Jay McInerney — the “Bright Lights, Big City” author and literary ’80s enfant terrible who went on to become Town & Country’s wine critic — celebrated his 70th birthday in style this week.
Last year, we reported that the famed scribe was recovering from brain surgery and, later, reportedly had open-heart surgery. He made a successful recovery and even polished off a new book, he said at the time.
McInerney celebrated his birthday with a festive dinner, we hear, thrown by his wife, Anne Hearst, at Le Bernardin in Midtown.
The wine whiz, who has been known to bring his own bottles to swanky galas, “served eight rare vintages in giant six-liter bottles from his own wine cellar to accompany the five-course dinner by three-Michelin-starred chef Eric Ripert,” a guest told us.
McInerney made several funny speeches, noting, “I’m really glad to be here at the age of 70, I wasn’t always sure I’d make it!” He credited Ripert’s food with “bringing him back to life.”
Among the intimate gathering of 80 was McInerney’s daughter Maisie, legendary agent Amanda “Binky” Urban, New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, Grove Atlantic CEO Morgan Entrekin, Vera Wang, “Sex and the City” creator Candace Bushnell, Hilary and Wilbur Ross, Robert Zimmerman, Alison Mazzola, Paula and Tony Peck, Sandra Ripert, Joe Tobin and Dana Hammond.
“Ripert got additional chuckles when he brought out a multitiered cake with the number 21 on top,” plus “a giant methuselah of Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2007,” a spy said.
A source added: “The tables were centered with lavish arrangements of orange, pink, yellow and green spring flowers. Everyone was dressed up, and the conversation was naughty lol!”
McInerney, who once coined the term “Bolivian marching powder,” “made some hilarious coke references . . . and also said he’d been collecting these giant, very rare bottles of wine for years in anticipation of his 70th.”
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