South O' the Highway (and the North too)

The Actors Fund 2008 Gala will be held on May 5 at Cipriani 42nd Street and will honor Alec Baldwin, Renée Fleming, Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley. The Actors Fund is a nationwide human services organization that helps all professionals, both performers and those behind the scenes, in performing arts and entertainment.

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Katie Lee Joel celebrated the release of her cookbook, The Comfort Table, at the Hudson Hotel last week. Along with husband Billy Joel and his daughter Alexa, guests included Rachael Ray, Jared Kushner, Tom Freston and Wendi Murdoch.

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The mystery buyer of the Old Trees estate in Southampton has been revealed, and it's not Tiger Woods. Developer Rodney Propp purchased the 10.5-acre estate situated on Lake Agawam for $39 million.

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Marty Richards, the producer who once owned the Old Trees estate, has won an 18-year argument in New Jersey's Supreme Court. The court ruled that Richards is indeed the "spouse" of his late wife Mary Lea Johnson, heiress to the Johnson & Johnson empire, and is entitled to money from the family's trust. The Johnson family has long insisted that Richards had no claim to the family's fortune when Mary Lea died in 1990.

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Nello Balan, owner of Southampton's posh Nello Summertimes restaurant and lounge, is expanding to the North Fork. The restaurateur has purchased two buildings in Greenport, where he plans to open a hotel and restaurant next year.

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Both of Andy Warhol's previous New York City residences are on the market. Tom Freston, former President and CEO of Viacom who owns Warhol's longtime residence on East 66th Street, listed the six-story house for $38.5 million. A smaller townhouse at 1342 Lexington Avenue that served as Warhol's original factory is also on the market for $5.9 million.

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Emma Walton, actress and co-founder of Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, appeared on Hamptons TV's "American Dreams" show, which is filmed at Gurney's Inn and hosted by Ingrid Lemme. Walton discussed her life growing up with her mother, Julie Andrews, who recently released her autobiography entitled Home.

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The 70th Artist Members Show currently on display at Guild Hall features a painting of Big and Little Edie Beale with their cats, and is just one of the many pieces artist Lois Wright of East Hampton plans to show in her upcoming exhibit at The Gallery in Sag Harbor. The exhibit will express Wright's memories of Grey Gardens, where she lived in the 1970s.

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Drama unfolded last week for two of the "Real Housewives of New York City." Bethenny Frankel's boyfriend Jason Colodne, who was President of Patriarch Partners LLC, was fired after the Wall Street management company discovered he appeared on the Bravo reality show. In other "Housewives" news, nude pictures taken of the lone Brooklyn housewife, Alex McCord, have surfaced on the Internet.

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Further Lane resident Jerry Seinfeld was involved in a car accident on Skimhampton Road in East Hampton last week. Failed brakes caused the comedian's 1967 Fiat to flip over, but fortunately he left the scene unscathed.

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"CBS Evening News" anchor and East Hampton resident Katie Couric recently participated in a poetry reading at Avery Fisher Hall, where she admitted that she plagiarized a poem that was published in her grammar school's newspaper 45 years ago. She told the audience, "I'm relieved to finally get it off my chest."

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Billy Joel has put his Middlesea estate in Centre Island back on the market. The 14,000-square-foot waterfront mansion is listed with Prudential's Dolly Lenz for $32.5 million, which is $5 million less than the asking price two years ago.

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The hit reality series "Project Runway," which features fashion expert and Southampton resident Tim Gunn, has entered a five-year deal with Lifetime. The series previously aired on Bravo, which is owned by NBC Universal and has taken legal action to block the deal.

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