Our posh friends are still snickering about the story in last Sunday’s New York Times Styles section, “Grosse Pointe Blues,” yet another angst-ridden tale
of poor downtrodden Detroit, this time focusing upon the woes of the Grosse Pointes and the automotive elite. Writer Eric Konigsberg tosses off more than a few graceful lines, but a famous 1967 Slim Aarons photo of American Motors president Roy Chapin’s family was identified as the “Chopin” family (Hello Couldn’t the NYT Google “famous automotive families”), there is a bizarre description of Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills as “a bit like a Midwestern and suburban version of the Hamptons,” while Grosse Pointe is like “Nantucket” — did we misplace an ocean somewhere As for the breathless description of the “secret” Tennis House the Fords belong to but supposedly nobody can find, oh snap! That joint is behind Brownell Middle School just off Chalfonte in the Farms. We hereby volunteer to take the next journalist who parachutes in for a “poor Detroit” story to a few secret after-hours places that will set his or her hair on fire. When you think of the Detroit Opera House, you may think of quiet, upscale folks sipping wine and enjoying the opera. Not so at the opera house’s annual charity fundraiser Bravo! Bravo!, where it’s wild kingdom under the big top. Oh, sure, it’s a fab party, offering “young professionals” an opportunity to sample food from a slew of restaurants, while listening and dancing to several bands. We know the point is to attract younger people to the opera house, but, fueled by the dozen or so bars placed strategically throughout, the bash has become a wild night in D-Town. One of the charity event’s major supporters says things got so out of hand last year, some fellows were actually draining lizards and calling Earl (activities better suited for the men’s room) right in the middle of the dance floor. We guess they hosed the place down, because they’re planning another high-energy event for June 5. The entertainment planned: The ska/punk/swing band Cherry Poppin’ Daddies . Enough said Also in the audience: former Freep photog John Collier, who was bubbling over about the upcoming reunion of Gar Wood Mansion habitues on June 13 in Ann Arbor. Collier was on the scene back in the late ’60s and early ’70s taking photographs at the abandoned mansion (built by speedboat racer Wood) on Greyhaven island in the Detroit River when it was a crash pad where le tout hippie Detroitwould party after concerts at the Grande Ballroom. We spotted the lovely nut queen, Stephanie Germack-Kerzic, with husband Patrick at Sindbad’s Restaurant and Marina on Tuesday, just back from her winter’s stay in Florida. “I had a taste for pickerel,” she explained, “and who has the best pickerel in town but Sindbad’s” We’re not being mean when we call Stephanie the queen of nuts she is after all the matriarch of the Germack Nuts empire. “I had the chef prepare my pickerel almondine style,” she laughs.
Tom Long: It was sometime between 1988 (“Big”) and 1994 (“Forrest Gump”) that Tom Hanks became the most popular guy in America. Every kid wanted him for a …