Anyone who doubts Rupert Murdoch’s feminist bona fides hasn’t checked with his wife, Jerry Hall.
“He’s a big feminist,” Ms. Hall said Tuesday night at an event to promote the Equal Rights Amendment, which would inscribe gender equality into the Constitution. “He has lots of highly paid women executives, and he always treats women very fairly.”
The many women who have sued Mr. Murdoch’s Fox News network for sexual harassment may disagree. Nonetheless, Ms. Hall said her husband is “a big supporter” and “pays for ads” for the amendment, which states: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
No doubt his Ms. magazine cover is forthcoming.
In the meantime, the “Equal Means Equal” campaign kickoff drew a glittery crowd to the Times Square Edition hotel, which provided burger sliders along with an open bar and a performance by Lisa Fischer, a backup singer for the Rolling Stones.
Here was Lizzy Jagger (the daughter of Ms. Hall and Mick Jagger, who has been a lobbyist for the cause since 2016) conferring with her sister, Georgia May Jagger, and their Stones “cousin,” Theodora Richards. There was Fran Lebowitz, sandwiched among Peter Brant Jr., Amy Sacco and Anne Dexter-Jones.
Nicky Rothschild and her sister, Paris Hilton, a host of the event, partied like it was 1999. When Ms. Hilton took the stage, every smartphone tilted toward her, like worshipers facing the sun.
“When I got the text from Lizzy, I actually had no idea that women didn’t have equal rights,” Ms. Hilton said. “It’s 2019 and it’s crazy and it’s criminal at this point that women don’t have the rights that everyone else does.”
The crowd hooted in agreement and took selfies: hashtag #equalmeansequal.
Publicity materials noted that support for the amendment had stalled “because of conservative social campaigns that link the ERA’s simple language to reproductive rights and an ‘attack on family values.’”
With that in mind, surely Ms. Hall could ask her husband to have a word with the conservative pundits at Fox News? But apparently that will not be happening. “I don’t think he interferes,” she said.
An Oprah Sighting
One spring night 30 years ago, five young men in Harlem — Raymond Santana Jr., Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise — were falsely arrested after a brutal rape in what many newspapers would call the “Central Park Jogger” case.
Monday night, after lengthy prison terms and eventual exoneration, they returned to the neighborhood for the premiere of “When They See Us,” a Netflix mini-series about their story created by Ava DuVernay.
“How excited am I to be on stage when I have no talent at singing, dancing, comedy or anything of the like,” Ms. DuVernay said at the Apollo Theater, to raucous applause from a packed house.
Wearing a purple metallic-thread gown by Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, she was joined by cast members including Niecy Nash, John Leguizamo, Blair Underwood, Storm Reid, Joshua Jackson, Vera Farmiga and Famke Janssen.
Then, after ushering the ensemble offstage, she hurriedly returned to introduce Oprah Winfrey, the executive producer of the series. “Oh wait, she’s here!” said Ms. DuVernay, who seemed surprised by the apparition.
The crowd cheered as the two embraced, and then Ms. Winfrey vanished as mysteriously as she had appeared.
Guests on the red carpet included Gayle King; Dapper Dan, the Harlem designer; Jane Rosenthal, the producer; and Antoni Porowski from “Queer Eye.” Many were sanguine about the fraught intersection of race, media and law enforcement.
“A brighter light is being shone on something that has been systemic in this country,” Ms. Nash said. “But for black and brown boys to be demonized in the media is not a new phenomenon.”
After the screening, cast members and crew piled into coaches and limousines for a late supper at the Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center, where they kept partying after 1 a.m.
“Thirty years ago, when we marched and I raised money to bail them out, we were ostracized,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said. “So for this story now to be in people’s homes, where they can see what really happened, I think is a monumental event.”
