With the arrival of Labor Day comes the unofficial end to summer in the Hamptons. It seemed to fly by, but that happens when you’re busy, right? Here at Behind The Hedges, we put out five magazines between Memorial Day and Labor Day, including three standalone issues, for the first time ever, for the holiday weekends. (By the way, our latest issue is on newsstands now and you can read all the issues here).
As we close out the summer season, let’s look back at five of the top stories from the past few months. Most have to do with some bold-face names and one may just surprise you.
At Home in the Hamptons – with Jill Martin
Our top story of the summer was a feature on NBC’s TODAY show contributor Jill Martin and her beloved home in Southampton. The Emmy-winning lifestyle correspondent wows morning television audiences with her popular segment, “Steals and Deals,” and, during the pandemic, she appeared mostly from home.
“I feel very grateful that my skill set allows me to work from home,” says Martin. “This house is a workhorse. It’s had a lot of energy going both in and out of it — and it holds up … I always like to set a mood of kindness and pretty, and that’s what the new show is based on — things that I love and how to set an environment and make your space happy and welcoming.”
Martin’s colleagues even congratulated her on the magazine spread, showing it on 3rd Hour of TODAY when Martin co-hosted (in-studio this time) just after the Fourth of July magazine hit newsstands.
See Martin’s beautiful home and read more about it here.
At Home in the Hamptons – with Joy Behar
Joy Behar admits she’s a “house hopper.”
“When I see it, I want it,” says the Emmy Award-winning co-host of ABC-TV’s popular daytime talk show The View.
In life, Behar has had some long runs. She has been sharing her opinions with television viewers around the country for almost 25 years on The View and she has been with the same man, Steve Janowitz, for almost 40 years. But when it comes to her homes in the Hamptons and Manhattan, she’s bounced around a bit, moving eight times.
Find out more about Behar has inside her home.
Calvin Klein Sells His East Hampton Beachfront Estate for $85 Million
The fashion designer quietly sold the oceanfront estate he has long owned for a whopping $85 million in May, but the news didn’t break until it hit the deed transfers in July.
The transaction remains the most expensive in the Hamptons so far in 2021.
Rumors had been swirling for a few months since Kelly Klein, his ex-wife who lived in the East Hampton estate, recently purchased a bayfront property on North Haven, which we reported a few weeks earlier. She paid $15.9 million for the new property, which has a small cottage on it, but we’re sure she is planning for a new pad.
Learn more about the historic property, the Kleins left behind this summer.
Buy a Unit in Montauk Shores Condominium Trailer Park for $1.675 Million
In June, when a two-bedroom unit in Montauk Shores Condominium, an oceanfront trailer park, came on market, those who don’t know the area may have been shocked at $1.675 million list price.
But those who are familiar with the gated community, know it is one of the most coveted on the South Fork thanks to its ocean frontage.While it was coined “Montauk’s best kept secret,” Montauk Shores has become popular with wealthy surfers as its just a stone’s throw from the famed Ditch Plains Beach, and it has even been termed “Billionaire’s Corner.”
Betsy Cronley of the Corcoran Group had the listing for the recently renovated unit. By the way, it soon sold for $1.6 million.
Lorraine Bracco Trades Bridgehampton Home, Buys James Lipton’s Spot
Lorraine Bracco sold her Bridgehampton home for $3.8 million, but she didn’t move far, purchasing the late James Lipton’s house a few miles away for less than half of what she got for her place.
Though both Bracco and Lipton were both longtime South Fork residents and regulars at Hamptons events, Bracco told Behind The Hedges through a spokeswoman that she didn’t know Lipton.
However, perhaps ironically, Bracco revealed last summer that Lipton could have co-starred with her on The Sopranos as the therapist for her character, Dr. Jennifer Melfi. The role went to Peter Bogdanovich.
While on the Talking Sopranos podcast with her co-stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa in August 2020, Bracco said, “Now, I happen not to really like him,” she said. “I think he’s very pretentious, and I would have had a hard time with him.”
His house was another story.
