The Forbes One Hundred

Aboard The Highlander with Malcolm

I'm star-struck to be included," sighed Don "60 Minutes" Hewitt aboard Malcolm Forbes's Highlander on the Fourth of July. The power publisher had invited one hundred of the elite for sixteen hours of Liberty, tall ships, and fireworks. Lesser vessels scudded around. The Coast Guard drove them off. Then U.S.I.A. Director Charles Wick pulled alongside in a small cutter and yelled to Walter Annenberg and John Kluge, "I'm delivering the yacht you ordered." Mayor Koch sidled by next: "Seen any tuna?" (These were the jokes.) Linda Ellerbee, who'd just decided to go to ABC, threatened to moon a passing NBC camera crew. Shelley Winters got seasick, but no one would take her ashore. The California clones—Barbara Sinatra, Lee Annenberg, and Harriet Deutsch—stuck together in their red-whiteand-blue Adolfos, playing cards. Rupert and Anna Murdoch played Scrabble with son James, who complained of Papa, "He makes up words." David Rockefeller told of a rich Argentinean who'd said, "I suppose you want to know how much I'm worth." Rockefeller was shocked: "One just doesn't talk about money in the U.S." (Where has he been?) Mme. Mitterrand boarded late, amid gossip that the French First Lady hates the high life. She soon disembarked. Brooke Astor asked the host if people resent his rich and famous yacht-style. Forbes fingered his skipper's cap and opined, "I think people wish me well."

Iris Love