“Can a socialite kill a book?”

That’s the question that journalist Jesse Kornbluth asked on Huffington Post in a chilling look at the campaign waged by socialite Annette de la Renta and her white-shoe law firm (“sending threatening letters on 60-pound bond”) to have Michael Gross’s provocative book about the Metropolitan Museum of Art “removed from circulation and corrected.” The “corrected” refers to descriptions in Gross’s book of de la Renta who, Kornbluth asserts, is “generally regarded as Brooke Astor’s successor as the Social Empress of New York. She’s Blue Blood and Old Money. Her husband is a fashion designer who specializes in First Ladies and Ladies Who Lunch. She serves on the most prestigious board of trustees in New York, that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

Gross’s book has been widely ignored in the media, and Kornbluth suggests that a sort of Gentleman’s Agreement among heavy-hitter members of de la Renta’s august social circle is the reason why. “I am not a conspiracy theorist,” writes Kornbluth, “but the media coverage — or lack thereof — of this dustup and of ‘Rogues’ Gallery’ could certainly make me think of becoming one.” You can read all about it in Kornbluth’s blog as well as Gross’s own account of the sordid maneuvers to chill his book.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist either, but what started as a routine inquiry about the availability of the book in the New York Public Library system has definitely pushed me several notches closer to paranoia. It seems that the book is simply not there. You can see for yourself by calling your local librarian or visiting the Library’s website and entering the title and author into the Search box.

It’s interesting to note Annette de la Renta also serves on the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library.

Richard Curtis