As you are no doubt aware, there was a recent upheaval in the “Twilight” universe when the tabloids revealed that Kristen Stewart had been stepping out on her on- and off-screen soul-mate Robert Pattinson with her “Snow White and the Huntsman” director Rupert Sanders. (First off, really, Kristen? I mean, Rob’s a babe; Sanders, well, he’s no Apollo Belvedere. Plus, with a wife and two kids, he’s got more baggage than an airport on the holidays.)
But I digress: Shortly after the “news” broke, Pattinson stepped out himself to promote his latest film, the Wall Street allegory “Cosmopolis.” There he was joking and eating ice cream with a sympathetic Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show,” ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, turning up on “Good Morning America,” smiling through his evident sadness.
That took guts, and the blogosphere responded with two words of praise – “class act”.
Like charisma, class is an elusive quality. Partly, it has to do with good taste and style, and you’ll find plenty of both in this issue, from our cover subject Jack Mitchell – co-owner of the Mitchell Family of Stores, including Richards in Greenwich and Mitchells in Westport – to elegant perfumer Sue Phillips to Jesse Lovejoy, chair of the Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., to commercial developer Robert Weisz to caterer Jim Kirsch.
Class isn’t limited to individuals. Among the classy institutions you’ll find in these pages are Tiffany & Co., The Morgan Library & Museum, Le Château, Stone Barns and the Stonehenge Restaurant & Inn.
Of course, we can’t help but engage in our usual wordplay and game of round-robin. You’ll notice that many of these stories share links to at least one other. (There are four degrees of separation from Tiffany’s.)
We’ve also interpreted “class” to mean “a course of study” for both two-legged and four-legged students as well as a socioeconomic group, as in our conversation with writer Ben Cheever.
But as our essay on class suggests, it’s not just about carrying yourself with dignity. Class is concern for others as the ultimate form of self-regard. And so we have a story about everyone’s fair lady – Audrey Hepburn, the aristocrat’s daughter who found her greatest role as a UNICEF ambassador – and everyone’s favorite saint, Francis of Assisi, who transcended his upper-class background to minister to all of creation.
WAGwit offers other “class”-ic examples, while our own Class & Sass, Martha and Jen, take to the road with predictable results. We may have to start calling them Thelma and Louise.
That brings us to our motto – “Where class meets sass.” We at WAG take classiness seriously. And so we would be remiss if we did not as we head into fall and a new season say “thank you” to our loyal readers and advertisers.
To us, you are the ultimate class acts.
[stextbox id=”gold” caption=” Save this date”]On Oct. 20, WAG teams with White Plains Hospital for “Paint the Mall Pink,” a health and wellness expo at The Westchester in White Plains to raise breast-cancer awareness. Among the highlights is the “Walk of Hope” fashion show with breast-cancer survivors and their loved ones, emceed by our own Zoë Zellers. For more details, call (914) 421-1333.
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