Happy Friday, everyone. I thought I’d give the breaking news a rest today and have a little fun with you all. That is, after all, a big part of why I started this newsletter in the first place. So we’re bringing back Venn & Now, and this time we’re looking at how the rules of the game have changed (and how they’ve stayed the same).
Some say social media killed the socialite. Others blame the Kardashians, who turned the once-discreet business of being somebody into a multibillion-dollar enterprise built on being seen. The socialite hasn’t disappeared. But the definition of who qualifies is changing. A good surname still opens doors, but so can a shrewd investment, a well-chosen marriage or the sort of job that comes with an extraordinary Rolodex. Philanthropy, once one of high society’s most dependable currencies, still counts, although the benefit circuit has considerably more competition these days. Of course, you can have the family fortune, the high-profile spouse and the enviable career and STILL fail to turn a single head when you enter a room. Money can buy access but as well all know, it cannot manufacture magnetism. In an age when almost anyone can acquire an audience, what does it take to become a force in high society?
RPS has a few ideas. We’ve assembled our own social register, placing the old guard alongside the new establishment, with a few figures who have managed to belong to both. Some faces have been withheld for now. The full “cast,” as we will call it, and where we’ve placed them, awaits after the jump. Happy Friday, indeed!
Also for your weekend reading pleasure: Billionaires bargain-hunting at the Garden, Birkins outperforming Hermès stock, a Chanel bag in need of a fact-checker, a Ray-Ban heir buying into his own bad press, and a $110,000 Palm Beach rental that still can’t guarantee entry to Mar-a-Lago. Plus: have breakfast with me. More details for paid subscribers below.
