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Hampton Style - September 12, 2008

The renowned film executive and winemaker was honored last year in France with the country's prestigious Chevalier Des Artes et Des Lettres, an honor that came a few months before word spread that his 40-year-old studio, New Line Cinema, would be absorbed into Warner Brothers. The man responsible for such blockbusters as Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Austin Powers series is also the man behind Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue, one of the most sophisticated wineries on Long Island, and an up-and-coming star of the wine world. As an avid collector and respected fixture in the contemporary art world, it's no wonder he has merged these passions, inviting such prominent (and local) artists such as Ross Bleckner and April Gornik to design wine labels. Earlier this year, he hosted the unveiling of Musee, the premier red wine from Bedell Cellars with label artwork by New York and Bridgehampton-based Chuck Close, a haunting and resplendent daguerrotype of a cluster of glistening grapes that is worthy of the epicurean art within the bottle.

The chic mother of three and creator of Baby CZ children's clothing finds inspiration and respite in the Victorian home in Orient Point she shares with her husband, Allen & Co Managing Director John Josephson. Built in the late 1800s for the Birdseye family, the home now plays host to raucous afternoons dominated by children's laughter and well-appointed ensembles. Carolina has been expanding her line to include tunics and sumptuous cashmere for the mothers who currently snap up her children's wear at such stores at Hatchlings, Best & Co, and online at babycz.com. "Why shouldn't the mommies look as glamorous as their little ones?" With Carolina serving as her collection's own best spokesmodel, nobody would argue the point.

The Wickham Farm in Cutchogue is the oldest on the North Fork and has been in the family since the mid-1600s, when it began as traditional potato farm. Tom Wickham runs the farm today and recalls the evolution it has tracked over the last generations. His family shifted to fruit in the 1940s and his father, experimenting for Cornell in the 1960s, grew the first grapes on Long Island, inspiring what has become a thriving wine industry. Tom spent 25 years overseas, in Africa, the Sudan, Egypt and Southeast Asia, studying agricultural engineering and international agricultural development before returning to the farm. When he's not farming or manning his quaint farmstand, you'll find Wickham at Land Preservation meetings. He also spent more than 12 years on the Southold Town Board, two years of which he served as Town Supervisor. "I'm interested in finding common ground between the farming industry and the rest of the community. I see a huge cultural gap. I love farming, but these days, my real interest is in seeing a successful farming business turned over to the next generation."

Having been born into the dynasty that is Claudio's, the oldest same-family-run restaurant in America, Bill Claudio began lending a hand at a very early age. "Our family lived above the restaurant until I was 11 years old. Oftentimes my parents would come upstairs and say to me, 'Oh, by the way, you're doing dishes tonight.'" He left when he was 17, only to come back when he was 51 to fulfill unspoken familial obligations. "With some help, I bought the place from my father, who was the third generation." Today, all hands are on deck at Claudio's; five family members help to run the complex, which consists of a restaurant, clam bar, Crabby Jerry's, a marina and gift shop. "My sisters, Kathryn Claudio and Beatrice Tuthill, brother-in-law Jerry Tuthill, and my wife and I are the owners and hands-on managers of the operation," Bill said. Claudio's was first opened in 1870 by whaler Manuel Claudio, whose portrait still hangs in the tavern, along with those of other Claudios who have taken the helm. Frank Claudio was the owner during Prohibition , when imported, spirits were decanted upstairs and lowered to restaurant patrons on a dumbwaiter. Bill had a chance to re-create the bootlegging experience at Claudio's for the History Channel's two-hour special, "Rumrunners, Moonshiners and Bootleggers," in which the restaurant "has about 10 minutes of fame," Bill said. "I narrate off-camera and appear on-camera. In one sequence, I'm climbing up through holes with bottles of booze in my hands, to show what our family did during Prohibition." Always keeping with tradition, Claudio's maintains its rowdy atmosphere; the outdoor bar crowd can often be heard across the water on Shelter Island.

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