New York Mayor Bags the Carpetbagger's Ball

It may be Miramaxs party, but its still Rudy Giulianis town. The New York mayor hadnt had a problem with the studios throwing a launch party for its new magazine, Talk - headed by former New Yorker magazine siren Tina Brown - at the city-owned Brooklyn Navy Yard. Until he found out who the cover girl might be: Hillary Clinton, his likely foe in the upcoming U.S. Senate race. And now Rudys famous foot has come down - no Democratic-leaning faux fund-raisers on the citys dime. "We thought that would lead to an event possibly becoming politicized," Deputy Mayor Randy Levine said Tuesday. "There was the possibility that this thing would turn into a circus."

Or maybe that the A-list gathering would be a de facto Hillary fund-raiser - and that its main purpose would be to thumb its New York liberal media nose at Hillarys likeliest Republican opponent. Miramaxs people says Hillary isnt the cover girl yet; Giulianis say there were plenty of other reasons to deep-six the soiree. If Tina Brown and Hillary and their fancy friends want to have any fun in New York this summer, they can go to the Hamptons just like everybody else.