Jewels and the City: Baubles from Embattled Esmerian's Business Said to Adorn Sarah Jessica and the Girls

Laden with Leighton? Sarah Jessica Parker at the premiere
Photo from sexandthecitymovieblog.com

It must be because I've proven myself such a fashionista that I've somehow gotten onto the publicity e-mail list for Fred Leighton, the jewelry firm owned by the American Folk Art Museum's financially embattled benefactor, Ralph Esmerian.

Fred Leighton keeps sending me photos of various glamorous celebrities who have borrowed the company's baubles for special events. It was so excited about the coup it scored for tonight's "Sex and the City" movie premiere that it couldn't even wait till the event actually took place before dispatching this prescient report to my in-box at 6:21 p.m. today:

The fabulous foursome of "Sex and the City: The Movie" created a sensation on the red carpet of New York's Radio City Music Hall. In stunning fashions and all wearing unique jewels from Fred Leighton, these ladies delighted their fans with their sensational style.

Sarah Jessica Parker, glamorous in a Nina Ricci gown, chose Fred Leighton's jewels for her special night---at her neck she wore three antique necklaces, a 19th-century diamond riviere necklace, a 19th-century diamond and pearl fringe necklace and a 19th-century gold diamond snake necklace, also a 9 carat diamond solitaire ring and diamond pendant stud earrings (6.76 carats and 8.66 carats each).

Kristin Davis shimmered in 19th-century diamond pendant earrings, a 19th-century diamond bracelet, and a 24.0 carat Alexandrite and diamond ring. Cynthia Nixon chose diamond pendant earrings 6.00 carats (each), a 16.00-carat ruby and diamond ring and a diamond bracelet to complement her Narciso Rodriguez white dress. Kim Cattrall, in a richly beaded Vivienne Westwood cocktail dress, wore old mine diamond pendant earrings and a Tahitian pearl and diamond ring.

Esmerian himself is a notorious borrower: It was a loan he got from Merrill Lynch to help finance his 2006 purchase of Fred Leighton that led to an on-again, off-again Christie's sale, which was to have liquidated some important Esmerian jewelry. According to a NY Times story by Allen Salkin, the jewels had been used "as part of his collateral for $187 million in loans from Merrill Lynch."

Last Thursday at Sotheby's American art auction, Esmerian did manage to cash in on Edward Hicks' "The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity," which he had once promised to the American Folk Art Museum. It had been offered privately earlier this year through Sotheby's, but failed to find a buyer willing to meet Esmerian's price. It fetched $9.67 million at Thursday's public auction.

Meanwhile, it turns out that a lot of fans at tonight's overbooked "Sex and the City" event were far from "delighted," notwithstanding Fred Leighton's pre-premiere hype. And the four leading ladies don't look all that glamorous in this photo from the hot-off-the-internet report by the NY Daily News, headlined: "'Sex in the City' premier turns ugly."

Couldn't the headline writers get the second word in the show's title right?