Dan's Papers - July 4, 2008

The handcuff arrest of Vered is not the first time a prominent figure has been arrested in this manner in the Hamptons. It seems to happen about once every 10 years.

In 1968, the publisher of this newspaper (me) was arrested and carted off in handcuffs quite publicly for failing to show up in court to fight what I thought was a ridiculous traffic ticket. I had the date wrong. I was 28 years old. And when I was not in Judge Frood's East Hampton courtroom at the appointed time, he issued a bench warrant. A cop handcuffed me where he found me, and marched me across the sidewalk on Newtown Lane in front of everybody to get me booked at the police station, which, at that time, was on that street a few doors down from Scoop. An account of this event is in my memoir, In the Hamptons, just published by Random House and on sale everywhere.

In 1973, IRS agents invaded an art opening at the Tower Gallery on Jobs Lane in Southampton, removed all the paintings and took away painter Edith Irving in handcuffs in front of all the gallery goers. Edith was the wife of Clifford Irving, an East Hampton writer who wrote a fake biography of Howard Hughes and swindled a $400 thousand advance out of McGraw-Hill. Edith, also indicted, was having her work seized for back taxes.

In 1994, Jerry Della Femina and his partner David Silver were arrested and carted off in handcuffs for displaying pumpkins on the lawn of their store across from the bowling alley in East Hampton, because the village interpreted the pumpkins to be a "sign."

Della Femina was not publishing his own newspaper at the time, and when he learned he would be arrested, he called me in the hopes of getting the event published in Dan's Papers. (He succeeded.) I told him what happened to me, and suggested he make sure he got a picture of himself being hauled off in handcuffs because it would be great publicity, as I regretted not having such a picture when it happened to me. He didn't get it at first, which surprised me since he is an advertising man, but soon he did, and when the time came, he had somebody there at the ready.

Vered's arrest last month is therefore the fourth incident of its kind in the last 40 years. So I think we can be handcuff-free until perhaps 2018, if the trend continues.

Of all those arrested, the only one who made any money out of it was Della Femina. He sued the village and won. I had never known that before.

Seems to me that since I was his coach and manager at the time, he owes me a commission.