New York’s answer to the royal wedding, the June 4 nuptials of former President Richard Nixon’s grandson, Christopher Nixon Cox, and heiress Andrea Catsimatidis, will be packed with some of the top power and political brokers — but Sen. John McCain has been deliberately left off the guest list.
Cox, who worked for McCain’s 2008 campaign, and Catsimatidis, daughter of Gristedes billionaire John Catsimatidis, will wed before more than 700 guests at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, on East 74th Street, followed by a lavish black-tie reception at the Waldorf-Astoria.
Expected guests include Hillary Rodham Clinton, Henry Kissinger, David and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, David and Joyce Dinkins, Sen. Charles Schumer, Ray Kelly and wife Veronica, Somers and Jonathan Farkas, Francine LeFrak and Rick Friedberg, CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, Fox 5’s Ernie Anastos, Robert Morgenthau, Hank Greenberg and Lally Weymouth. Florida Rep. Gus Bilirakis will be best man.
But McCain is not invited, even though Cox and his father, New York State GOP Chairman Edward F. Cox, worked on the Arizona senator’s 2008 presidential campaign. John Catsimatidis says it’s because McCain didn’t return the favor by endorsing Christopher Cox when he ran for Congress last year and lost the Republican primary.
The supermarket mogul told us, “I did not invite John McCain. Chris worked very hard for his campaign, but when Chris was running for Congress, McCain didn’t endorse him. Considering how hard he and his father worked for McCain, I thought that was low. I was just disgusted . . . There was no reason for him not to endorse Chris.”
He said the wedding will “be America’s version of the British royal wedding. The wedding planner — my wife — is working very hard. The flowers are being done by [award-winning event designer] Preston Bailey.”