Artists and actors, politicians and glitterati
converged yesterday on an East Hampton field to strut, tease and taunt, to boast and bully. Along the way, they raised more than $60,000 for local charities.
Oh, yeah. They played softball, too. If you can call it that.
In the annual Artists and Writers Game, actor Alec Baldwin did a stint as an umpire, watching over players including Chevy Chase, actress Lori Singer, historian Richard Reeves and restaurateur B. Smith.
"Nobody really plays me, and I happen to be the best one here," Chase said. He said he understood his teammates' reluctance to put him on the field. "They're artists - they're jealous."
In a cameo appearance, with the Artists team losing 2-0, he went to bat, hit a line drive and changed the game's momentum.
Earlier, Chase seemed to have been chosen as designated schmoozer, because he sat in the middle of the Artists team, commenting on the weaknesses of other players. Chase said he would've been delighted to play more, but he had strained his muscles playing tennis against Andre Agassi in a charity match at a private home the day before ("I won," he noted).
This was the 60th anniversary of the game that New York magazine once called the battle of the "knock-kneed wordsmiths and paunch-addled sculptors."
It was like every other year, what with the artists talking about their latest movies and the writers getting distracted while jabbering about agents (sometimes good) and editors (always bad).
Except that it wasn't like every year: This game was played in honor of actor Roy Scheider, of Sagaponack, a stalwart member of the Artists team, who died at age 75 in February.
Also honored this year were several families of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
B. Smith, who owns a restaurant with the same name in Sag Harbor, said she knew she had truly made it in the Hamptons when she was invited to play in the game. "It's like a private club," she said.
The money from ticket and concession sales goes to the charities East End Hospice, East Hampton Day Care and Phoenix House. By a score of 4-2, the Artists won for the second consecutive year.
