The Gaye Watkins Report: The Gem Awards Honor Madeline Albright

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The Evenings Host Simon Doonan with Madeline Albirght and Tina Brown, and with Gaye Watkins.

 

 

Bangles, Baubles and Gems

The Gem Awards at NYC’s Gotham Hall, gleamed with the jewelry industry.  As one person said, there’s alot of wealthy connections to be made in this room. I spoke with Russell Simmons, last years honoree, who mentioned that his favorite piece of jewelry was a stainless steel and argyle rubber bracelet he was wearing from his Simmons Jewelry Co. collection. A more personal favorite piece was his green malachite bead bracelet with a dangling diamond. He said it is connected to Cedar, his South African tuition free school which he has poured “..millions of dollars..” into creating. It also includes meditation practices for students. Simon Doonan, Creative Director at Barneys New York, was the host for the evening and described the Tag Heuer Monaco Automatic Chronograph watch as, ”.. the most fabulous thing I’ve ever worn..” Big whoops and hollers came from the Tag Heuer people in the crowd celebrating the company’s 150th anniversary. Warren Buffets Ben Bridge Jeweler Co., was honored and Buffet’s Borsheim’s CEO Susan Jaques, also came to support the industry and get out of the 15 degree below temperatures in Omaha.

Madeleine Albright former Secretary of State during The Clinton administration, was honored with the Gem Award for Style through her use of jewelry in her foreign affairs. She said its a good thing now that women can be considered ”looking good and thinking at the same time.” Her young granddaughter once said, that she didn’t know what the big fuss was about grandma Madie since all Secretaries of State are girls. She spoke of her opinions on world leaders like Kim Jong il. She said of  him jokingly, people have said ”that he is crazy and a pervert. He is not crazy.” It was once brought to her attention that Yasser Arafat enjoyed embracing her at their meetings because he said she had “firm breasts”. She responded to a staffer, “…I have to have something to hang my pins on.”. And after Saddam Hussein in a poem he wrote called her an ”unparalleled serpent”, she proudly wore a serpent pin on their next meeting. When I asked Ms. Albright, what her favorite piece of jewelry is, she replied, “a pin my daughter made for me when she was five.”. That pin and many others during her White House career can be found in her book, “Read My Pins” by Harper Collins Publishers.

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