Grumpy Old Men Give Hillary Clinton The Heave-Ho First Lady, Columnist Leave Stuffy Club After Cell Phone Faux Pas
Ten years after its curmudgeonly members admitted women, the University Club reportedly drove Hillary Clinton into the street because her lunch companion - gasp! - used a cellular phone.
The companion, tabloid gossip columnist Cindy Adams, said the club’s reaction to her unknowing breach of etiquette Wednesday apparently prompted Clinton to abruptly leave the exclusive premises.
“KICKED OUT,” screamed page 1 of her paper, the New York Post. To quote the ejected queen-of-dish’s favorite exit line: Only in New York, kids. Only in New York.
The club’s closed-mouthed hierarchy - members are banned from public discussion of its business - was not amused Thursday by the attention.
“No comment, sir,” the switchboard operator said before hanging up. The White House and Clinton’s spokeswoman played down the incident.
“Much ado about nothing,” said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, adding that a club patron apparently objected to a photographer shooting a picture of the first lady.
Clinton’s version, via spokeswoman Marsha Berry: “A little incident that was blown out of proportion.”
The club was founded in 1865 by graduates of formerly all-male Ivy League colleges Harvard, Yale and Columbia. When Adams arrived, she recalled, “the gentlemen I saw in it appeared to be the original members.”
The first lady - herself a Yale Law School graduate - had just addressed a $1,000-a-plate gathering of the Women’s Leadership Forum of the Democratic National Committee. Afterward, she planned to sit down with Adams for “a few minutes of girl talk,” according to the columnist.
Before Clinton arrived, Adams pulled out a cellular phone to let a TV film crew know she was going to be delayed.
Oops. Faux pas.
An apoplectic “old codger,” according to Adams - who is no spring chicken herself - announced the use of cell phones was intolerable. He cut off Adams’ explanation. And once Adams and Clinton sat down together, he interrupted to deliver this message:
“This is not acceptable behavior. You will have to leave.”
The gossip columnist, confused about what was not allowed, said she burbled, “This is Mrs. Clinton.” At that point, she said, the first lady stood up and announced, “Let’s go.”
“We just scurried out like two scared rabbits,” Adams said later.
Few club members were willing to chance retaliation by speaking, but those who did toed the University Club line.
“I don’t believe the stories I’m hearing,” said Frank Ford, a member for 25 years. “Probably Cindy overdramatized it.”