"A WISE and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement," said Thomas Jefferson in his first Inaugural Address in 1801.
This would make him very popular in conservative circles today. But in these times, we seem to need a strong government to save us from ourselves.
HALLOWEEN APPROACHES so it seems like a good time to note another big Hollywood merger. The legendary Western Costume Company (co-owned by Eddie Marks and Bill Haber) has acquired the Dykeman-Young collection.
You can see their collaboration in the eye-popping period suits and dresses on the Emmy-winning smash hit "Mad Men." Fifty thousand items from the Jamestown, N.Y.,-based D-Y are being shipped to California.
These include costume designer Colleen Atwood's award-winning duds from "Chicago," the gifted Ann Roth's clerical garb for "Doubt," Mary Zophres' zippy-trippy threads for "Taking Woodstock" and Oscar-winning clothes from "The Aviator," "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Bugsy."
The designer Albert Wolsky, who won Oscars for "Bugsy" and "All That Jazz," says he wouldn't think of doing a period piece without the Dykeman-Young collection. "It's a sure 'go-to' resource and all in mint condition."
Western Costume has acquired also Dorothy Weaver's SourceIII, Helen Larson and Patricia Norris' Private Collection, plus, recently, an outstanding group of costumes from the Napoleonic era. (Would that Marlon Brando, Charles Boyer and Rod Steiger were living now to do Napoleon once again!)
DANIEL RADCLIFFE of "Harry Potter" fame has acquired a lovely townhouse down in Greenwich Village for the vast sum of around $6 million. He needs a place to hang his hat because he'll soon be on Broadway again starring in the musical, "How to Succeed in Business..."
Daniel was no slouch signing the papers to own property. He had been personally tutored by the Coutts Bank when he turned 18 and learned how to best invest his earnings, which have been considerable -- about $15 to $20 million.
WE TOLD you about the Tate Gallery putting up a photo of the 10-year-old Brooke Shields, nude standing in a bathtub. They had to take it down and now they've had to dump 12,000 of their expensive catalogues printed for the Pop Life exhibition.
The Tate would like to "move" their defunct booklets and have a few up for sale with a sticker over Brooke, reading "on legal advice."
RITA MORENO, the Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner, garnered another unusual statistic to her biography. The Friars Club added the title "Dame" to their male lexicon, which includes Friar, Dean and Abbott. Freddie Roman presented Rita with the new title as a surprise.
The Friars welcome Richard Belzer and Paul Shaffer to their club this week and both will read from their new books. Doubtless Shaffer will have to dodge rude questions about his pal David Letterman.
DO YOU admire the wounded ABC anchorman Bob Woodruff? I do. And he and wife Lee are putting on their Third Annual "Stand Up for Heroes" event at Town Hall on Nov. 4.
This is a great funfest with Brian Williams of NBC hosting, a special performance by Bruce Springsteen and additional talent in Louis CK, Stephen Colbert, Lisa Lampanelli and John Ondrasik. They promise other "surprise" guests.
If you call 212-840-2824 for tickets, there are a few $100 ones left. And you get to meet 50 of our wounded servicemen and their families.
MY PAL, the hotel king Jon Tisch, is supporting Caroline's "Funny Business Show" with David Moore. Jon will try his hand at stand-up comedy on Nov. 5 when he and other business titans, Stephen Siegel and Stew Leonard, do their schtick, along with pro comics. The Times calls this "the don't miss show of the New York Comedy Festival."
ALSO ON Nov. 5 at Longchamp on Spring Street, the former editor of The New York Observer, the dynamite Peter Kaplan will join Jared Kushner, Jonathan Burnham, Marti Carroll and Tom McGeveran in a benefit for the Kipton ART Foundation. They'll show you their collection of the Observer's best moments in the book "The Kingdom of New York" and you can guess who's who on the cover.
BUT BEFORE that you won't want to miss the starry group on Monday, Oct. 26 who will sing the songs of the late Frank Loesser to benefit the Actors Fund at the Minskoff Theater.
Too many fab names to begin to mention! Call Ticketmaster.com or call 212-307-4100. The chairs are mighty -- Jo Sullivan Loesser, Sir Paul McCartney, Annette Bening, Kevin McCollum and, again, Jonathan Tisch.
"PHEDRE" IS coming to Broadway, as you probably know, with Dame Helen Mirren starring. When it was in Washington for a limited time, actor Dominic Cooper was stunned at the audiences laughing in the wrong places as incest unrolled onstage.
"Helen would be clawing at my feet and they would be giggling. Perhaps the theme embarrassed them or they are a little more repressed."
Washington types? Repressed?
(E-mail Liz Smith at MES3838@aol.com, or write to her c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.)
