Its higher now! She seemed to be irritated with me. It started in Colombia, where premature babies dont have the medical advantages of babies in a place like this. At two-twenty-five, I heard a cry and saw a baby out of the corner of my eye. On Monday, after taking my pressure three times, Dr. Phillips explained the various blood-pressure medications I was taking. Biography: Wendy Wasserstein was born on October 18, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York to Morris Wasserstein When I was in college, there was a popular aphorism: Smith to bed, Holyoke to wed. Lucy Jane Wassersteins see-through mobile home was rolled to the front left As my failure rate accelerated, I moved into high-tech reproductive territory: I tried in-vitro fertilization, gift (gamete intra-fallopian-tube transfer), and, finally, surrogacy. I lowered my voice. Ms. Ettinger asked as she waited outside Mount Sinai's intensive care unit for Lucy Jane to come out in her car seat for the cab ride to Ms. Wasserstein's apartment on the Upper West Side. When Ricky burst into song, my daughter started to cry. These parents were satisfied customers. Would you like to feed Lucy Jane in the nesting room? Catherine asked me. Im not saying that you have it. They took another brain sonogram today, she informed me. But when we stopped seeing each other I felt there was no reason to abandon the project. Felix is a legend in our industry, and I am honored that he is returning to the firm that he helped to create, Jacobs said in January. I spoke at a funeral this morning. I held up Cindys pregnancy photos. Google+. Thats right. Jacobs considered getting rid of Lazards fractionally owned corporate jet, which had ferried Wasserstein almost everywhere he went, but ultimately couldnt bring himself to. Im in the middle of a sentence right now, he said. Wasserstein had left his second wife, Christine Parrott, and their three children for Ash and then summarily dismissed her after he met Claude Becker, a tall, dark-haired French beauty. Youve got a very sick little girl. How could you have done that? recalls a managing director. Most of us didnt really notice for a while that he was gone because most of us had very little interaction with the guy. In a sense, she has lived most of the stories in her plays. She mentions one particular relationship with a man that didn't worked out. I put my hand through the Isolette porthole and stroked her tiny fingers. Shayna was Lucy Janes first roommate. Miss Hutchinson began to cry. Say hello to Lucy Jane Wasserstein. Youd better get the crib ready.. Although Im a big, hearty girl, even in routine circumstances I could be voted Miss White Coat Syndrome. (As was chronicled by Wendy herself in the pages of The New Yorker, she had conceived her daughter in 1999 through in-vitro fertilization. Every two hours, I was awakened to have my blood pressure taken. Agent Once again, Ms. Wasserstein encapsulated her generation, sitting at the center of a display of a new kind of mix of femininity, wealth, power and domesticity. The Nipple Nazis attacked the next day at dawn. After Wassersteins death, Jacobs expensed in one fell swoop the costs remaining on Wassersteins five-year employment contract. ''How's it going?'' Explaining my sisters career to my high-school friends, Id simply say that she sent Tang to the moon with the astronauts. On Shaynas Isolette was a sticker that read Please Call Mother Day or Night with Any News on Her Condition. At first, Miss Hutchinson seldom said hello. But many of the senior bankers, who were also big shareholders, found that argument severely lacking. Maybe it was imagery left over from the service at St. James. Born. I go through these cycles. She was about fourteen inches long and weighed seven hundred and ninety grams, or one pound twelve ounces. Over the years, we had all become part of one anothers family. I put my hand through the porthole and touched her head. in his forties, reminded me of science majors I had known in college. And the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award went to Lola Wasserstein. in the morning, a friend called to warn me that there was a large item in a daily tabloid speculating about the identity of my childs father. When that assumption proved wrong, she began having fertility treatments. When I reached Catherine McCarron, she told me that the hospital had moved quickly because Lucy had become anemic. Linda Janklow, chairwoman of Lincoln Center Theater, and Lynn Nesbitt, the agent, attended. Wasserstein became ill in 2001. Ours was a civilized divorce. (In June 2006, Perella joined forces with Peter Weinberg, the grandson of Sidney Weinberg, the late senior partner of Goldman Sachs, to form Perella Weinberg Partners, a private advisory and money-management boutique.) Her nickel-size feet tickled my breast. ''It was: 'Get the nightie. I went home, got into bed, and cried. We were there, I hoped, for the long haul. She got serious first at City College, where she found encouragement in Joseph Heller, followed by Yales famously cutthroat drama program, where she was barely He looked healthy, Myerson recalls. Her dark eyes were shining as if she were still a girl playing by the Vistula River in Poland. Suddenly, Michele K. Silverstein burst in. It was caring, but weird. Larry Grafstein, the head of M&A at Rothschild in New York, who worked for Wasserstein for years at Wasserstein Perella and at Lazard, wrote in an essay in The New Republic how exasperating that aspect of Wassersteins personality was. . She knew that no child of hers would lack for ''fathers. Wasserstein, the chairman of Lazard Frres and owner of New York magazine, died two months ago, shortly after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat. Sternly, she showed me how to pump each breast separately or, if I liked, both together, a sort of duet for mammaries. Im going to see my one-year-old son, is just the type of thing a superhero in disguise would say! He was witty and enthusiastic. Says another person who saw Wasserstein last summer, He frankly looked pretty well. Later, my sister Georgette told me that when our mother first saw my baby and heard the details of my delivery she cried as inconsolably as she had when Sandra died. But, contrary to my phenobarbital-enhanced assumptions, he wouldnt be taking blood pressure readings on Mars; hed be consulting from Earth.) Always secretive, he withdrew further as his health apparently failed and his personal relationships turned tumultuous. The ratio of infants to nurses here is four to one. '', She was 48 and had given up trying when, mourning the death of her sister, she ran into her old fertility doctor, ''whom I loved,'' she said. He went on to have two more sons, Jack and Dash, with his third wife, Claude Becker, a former CBS News producer.) Jacobs also brought back Felix Rohatyn, now 81 years old, as a senior adviser, and a huge new office is being constructed for him. Its not like I got knocked up. Most preemies have to build up the strength to suck from a bottle. However, Antonio Weiss, Lazards global head of investment banking, who worked with Wasserstein closely on the deal and led it after Wasserstein died, couldnt disagree more: Bruces last deal was specifically designed to acquire the target company at the lowest possible price, he says. Mother: Pulitzer-prize winning playwright, Wendy Wasserstein. ''He once named a sheet after me,'' Ms. Wasserstein said. So, finally, one day I say, Bruce, look, youre not going to want to hear this, but I dont think youre eating a healthy diet. And he said to me, Youre right. So for her sake, and for the sake of my daughter, I decided I could not invite my mother to Labor and Delivery. In his New Republic eulogy, Grafstein recalled how Wasserstein used to laugh about one particularly bungled meeting. Then it was time for toasts. Ken Jacobs and [vice-chairman] Steve Golub, says one Lazard banker, and he left all the leadership stuff to the two of them. August 18, 2011. My plan was to wait until Labor Day, well into my seventh month, and then to inform my friends that the twenty pounds I had recently gained were not the result of bad habits and anxiety. '', Ms. Wasserstein has always been big on ''to do'' lists. I ran down the corridor in search of Dr. Green, a large Southerner who was covering for Ian Holzman. Can you tell me about her brain sonogram?. This was a reporting coup for sure, since Wasserstein had all but abandoned the idea of allowing himself to be the focus of a major magazine story after Deirdre Fanning of Forbes had written the infamous Bid Em Up Bruce cover story, of August 1989, which suggested that Wasserstein encouraged his clients to hugely overpay for companies. WebAssociated Press. But Ive never understood how marriage is supposed to guarantee safety. Two weeks after Lucy Jane arrived, Catherine told me that my daughter was being promoted out of the critical nook. He had gone to Cravath after receiving a joint graduate degree in business and law from Harvard and after a year studying British merger law at Cambridge University on a Knox Traveling Fellowship. But when I was too ill to make it to the bathroom, Angela, the night nurse, who wore a medallion around her neck that said Girl Power, would bring me a pan for the nausea. They got what they came for. I was examining a twinkling ruby light on my babys big toe. Hed come in; hed go to his office. I told you to relax! Nietzsches whole posit was that there are certain superhumans who are above the fray, above normal constraints, a friend of Wassersteins once told me. (With his second wife, Christine Parrott, Wasserstein had three children: Pamela, Ben, who works with a producer at HBO, and Scoop, now a law-school student. Wasserstein had been hospitalized in serious condition for an irregular heartbeat. You know, its important you get this, I said. I kept it by my bedside for the rest of my stay. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Now, suddenly, I felt like Hester Prynne, and my daughter, who was in intensive care with a possible brain malfunction, was fodder for gossip columns. The Newest Wasserstein Creation Comes Home. He was put on life support immediately upon arrival at the hospital. I think he left each of those firms in much better shape than when he arrived.. ''My parents used to call me three times a week at 7 a.m. to ask me, 'Are you thin, are you married to a root-canal man, are you a root canal man?' Gerry Gutierrez came to the N.I.C.U. Your mother called me, crying, my agent told me just after Labor Day. I had told my mother a week earlier about my pregnancy, but she had no idea that I was in the hospital. In our zone, none of the babies except the Kaur twins had a visible father. On the Web, she had launched a monthly column recommending baby products. I think Lucy and Shayna leave here in the middle of the night and go out for pizza, I said one evening, trying to lighten the mood. Thats all right, I said. The arrhythmia caused him to lose consciousness. Sandra died in December of 1997, at sixty. in creative writing from City College of New York in 1973, and an M.F.A. Michele K. Silverstein came to see me. while Wasserstein was away, point-blank about Wassersteins health. Well monitor you and probably send you home tomorrow.. Wasserstein hated the nickname and felt betrayed by the presswhich had previously fawned over himbut there was no disputing the storys main premise, especially after both Allied Stores Corporation and Federated Department Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy following a protracted takeover battle won by Wassersteins client Robert Campeau, a little-known Canadian real-estate developer, who offered much more than other bidders using primarily borrowed money that he was unable to pay back. You shouldnt keep things like this around your office., Youre absolutely right. She looked at me intently. At 12:45 p.m., I was wheeled into the operating room accompanied by two female obstetricians, two female nurses, a female anesthesiologist, and Gerry Gutierrez. The decorator Mario Buatta, ''the Prince of Chintz,'' was, too. She has the earnestness of a science jock, but its offset by a skating-rink-size diamond from her hematologist husband. hog n bones nutrition menu. She looked at me sternly. To preserve the pregnancy, her doctor ordered her to the hospital. She had seen a lot of things in the N.I.C.U., but she wasnt accustomed to bellowing Cuban men in feathers. I believed in the collaboration between the firm will of my one-pound-twelve-ounce daughter and the expertise of modern medicine. Wasserstein's first marriage, to wife Laura, ended in 1974. I want you to go right now.. Theres her hand, she said, moving an ultrasound mouse over my stomach. His experience with the severity and early onset of your preclampsia indicates that we have more time than we thought. In general, he said, every day in the womb is equal to three days in the N.I.C.U.Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Unfortunately, the embryos deteriorated somehow in packing or storage, and were unusable. Many of Wassersteins former partners there think he then pressed his advantage at the firm in an unfair way, even as they acknowledge that had he not engineered the I.P.O. Or you will dry up.. By mid-December, Lucy weighed nearly seven pounds and was ''speaking French in iambic pentameter,'' Ms. Wasserstein said. Itd be the best thing that could happen to the firm! (Lazard declined to make any of its board members available to be interviewed or to comment on any part of this story. The guy was just so different than most people that you and I know. Born Oct 18, 1950, in Brooklyn, New York; died Jan 30, 2006, in New York, NY; dau. She doesnt know if you want to see her. Bruce had told my mother about the birth. Hurricane Floyd was raging outside, and incision staples were pinching my stomach. After my mothers death, my father plunged the family into evangelicalism, leaving our Jewish faith behind. For the people who knew him well he engendered enormous loyalty., Jeffrey Rosen, another longtime friend of Wassersteins and his colleague at First Boston, Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Lazard, agrees. WebWasserstein's daughter Lucy Jane was born three months premature, weighing in at one pound twelve ounces. The three of them advised me to stay in the hospital until as close to my due date as possible. ? the receptionist asked. My anxiety level, however, was mounting for a different reason. She cares for at least four premature babies and, perhaps even more difficult, deals with their mothers. In the sixties and seventies, fighting for the rights of queer people was considered radical activism. Janie, the heroine in ''Isn't It Romantic'' (1983), trying to decide whether to marry a boring doctor, fantasizes about having a child by herself: ''I can imagine myself at 36, driving cross-country to inseminate myself with a turkey baster.''. James Lapine and Heidi Ettinger arrived at Mount Sinai in the morning to take Lucy Jane and me home. I washed my hands as Catherine opened the incubator. I was rocking Lucy in our corner of the N.I.C.U. So Ive gotten you a room back on the Labor and Delivery floor, and well just keep you there as long as we can., Gerry Gutierrez pushed the gurney down the hall. Add a bio, trivia, and more. Then I looked down at her double chin and her round baby cheeks. I think I need to sleep., You must pump every three hours! she announced. WebAmerican playwright. Word around town was that Chao was fine with his decision to adopt Wendy Wassersteins daughter, Lucy Jane, and have her come live at 927 Fifth after Wendys death. When he came to see me, he said, You should know that babies born after only twenty-five weeks gestation are at a higher risk for having lung or brain damage than those born even at thirty weeks. Howve you been? he asked. My mother sat next to my hospital bed wearing black leather pants, a multicolored sweater, and a bright knit cap. ''We just want to raise a glass to our beloved Wendy,'' Ms. Rosenthal said. I held her closeall ten pounds of herand told her not to be frightened. He was telling everyone the way the deal should be done from the lawyers standpoint, and I said to myself, Holy mackerel, this guy is unreal, Perella recounted to Institutional Investor in 1987. WebFind out about Lucy Wasserstein's family tree, family history, ancestry, ancestors, genealogy, relationships and affairs! Its classic Bruce, one of his former partners tells me. Rosen tells the story of receiving a phone call after Wasserstein died from Art Reichstetter, a banker who had also worked with Wasserstein at all three firms. While waiting at the East Side Womens Ob/Gyn Associates for my final post-cesarean checkup, I picked up a magazine and found an article called Cindy Crawford, Model Mom. Cindy was back at work. The Same Ole Line Dudes Are Waiting for You. Well follow it up next week.. He left all the day-to-day work up to [newly appointed C.E.O.] Im Lucy Jane Wassersteins mother, I said, panting. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. ), In the end, Wassersteins partners were terribly demoralized. It was familiar in the best possible way. CHADWICK: Playwright Wendy Wasserstein speaking before a Washington D.C. audience in 1997. He just never spent any time with anybody else, except to have us drag his sorry ass to meetings.. I thought 'I hate you!' 2023 Cond Nast. He had lost his relevance. Honest you do, honest you do, honest you do. Dr. Drews entered the room with the magic tube, which was the width of a pipe cleaner. It is as though a mighty oak has fallen, leaving an empty and glaring space against the sky where he stood. (Neither Lipton nor Jordan would be interviewed about Wasserstein for this article. The drama, starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, is a study of male lonelinessa familiar theme in prestige TV that finds renewed urgency in an Asian American context. Try to lie on your left side, he calmly admonished me. One rumor that would become a particular favorite of mine was that I had been pregnant and hadnt known it. She died of lymphoma in 2006 at age 55. I even made an appointment at an Upper East Side salon to get my hair blown straight. Although I remain a religious skeptic (St. James and Temple Emanu-El notwithstanding), throughout my days of awe at the Klingenstein Pavilion I had a kind of blind faith. The approximately $7 billion bankruptcy filing was the largest ever in retailing at the time. Wasserstein and Perella met while working a corporate acquisition, and within 20 minutes of their first encounter, Wasserstein had taken control of the meeting. In a nearby corner was Mrs. King, another African-American woman, and her son, and to her right were the Kaur twins, Tony and Tina, whose father owns an Indian restaurant on Columbus Avenue. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Ms. Rosenthal's personal assistant mingled with her baby sitter and housekeeper. and Lucy Wasserstein '22 about their experiences in their Core courses. And what a production it was! It was kind of, well, I won. In the front, on the left, are the long-term tenants, preemies who will be staying a month or two, roughly until their natural due date. Looking out at the stars, I began to weep. Im O.K., and Ive given up on that other thing., Thats why I came over, he said, his voice cheerful and, as always, a little too quick. At the same time, Ms. Wasserstein's brother, Bruce, the investment banker, whose wife was giving birth to a son elsewhere in the hospital, went around the building proclaiming of Lucy, ''It's my child! ', ''And that has been very true in my life. This is a very bittersweet place, she said, touching my shoulder. After assuring me that everything was O.K., she said, I think I may also have overstepped myself. He looked like a guy who had been going through chemo or something. Inside the firm, the explanation was that he was suffering a prolonged bout of pneumonia. Mr. Wasserstein was rushed in an ambulance to a hospital in Manhattan. WebWasserstein was rushed in an ambulance to a hospital in Manhattan. The last time my mother, Lola Wasserstein, had been in a hospital, she had watched her oldest daughter die of cancer. Lying on her side, she had a C-pap (continuous positive airway pressure) tube in one nostril, to keep her lungs inflated. I quickly became obsessed with the disparity between Angelas paycheck and Demi Moores. Seeing himself as the Nietzschean bermensch, he believed he played by different rules than everyone else. The brain ventricles are slightly enlarged, but I wouldnt worry about it, he told me. Then there is the seemingly straightforward question of precisely how Wasserstein died, three days after being hospitalized suddenly in New York with heart palpitations experienced in the backseat of his chauffeur-driven sedan, according to a former colleague. Together with the Asian, Caribbean, and Irish nurses, our wing of the N.I.C.U. Many published reports suggested that Wasserstein was the architect of Krafts strategy and that he personally advised Kraft and its C.E.O., Irene Rosenfeld, during the months before he died. By November 2006, Wasserstein was ready to re-introduce himself to Wall Street and corporate America. Looking down at Becky and Michele, with their intelligent, professional faces and perfectly coiffed heads, I imagined that they were having a heated conversation in the Neiman Marcus shoe department. Relax for a few minutes. I had never been asked to be the opening act at an Episcopal service before. The day after I arrived home, there was a message on my answering machine from the N.I.C.U. He also received $41 million in compensation for 2007. Date of birth. Thats not to say its inevitable. He smiled at me with a comforting familiarity. Someone else came in who said he was the father, she said, referring to Gerry, who had been given a hospital bracelet marked Father when we were in the delivery room. Well, pick something. He was an amazing intellect and human being, he says. It was just a question of how long he would hang on. Father: not yet announced. There is even debate inside the firm about the role he had in Krafts prolongedand ultimately successful$21.4 billion acquisition of Cadbury, the British chocolate company. At the end of the conversation, Reichstetter told Rosen, He really believed in people. That comment got Rosen thinking. Ive asked Ian Holzman, who runs the neonatal unit here, to talk to you about premature babies.. Jan 2013 - Jan 20174 years 1 month. Female. I knew that it had caused the death of Jacqueline Kennedys third child, Patrick. Mars! At nine in the morning, William arrived with an armful of cordinated blue floral curtains, pillows, and Monet posters. We were now in the company of white professional couples who had conceived twins after taking fertility drugs. During our time in the hospital, we managed to build a neighborly friendship. (For unexplained reasons, the tax authorities in the state of New York allowed Wasserstein to get away with this gambit.) She never identified the father. In this episode, Caperton interviews President Meredith Woo, professors Carrie Brown and Jeff Key, and students Cailey Cobb '20 and Lucy Wasserstein '22 about their experiences in their Core courses. The fact that he was sick wasnt noticed by a lot of us for a month or two., In July 2006, Wasserstein was seen around town again. As I began to gather my memories of Fay that morning, I felt a tingling from my left elbow to my hand. Are you comfortable in here? she asked about my quarters. Joe Perella recalls how Bruces standard diet was hamburger for lunch, shrimp cocktail and steak for dinner. Share. Bloomberg News wrote on January 19 that the successful deal seals the legacy of Wasserstein, and quoted former Lazard banker Philip Keevil as saying, This deal will be a monument to Bruce., Wasserstein does get credit at Lazard for bringing in the businessin the sense that he finally brought in a dealbut the dnouement was seen by some as the same old script of getting the client to win by paying too much. She handed me my daughter. 1999. Once their lungs are strong enough, the babies move from I.V.s to nasogastric tubes. You have a daughter, Becky Brightman said to me. He had a remarkable ability to get his way, even among the headstrong and rather self-important bankers and lawyers who make up the mergers- and-acquisitions community. Some of the rumors came about because Wasserstein had a hectic romantic life right up to the end. I took my daughter, finally unattached by wires, to a private room where parents bond with their children in the days before they leave the N.I.C.U. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Des Moines, Iowa. On her chest were penny-size sticky pads holding down wires that were attached to a machine that measures heart rate, pulse, and oxygen level. Trivia. When Wasserstein was growing up, his family lived in the predominantly Jewish Midwood section of Brooklyn, and Bruce attended the Orthodox Yeshiva of Flatbush, on Avenue J. During Lucys hospital stay, my brother visited her regularly. As far as I can make out, relaxing and lying on your left side is the treatment for preclampsia. A kiss on the kepele, Lucy Jane, I whispered. So I shouldnt front-run them., Indeed, the story that lots of people are telling is that Wasserstein was living an unhealthy lifestyle. In her sixth month, she developed pre-eclampsia, high blood pressure with the potential for both kidney and liver failure. Donald Trumps arraignment was a circus for the media, but it was just another day at the office for New Yorks professional line sitters. is, but he is one smart guy. Arriving to see Lucy at five oclock one evening, I noticed that her tiny knit cap had been cut down the center. There were forty babies in the N.I.C.U., and each was attached to monitors like these. At that point, I started looking into adoption. Just after a midnight feeding recently, Lucy Jane and I settled in to watch television. Once, when they were being photographed for the cover of Fortune magazine, Wasserstein made a big deal about how they would look together. Catherine reminded me to bring a car seat the next day; I was going to be one of those parents in the revolving door. My cesarean lasted approximately an hour. We saw the baby. Lucy Jane Wasserstein. Because she had been ill the previous Christmas, we had cancelled our lunch, but I had called to wish her well. Log In. But when Georgette asks Pamela if it would be all right to be interviewed, she nixes it. Would you like to hold Lucy? Catherine asked me that morning. Are you pumping? an ultra-thin woman demanded from my doorway. She gave me a kiss and said, Once you get Lucy Jane home, youll forget all about this place., No, I said. You know, its impossible to lie on my left side and to be out of this room at 11 a.m. Im a person, not a grouper!. Father: not yet announced. I started a new play, I said. It was almost time for Shayna to go home, too. It was a doll and a childrens book I had written. Comic High Jinks and Repressed Despair in Netflixs Beef. I began to sing to her softly: Picture yourself on a boat on a river where tangerine peaches meet marshmallow skies. I knew that those werent the right lyrics, but they were close enough. Vernon Jordan, the Lazard banker and a member of its board of directors, said, To measure the life and accomplishments of Bruce Wasserstein is as if one would take a thimble and try to empty an ocean. Adds another former partner, He was a horrible manager, because he was completely self-involved by the time he had gotten control of the firm. You see that in the succession of marriages and children, and blowing Claude up, and marrying Chao, and having an affair with a business-school student and having a child out of wedlock. He was a very, very strange guy, says one. Do you have some I.D. You have your work and your friends, but you deserve some personal happiness, too., For the funeral, I put on a gray suit and gray pearls. Catherine McCarron walked us to the door and cut off Lucy Janes hospital bracelet, ten weeks after her birth. Sign Up. Thank you. I decided to take this as a compliment. For most of my life, my mother, Lola, who has the petite build of a Fosse dancer, had told people that her age was twenty-one plus. When her oldest granddaughter turned thirty, my mother became thirty, too. said Donna Hanover, wife of New York's mayor. Four years after that play opened, Wasserstein began fertility treatments, and in 1999 Lucy Jane Wasserstein was born prematurely.