Dan's Papers - August 22, 2008

This past Saturday Perrier-Jouet hosted the fifth consecutive weekend of The Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge and several VIPs attended, including David Lauren, Lauren Bush, Tina Louise, Rob Florio, Chef Doug Rodriguez, Tim George (NASCAR), Don Peebles and Nacho Figueras, who had the day off. "Cuban Assassin" Eric "DJ Cubeechee" spun old-school mash-ups at the T-Mobile Sidekick Lounge before jetting off to Vegas to spin for the Playboy party. OnDa Ground Music will present the final match and closing ceremonies of The Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge, which is sure to attract a bold-faced crowd.

You haven't seen tennis legend Andre Agassi competing professionally on the court since 2006, yet these days, he's still on top of his game making an impact off the court, using that trademark passion to help transform the lives of children. Agassi successfully opened a public charter school for at-risk kids in Las Vegas, and now he's on a mission to help kids nationwide. His first stop was East Hampton. This past Saturday, Agassi and his wife, Steffi Graf, hosted the 1st annual "A Night in the Hamptons" to benefit the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, at the Ross School in East Hampton. Agassi admitted it was his first time out East and that he'd turned the trip into a family vacation with Steffi, daughter Jaz Elle and son Jaden Gil. "I have never been out to the Hamptons," he said. "We have been here for about five days and the kids are having a blast. We've been roaming around the town, getting lunch, getting ice cream with the kids, and just sort of taking in the lifestyle of it." Agassi clearly wasn't alone in his quest to improve public education; he enlisted the help of several VIPs, including Courtney Sale Ross, Geeta Dharmaragn, Alonzo Mourning, Lorraine Bracco, Grammy-winning artist Rob Thomas (who dedicated a live performance) and emcee Chevy Chase with wife Jayni, as well as event chairs Gary Cohn, Lisa Pevaroff and Richard and Lisa Perry, and evening chairs Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Diana Passage and Jennie Saunders. David and Sybil Yurman helped sponsor the evening and during the silent auction bid and won a Porsche Cayenne SUV straight off the set of "The Sopranos," for 70k. Agassi is hopeful he can make a major change in education and told me, "We're only going to be as good as our children are educated. If we can get the right legislation changes so that schools that fail a certain period of time can adopt certain models, then I think we have a real shot of raising the floor." Post-event, Andre and Steffi headed over to Lily Pond for some well-deserved downtime.

Meanwhile, Chace Crawford, Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Karolina Kurkova, Amanda Hearst, Luigi Tandini, Josh Bernstein and Veronica Webb celebrated Noah Tepperberg's birthday at a private estate in Water Mill. The celebration continued late into the night at DUNE in Southampton.

This Saturday night, top indie filmmakers Marc Simon, Josh Bailer and Sriram Das are hosting an intimate soiree at a private estate on Georgica and serving up five-star BBQ and cocktails to a crowd packed with VIPs and Hollywood hopefuls.

Until next week - Life is short, you only live once, so party on!

Entertainment & Feature Correspondent, Director, Writer and Executive Producer Gina Glickman can be seen on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends starring on News 12 Long Island's "What's Hot in the Hamptons." Log onto hamptons.com for more celebrity action with Gina, on her "Main Street" series. www.GINAGLICKMAN.COM