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CNN Sunday Morning

Author James Brady Uncovers The Hamptons

Aired June 09, 2002 - 08:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First day of summer is about a week and a half away, but summer resorts like the Hamptons, are already bustling. You may have heard the Hamptons described as a getaway for the rich and famous, but author James Brady says there is more to that community than meets the eye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES BRADY, AUTHOR: It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. And the beaches are extraordinary, and there are these little ponds and inlets and bays and lakes; and besides that, it's the exotic cast of characters.

I've been a journalist really all my working life, besides being an author, so I am not impressed by famous people or rich people, but I kind of get a kick out of them.

Martha Stewart has two houses in East Hampton. One on the pond and one on Lily Pond Lane. I said, `Martha, why do you need two houses in East Hampton?' She said, "I don't need two houses." I want two houses.

Jerry Seinfeld bought Billy Joel's house a year and a half ago, and he paid a reputed $32 million for it. Big house, 10 acres. Between Further Lane and the ocean. And I have never, in that year and a half, seen Jerry Seinfeld out here.

There is another aspect to the Hamptons, which I think is less attractive. It's this frenzy partying. This business that you got to be out every night, you got to be seen. And the really stupid part of it is -- and it really -- it mystifies me -- these people see each other in Manhattan Monday through Friday. Then why on Friday and Saturday and Sundays when they're out here again, do they have to party all over again in another setting? It's mystifying.

This is the doughnut shop, the local doughnut shop, on New Town Lane in East Hampton. This is where all of the rich and famous people come for their doughnuts every morning. I once saw Kim Basinger here in the snowstorm, came in here for doughnuts; wearing blue jeans, L.L. Bean boots and the best-looking mink coat you've ever seen. That's East Hampton.

Someone said to me the other day, is one of the first nice weekends of spring, "I know summer is coming. I just saw my first skateboarder using a cell phone."

But the local people understand that, yes, the summer people are coming and the summer people are dreadful, and we don't like a lot of what they bring out here. But they really -- they are very, very important to the economy. And the infrastructure of the Hamptons relies, to a great extent, on -- not really tourism, but people who have a second home out here.

This is the Blue Parrot, which is a surfer hangout, a Tex-Mex restaurant, and this is Michelle the barmaid, or the bartender, and the best in town.

You have you a wonderful, wonderful system out here, of the Hamptons, of local hard-working, blue-collar people who give this place its solidity and they really make it work.

I was a kid who grew up in Brooklyn without much dough, and I went into the Marine Corps and I fought in Korea. And I've had a little success in life as a journalist and an author, and the fact that I can live in a house like this on Further Lane, and be comfortable out here, and do all of my writing out here -- I just look up at the sky on a day as beautiful as today and just say, `Hey, I got pretty lucky.'

There is still something in all of us of the little boy with this nose pressed up against the glass, looking in, looking at the party. And there is a lot of -- that little boy is still in me, and I get a kick out of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: I'm Kyra Phillips. More "CNN SUNDAY MORNING" is just ahead.

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