PR Guru Scott Currie Brought Back the Legendary New York Hot Ppot for his 60th Birthday
Event designer Preston Bailey transformed the ballroom of the preppy members-only River Club overlooking the East River into the famously fashionable El Morocco nightclub for PR powerhouse Scott Currie’s black-tie 60th birthday drinks/dinner/dancing extravaganza. Bailey, who has done events for Donna Karan and Oprah, left no detail out: enormous white palm tree and cactus statues flanked the room, blue and white zebra fabric was on every chair and he even reproduced the cursive El Morocco logo on ashtrays and matchbooks – which almost every one of the 90 guests immediately stuffed in their pockets. “My mother was known for taking things from every restaurant and hotel she visited,” quipped Melissa Rivers of her mum Joan Rivers who was one of Currie’s best friends, adding: “take everything that’s not nailed down.” Needless to say, everyone obeyed, with one fancy interior designer overheard wondering how he could lug one of the huge alabaster palm trees back to his house in Southampton.
Currie is chummy with tout New York and the room was packed with boldfaced names like Ann Dexter-Jones, the actor Stephen Baldwin, Martha Stewart, Dorinda Medley (who was off to a wedding in Peru the next morning), Thom Felicia, Ted Hildner, designer Elie Tahari, Candace Bushnell, Currie’s longtime beau Robert Gajda, Michael Lorber, Nikki Haskel, Noble Black, Peggy Siegal and Todd Merrill, to name just a few. “I practically lived at the original El Morocco,” confessed George Hamilton, looking as tanned as everyone hoped. “But this is much more fun.”
Chanteuse and downtown diva Joey Arias, slinked onstage in a black Thierry Mugler gown (with a naughty cut-out in the derriere region) and crooned two Billie Holiday songs. Then the Rockettes appeared and kicked up a storm while Liza Minelli’s version of “New York,New York” filled the room before an enormous nautical-themed birthday cake replete with indoor fireworks was wheeled out to a beaming Currie who thanked everyone for coming and reminded his guests that “gifts will be accepted through the end of 2024.”
