The Hamptons, the beaches of the Great Gatsby, the artists and the owners of the universe

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When Santa Fe sheriffs investigated

for the accidental shooting death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of his movie 'Rust,' the actor got into his Cadillac Escalade with three of his children and headed to Queens on his way to Amagansett in the East Hampton.

It was Christmas and the beach at Little Alberts Landing was sad and lonely.

Like bikes and watermelons, the Hamptons are for summer.

the happy artists

Under the summer sun at the Amagansett Farmers' Market, stress-addicted Big Apple sharks mingle with mango and lime juice-addicted 'BoBos' as they sip melons and shop for organic tomatoes.

The bucolic air lingers in the Hamptons,

the island that stretches east from the New York borough of Queens.

When, at the end of the 19th century, the train between

some artists fell in love with these places, with their light, the ocean and the forests.

A few stayed in East Hampton, lived happily among deer and pumpkin patches, and never came back to town.

His bones rest in Green River Cemetery in Springs.

Jackie Kennedy's Paradise Lost

Between 1820 and 1850 the first wave of wealthy New Yorkers arrived, building mansions by the sea and soon founding clubs such as the exclusive Maidstone in East Hampton and Bath and Tennis in Southampton.

This vocationally stale community included the Bouviers, the family of Jacqueline Kennedy, who

in East Hampton.

Jackie Kennedy as a child with her parents at a horse competition on Long Island.Getty

It is not uncommon to hear of East Hampton as

often said by nostalgics for those who love what is old, like the hundred-year-old windmills and the cabins of the pioneers, which are called 'saltbox' here.

In Jacqueline's childhood, the ravages of the Great Depression seemed a long way from the white sands of those virgin beaches.

There, in the

(at 121 Further Lane), Jacqueline witnessed the ruin of her parents' love, who pretended to be happy eating roast beef and peach ice cream for dessert as a family.

There the future queen of Camelot premiered lyrical daydreams at the great parties of the Devon Yacht Club, and there her grandfather Grampy Jack instilled in her a love of literature: Shakespeare, Chekhov, Byron and Bernard Shaw, whom she devoured at nap time sitting on a window sill.

His heroes were Mowgli, Robin Hood, Little Lord Fauntleroy's grandfather, and Scarlett O'Hara.

There he participated in equestrian events and dog shows.

He hated dolls and

Pollock, Koning and Warhol

Lasata had five hectares, nothing to do with the little wooden house that Jackson Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner bought in 1945 with the

In that house, the expressionist genius gave free rein to his 'action painting' technique and left the floor covered in splashes.

Those stains are now the traces of his tormented soul.

Art lovers - who have made a shrine to the Pollock-Krasner cottage - walk in padded slippers, dragging their feet over the paint chips.

The artist, one of the most famous 'bad boys' of the 20th century, moved to Springs, a couple of hours from Manhattan,

to take advantage of his disturbed sensibility and turn his imposing landscapes and their limpid light.

But Pollock took the concrete Manhattan to the abstract Hamptons and in that arcadia he continued to get entangled in life.

Writer Truman Capote at his home in Sagaponack, Long Island, in 1971. Getty

In 1956, his wife had fled to Europe to escape marital torment, and a drunken Pollock crashed his Oldsmobile into a tree near their clapboard house.

Following in Pollock's footsteps were Willem de Kooning and Andy Warhol, who had a home here.

Up to the techno eyebrows

On the last Monday of May 1995, Memorial Day was celebrated and

I left the New Yorker, my hotel in Manhattan, and joined a legion of 'preppies' (good guys with 'old money' style) who they lined up at Pennsylvania Station for train tickets to the Hamptons.

Neither they nor I were fans of art, I was a sentimentalist who wanted to get to know the realms of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan and they were party animals who wanted to get to the hubbub to get up to their eyebrows in Detroit techno and feel as important as the A's. -listers with their mansions with gold taps and marble sculptures in their gardens.

Or like

and

who have homes in these towns.

With a light outfit, tanned like chocolates and with a glass of champagne in hand, they live guided by a busy schedule

There was a time when taking the train to East Hampton was a glamorous summer ritual,

's guests taking it to parties at his mansion.

You still remember that golden age of jazz and art deco, Scott Fitzgerald's Roaring '20s, when passengers dressed in white, 'canotiers' and 'weekend bags' toasted with champagne in Dixie glasses.

Now the $25 train that runs from Pennsylvania Station to the Montauk terminus is the resort of the 'Bed&Breakfast' mob, who democratically aspire to breathe the air of New York's wealthiest celebrities:

the true gentlemen of the Hamptons, where the average price of a house is around five million and a 'baguette' with rosemary and black olives costs 7.99 dollars.

Celebs and sharks of Wall Street

In April of last year, 17 years after they split pears,

and

were again seen warmly embracing each other near their Water Mill estate. Back in the summer, Jlo and Affleck repeated the loving 'cheek to cheek' walks.

Benn Affleck and Jennifer Lopez strolling through Hampton in July 2021.Getty

Not far away, supermodel and businesswoman

and her boyfriend, Phoenix Suns shooting guard

were celebrating the launch of 818, Jenner's reposado tequila, with stops at Cittanuova in East Hampton and 75 Main and Dopo. Argentine, in Southampton.

They continued the party the next day at various 'it places' in Montauk and on the third day they ended up at Sunset Beach on Shelter Island.

The Hamptons are for people like that, short on time and plenty of money.

Here, although not everyone is famous, everyone who feels like someone between Hollywood celebs and Wall Street sharks, who compete for a table at

, buy their 'bagel' at the Citarella gourmet market , their muffin at Bridgehampton's Golden Pear, or savor lobster salad at Southampton's

while their daughters drop a thousand dollars on Louboutins at

.

In both East Hampton and Southampton, which is the closest city to New York, restaurant prices and antiques are like those on Madison Avenue.

But at the easternmost tip of the island is Montauk, whose waves are the roughest and its population the least posh.

who follow the same migratory route as humpback whales: in winter the Caribbean, in summer Montauk, whose lighthouse has become a hitch pennant because it was commissioned by George Washington and is one of the oldest in the country.

country chic touch

On summer weekends, as busy as the train station is Highway 27, where a disgusting traffic jam is mounted:

convertibles and SUVs, towards the New York Riviera, the nearby paradise of the American dream that is expressed here with exquisite taste in the white churches as if taken from a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel and in the old houses of Main Street and James Lane, in East Hampton, covered by 'roof shingles', those tiles flat and thin wooden panels superimposed on the façade.

Its porches with rocking chairs and wicker furniture overlook the green meadows or the elite wineries that have sprung up in the old potato fields.

Its owners when they are not called

and they are determined to maintain the original spirit of the Hamptons with its chic country touch and its colonial air streets, which is seen threatened by the new mansions of high standing posh snobbish architecture.

those who leave

Julianne Moore

and her husband, director Bart Freundlich, just sold their home on Fort Pond in Montauk, but they haven't left the Hamptons.

They have moved to a more secure mansion after the actress found a drunk passed out on her couch.

Actress Julianne Moore in the Hamptons in July 2019. Getty

Calvin Klein has quietly sold

a pair of properties in East Hampton Village for $85 million.

Klein's ex, Kelly, called 75 West End Road "home" even after their 2006 divorce. Not to miss her, Kelly has bought a $16 million waterfront parcel in North Haven with a little fishing shack.

Lily Pond Lane

Donald Trump Jr

, the former president's son, and his wife, former Fox News anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle, also gave up their Bridgehampton home and made handsome profits.

Although they retain a hint of their humble village and fishing origins, over the years the Hamptons of Jacqueline Bouvier, Pollock or Truman Capote, who had a house in

are becoming more and more like Palm Beach or Malibu, although with more rain .

With no Humboldt Current and no microclimate, the Hamptons are not Bermuda.

They seem more like one of Pollock's abstractions, a state of mind.

That's why, when I think of them, I'm struck by the memory of Jay Gatsby, of his 'posh' virtuosity, but also the powerful seduction of his inner demons.

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