On Monday, the first day of Zohran Mamdani’s first full week on the job as mayor of New York City, his X account posted a video featuring images from his inauguration and a promise to return the power of government to the people.
The accompanying caption read: “The work continues. The work endures. The work has only just begun.”
Around the time it appeared online, it turns out, Mr. Mamdani was wrapping up a more leisurely encounter: a private visit with the film director and producer Steven Spielberg at his Central Park West apartment.
The pre-dinner meeting, which lasted about an hour, never appeared on the mayor’s public schedule. But it was confirmed by Terry Press, Mr. Spielberg’s spokeswoman, and by City Hall after inquiries from The New York Times on Thursday.
Ms. Press said that the mayor and the director had agreed to keep the meeting private; she declined to provide more details. Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the mayor, declined to comment beyond saying that Mr. Mamdani had returned to work afterward.
There was no particular agenda, according to two people familiar with the meeting who were not authorized to discuss it. They described it as a friendly get-to-know-you conversation between a mayor and one of his most famous constituents.
Despite predictions from Mr. Mamdani’s critics that his election would drive wealthy people out of the city, Mr. Spielberg, a billionaire, became an official resident of New York on the same day the mayor was inaugurated, the two people said. While Mr. Spielberg, 79, is a prominent Democratic donor, records do not show that he financially supported Mr. Mamdani’s campaign.
Kate Capshaw, Mr. Spielberg’s wife; their son Theo; and his wife also attended the gathering in the storied San Remo co-op apartment building in Manhattan. So did Morris Katz, one of Mr. Mamdani’s top advisers.
Mayors meet with city dignitaries regularly as part of their work. But the private visit to Mr. Spielberg’s home underscored a tension in Mr. Mamdani’s young mayoralty.
He campaigned as a democratic socialist committed to refocusing government around the city’s least powerful and most needy, but he is also the only child of a famous film director, Mira Nair, and someone who appears to enjoy proximity to celebrity.
Mr. Mamdani has set a brisk pace of public-facing events and policy actions in his first week in office. On Monday, before he socialized with Mr. Spielberg, he visited the scene of a Bronx fire not long after dawn, held a news conference announcing new executive orders targeting deceptive business practices like junk fees, and stood with Gov. Kathy Hochul to celebrate the first year of the city’s congestion pricing program at a Y.M.C.A. in Manhattan.
Still, the ways in which New York City mayors spend their time have been the subject of fascination — and scrutiny — for decades. Mr. Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, developed a reputation early in his term for frequent visits to members-only night clubs and high-end restaurants operated by friends. It hurt his standing with voters.
Mr. Mamdani, a savvy user of social media and symbolic imagery, has carefully cultivated his political brand and signaled that he is conscious of the optics of how he uses his time outside City Hall. Asked during the campaign to describe how he would approach his time after work hours, Mr. Mamdani told reporters they would not see him at Mr. Adams’s favorite private club in Manhattan.
“Less Zero Bond,” he said. “More a mayor who visits nurses and hospitals after the sun has set, who speaks to E.M.S. workers and bus operators working the late shifts.”
Since taking the oath of office last Thursday, Mr. Mamdani has posted on social media about a series of nighttime stops that have reflected that populist approach. He stopped for dinner at Boishakhi, a Bangladeshi restaurant in Astoria; he picked up food from Zaab Zaab, a Thai restaurant in Elmhurst; and waited in line at a food cart another evening, surrounded by his security detail.
But he has been no stranger to the city’s more glamorous side since winning November’s election.
In December, his mayoral transition committee sold out a fund-raiser co-hosted by A-list celebrities, including Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Marisa Tomei, Lupita Nyong’o and Tituss Burgess, at the Angel Orensanz Foundation on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
A week later, he attended a premiere party for “Marty Supreme.” In a back room, he chatted with the actress Fran Drescher and the rapper Tyler, the Creator, and posed for photos, like the celebrity he has become.
Katherine Rosman covers newsmakers, power players and individuals making an imprint on New York City.
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