Richard Johnson

Richard Johnson

Celebrity News

Jay McInerney launches Town & Country column

The vino flowed at Crown on East 81st Street Monday night as Jay McInerney launched his new wine column for Town & Country magazine.

Sommeliers Aldo Sohm of Le Bernardin and Jordan Salcito of Momofuku; Daniel Johnnes, wine director for Daniel Boulud; and Per Holmberg, Christie’s head of wine sales, mingled with authors such as Meryl Gordon, who wrote “The Phantom of Fifth Avenue” about Huguette Clark, and Vicky Ward, who just finished her book about the curse of the General Motors Building. It comes out next year.

Friends Nicole Miller, Robert Zimmerman, Debbie Bancroft, Jennifer Creel, Prince Dmitri of Yugloslavia and Sharon Bush tried to chat with McInerney, while a young journalist — who was buzzed and shall remain nameless — kept quoting passages from McInerney’s “Bright Lights, Big City.”

McInerney told me, “There’s only one activity more satisfying than drinking good wine with good food; and if you’re drinking wine in the right company, the one pleasure, more often than not, will lead to the other.”

I don’t think he was referring to crossword puzzles.