neighbors

Property Watch
Is there anyone on the planet who hasn’t yet seen The Watcher? Based on the actual events of a real estate deal gone terribly bad, the Netflix binger is super compelling. 

Set in the luxe locale of Westfield, New Jersey, it’s loosely based on what happened to real people — played as Dean and Nora Brannock by Bobby Cannavale and Naomi Watts — who used their life savings to buy the perfect house in what seemed to be an idyllic neighborhood. Turns out, it was not such a great move for the Brannocks. 

What must have been horrible to live is sure fun to watch, especially thanks to the level of East End talent employed on this project. We get to see Watts, who has owned homes in Amagansett and Montauk, get terrorized by Hamptons regular Richard Kind, who kills it as nosy neighbor Mitch, AND Bridgehampton’s Joe Mantello, who plays the creepiest home inspector there ever was. So, so good! Other powerhouse actors in the show include Mia Farrow, Terry Kinney, Margo Martindale and Jennifer Coolidge, who plays the Realtor from Hell. 

Sweet Treat
James Beard Award-winning chef Claudia Fleming, formerly of the North Fork Table & Inn and now Executive Pastry Director for Union Square Hospitality Group, has a new cookbook out and boy does it look delicious. Published by Random House and out just in time for the holidays, it’s called Delectable. According to the chef, it’s “a little bit sweet and a little bit savory.” I’m sure it’s also a whole lotta yum! 

Tables Turned
Chef Bobby Flay is getting the opportunity to show off his acting chops this holiday season. He’s starring as food critic Tom Kingsley in One Delicious Christmas for The Food Network. 

Also streaming now on Discovery+, it’s one of The Food Network’s four seasonal forays into scripted fare starring some of its biggest normally-in-the-kitchen creators. Flay appearing alongside Vanessa Marano, who plays Abby, a woman who has inherited her parents’ quaint but struggling Vermont restaurant and inn, and Alex Mallari Jr, as her love interest, chef Preston. 

The Longest Time
Billy Joel, on the other hand, just keeps going and going and going. The Sag Harbor resident recently added a bunch more shows to his Madison Square Garden residency. 

If you haven’t seen him yet, or just need to see him again, you can catch The Piano Man now through Valentine’s Day, 2023. Sweet!

Sad to Say Goodbye
It’s finally happening. Sniff. The B-52’s farewell, “The Final Tour Ever of Planet Earth,” is now underway. 

Headed by Wainscott’s Fred Schneider (and of course Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson, and Keith Strickand), after nearly 40 years and more than 20 million albums, what might just be the World’s Greatest Party Band is packing it in. 

If you haven’t been fortunate enough to see them live — what a show! — at least you’ll always be able to listen to “Rock Lobster,” “Love Shack,” “Roam,” etc. on whatever device you might use to crank up the jams. 

Smart / Tart
Perhaps taking a page out of Joel’s residency playbook, East Hampton’s Jerry Seinfeld is booked for a ton of show dates at the Beacon Theater in New York, now through March 2023. 

The comic legend, famous for his acerbic observations about everyday life, has been delivering it for 25 years. His eponymous television show has been called “the greatest television program of all time” by TV Guide. 

Curb 2.0
No matter the role, it’s always exciting to see Wainscott’s Edie Falco on the screen. It appears that she’ll soon be streaming alongside Pete Davidson and Joe Pesci in Bupkis.

The Emmy-winning Falco will be playing Davidson’s mom and Pesci’s daughter in this fictionalized version of the SNL star’s life. Fresh off the success of Davidson’s semi-autobiographical film, The King of Staten Island, the upcoming Peacock comedy series is said to be raw, unflinching, and absurd. Based on the advance buzz, we hear the show being compared to Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. That should be very, very interesting.