Washington Post writer Richard Cohen — under fire over a Tea Party column in which he cited some conservatives’ resentment of Bill de Blasio’s interracial family — is dating beautiful political activist Patricia Duff.
Cohen’s column bizarrely drew “racism” accusations, and the Huffington Post even demanded he be fired.
Cohen has vigorously denied the charge. But Wednesday night, he took some time out from the raging debate, which also drew Stephen Colbert into the fray, to step out with Duff at a New York fund-raising gala for her organization, the Common Good.
Duff hosted the American Spirit Awards at the Harvard Club, honoring David Gergen, brave Sandy Hook mother Nicole Hockley, and same-sex marriage heroine Edith Windsor, who forced the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. The Common Good is a nonprofit that encourages civil dialogue to improve government.
Cohen remained low-key at the gala but gallantly stayed at the side of Duff, who was formerly married to billionaire Ronald Perelman. While he and Duff began dating in the summer, it appears Cohen has held a candle for her for some time. In a 1999 Vanity Fair story about their first meeting, when she was a political staffer in the Jimmy Carter administration, he said, “She was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen, maybe after the Grand Canyon.”
Also at the Common Good awards was former first lady of New York Michelle Paige Paterson, who has moved on following her split with David Paterson. She arrived on the arm of Charles N. Atkins, a prominent Harvard¬educated lawyer who works at Morgan Stanley.
And Ted Turner’s former girlfriend Cynthia McDonald created a scene when she tried to crash Debbie Bancroft and Patricia Davis Raynes’ table. McDonald screamed at Raynes, “Do you know who I am with? My friend used to be a photographer for People!” Not surprisingly, this did not impress Raynes, the daughter of late oil tycoon Marvin Davis. Another guest sniffed, “Cynthia might have made more of an impact by screaming, ‘Do you know who I’ve slept with?’”