Dan's Papers - November 16, 2007 - McCartney's Weekend

Last weekend, the single most reported event in the Hamptons in five years, since Lizzie Grubman backed into the crowd at Conscience Point, made front page news around the English-speaking world - in newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs and on TV and radio. According to Howard Rubinstein, the PR Man extraordinaire, whom I asked, the value of this magnitude of public relations, if you had to pay for it, would have cost more than ten million dollars.

And it was a whole lot of nothing. Sort of like a "Seinfeld" episode. Only without the jokes. Two people had dinner, went home, walked on the beach, had another meal, went home, had breakfast, went back to the city.

McCARTNEY DATES MARRIED WOMAN, one newspaper hit the stands with on Saturday morning.

HEATHER FURIOUS, was the headline on another.

The Heather in question, Heather Mills, who is in the middle of a nasty divorce from Paul McCartney, was on "Extra" to deny she was furious.

"He's a free man," she said. "He can do what he wants."

And then it was discovered that the married woman was legally separated. So the papers had to do a lot of backtracking, mostly on Sunday and Monday. It's OK, it's OK, one of them headlined.

The news even made The New York Times, which ran it on page 32, not as a gossip piece, but as a report of an extreme example of tabloid frenzy. They wouldn't be following these two around all weekend in the Hamptons, they sniffed. But then they did report on every detail of this couple's weekend, anyway. And they published a picture of the lady in question, Nancy Shevell.

Here is what these two people, Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell, did this past weekend. They went out for dinner Friday night and stayed wherever it was that they dined until the place closed at 3 a.m. At this point, apparently the paparazzi had not yet picked up the scent. Nowhere does anyone write what restaurant they were at. It's shocking that this important detail has never been revealed.

But the paparazzi, alerted, followed them home, which apparently consisted of McCartney dropping Shevell off at her house in East Hampton, just six miles from McCartney's place on Fresh Pond Road in Amagansett. Then McCartney went home. There were lots of pictures taken. Yes, she was a looker.

At this point, they had the woman's name. And they had that she was married and that she was a local girl. The married part was correct. The local girl part was wrong. The tabloids straightened it out on Saturday morning when they hastily backtracked, now reporting she was rich and a summer person with an apartment in the city and a place out here. And now they were assembling at both houses in big groups, waiting for developments. They waited all night, on the sidewalk, freezing their butts off.

On Saturday morning, McCartney went to Shevell's house and stayed there for two hours. Then the two of them went into downtown East Hampton where they parked and then bought, presumably for her, sexy nighties at Top Drawer Lingerie, a store located down an alley on Main Street. They somehow got away unnoticed from there and were not seen until about 6:30 p.m., at which time McCartney was spotted standing in front of the East Hampton Cinema. Soon Shevell showed up and they went inside to see - the ticket taker told them this - American Gangster.

By this time, teams of investigative reporters had figured out that Nancy Shevell was not some local yokel, but was instead one of the grown children of a family owned trucking company based in New York City called New England Motor Freight that may or may not have mob connections. Her father runs it. She is a Vice President. They are big George W. Bush contributors. She is 47 years old, and six years ago she was appointed by Governor Pataki to the Board of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the MTA. She is serving a ten-year term. She's rich. Of course, Sir Paul is mega-rich. And 18 years older.

Anyway, after the movie, the big crowd of paparazzi followed them to Sho Win Restaurant where they had sushi. Then they went to McCartney's house for two hours, and then they went to Shevell's house where, after giving Shevell a passionate and very well photographed kiss, he drove back home.

Now the headlines were WHEN I'M 64. And CAN'T HURRY LOVE. And I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND. And ALL MY LOVING.

If you were around on Sunday, I hardly have to tell you about the madness of all the photographers following them around all day. These pictures, of them smooching or walking arm in arm, get sold for thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars each. Perhaps a million dollars worth of photographs were taken of this couple on Sunday. This was a feast. The jackpot. The paparazzi will not soon forget it.

McCartney was photographed with his arm around Shevell. They walked on the beach in Amagansett. They stopped. He kissed her tenderly. They returned to downtown Amagansett. Arm in arm, they walked by the Café on Main, then across the street to Amagansett Square where they sat on a bench outside, eating breakfast dosas from Hampton Chutney.

He took her home - he drives a Ford pickup truck - reached over, kissed her goodbye and then went back to his house. Then came the good part. She apparently could not get him out of her mind. That night, Sunday night, she left her house, got in her car and drove to his house where she stayed for two hours. Then she drove back to her house.

Monday, they both went to Manhattan. Shevell allowed herself to be interviewed on the sidewalk on the Upper East Side. "We're just friends," she said.

We all know McCartney's story. He was a Beatle. A great talent. Linda died. He married Heather. Now that's over.

Here's Nancy Shevell's story. She met Bruce Blakeman when they were in college together at Arizona State and the couple married. They have a teenaged daughter. Blakeman went on to become a powerful lawyer in Nassau County, then the attorney for the Port Authority. Nancy Shevell went to work for her dad. The couple met Paul and Linda McCartney and became friends with them. They've been friends of Paul's ever since, even organizing a memorial for Linda when she died. They were friends with Paul and Heather Mills when they were married.

Now Nancy Shevell and Bruce Blakeman are separated, amicably and legally, according to the two-sentence press release issued by Blakeman when all the tabloid people began hounding him. "That is all I intend to say about this matter," he concluded. So the paparazzi went away.

And so here they are, two lost souls, finding one another, and perhaps 200 photographers and reporters, for a weekend in the Hamptons.

Of course they were going to be followed. Do you think they thought about this ahead of time, going out like this so publicly? Probably. Would they ask for a small cut of the millions of dollars worth of pictures taken of them? Surely not. They're both rich. Ask Heather.

Well, anyway, here's my itinerary for the weekend. Friday night I'm going to eat with my significant other at Gurney's and then go to the Sag Harbor Cinema for whatever the hell they've got playing there. Saturday morning, myself and my significant other - she wants no part of this story - are going to have breakfast at the Candy Kitchen in Bridgehampton, then lunch at Danny's Poxabogue Café, then I'm taking a walk on the beach in Sagaponack with my dog who is all in favor of being photographed by paparazzi. His name is SPALDING - spell it right. Then me and the significant other, who shall remain nameless, will go food shopping at Round Swamp on Three Mile Harbor Road. Then we'll have dinner at home, leaving the curtains open in case there is a little smooch that somebody wants to photograph. Then for Sunday morning breakfast I'll go by myself to Sip and Soda in Southampton and I think maybe a little stroll through Pumpkintown in Water Mill and then, oh I don't know. Catch me if you can.