Andrea Bocelli performing at the 76th Sanremo Music Festival in Sanremo, Italy on Feb. 28, 2026. Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images B-day bash’s perfect tenor Over hill and over dale I just hit the sunny trail. To Mar-a-Lago and back in 24 hours. Donald not there. I hear he’s been a little busy.
It was a birthday party. Anthony Pratt’s. He threw it for himself. Forget buying the guy a pair of crappy sneakers or a new tie.
He’s Australian. You see him in newspaper ads. The guy takes trash — yours, mine, he’s not fussy — and his multimillion-dollar New York and everywhere mills turn that into perfect paper bags. Buy something — even a raggy sweater from Amazon — and it’ll come wrapped in a recycled paper bag from billionaire Pratt’s mills. He’s the world’s largest privately owned in whatever-thehell you christen his business.
So this weekend he threw himself a small birthday party. Maybe 300-or-more black-tie guests. Steak. Champagne. Outdoors. Perfect dark night. Late. Only one lone star overhead.
It was a concert. Live. He’d hired Andrea Bocelli — who doesn’t usually do bar mitzvahs or graduation parties. The night, still. The audience, stunned. Nine p.m. out came Andrea Bocelli. Black tux trousers. Maroon jacket.
My table included New Yorkers Francine Lefrak and Rick Friedberg.
Bocelli came onto the platform escorted by his pianist and associate. Said nothing. Took no questions. Just sang for maybe a half hour. Also — just maybe — not that anybody’s mentioning this, but also maybe for an inch-and-a-half of C-notes.
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Anthony: “I was home one night, watching TV, and I see him greeted by President Trump in the Oval Office. I thought wouldn’t it be great to have him sing at my party.”
I quickly explained to Anthony that for a lot less money, maybe next year I could hum.
A few hates ago, the wartime mantra “Open lips sink ships” meant “Keep your mouth shut.” Why? Because spies are everywhere. Talkers in Britain stay careful about Queen Elizabeth. Avoid the subject. Princess Catherine is aware of the condition’s trajectory. Doctors have informed her that for now it does not come with a magic potion. The lifeline is a few years.
Meanwhile, as Rome burns, lawsuits are catching fire. Leslie Kuhn worked for Sirius radio and Beth and Howard Stern. She was asked to move into Oceanview, their Southampton home, and to work with Howard and Beth. In 2026, she states she was fired and presented with a nondisclosure agreement. She claims she wouldn’t sign it because it was one-sided and didn’t protect from Howard talking about her. Stern’s lawyers claim she has already signed an NDA. She doesn’t want money. She seems to just want to talk about Howard.
Guy from New Jersey: “We like women over 50. They don’t yell, they don’t tell, they don’t swell. Best of all they’re grateful as hell.”
Please! NOT in New York! NOT in New York!
