Lunch à Clef

Before "La Cote Basque, 1965" was published, Truman showed it to a friend and identified the models for his characters. "But, Truman, they're not going to like this," protested the friend. Truman lazily responded, "Nah, they're too dumb. They won't know who they are." But they did know, and when the story reached the newsstands, their wrath shook the ground beneath his feet. For wrapped inside it was a hit list of people who had offended him over the years. Within hours, Babe Paley called Slim Keith and asked her to identify the Sidney Dillon character. "You don't think it's Bill, do you?"

At the lunch that shook society, the real (and fictional) characters were (1) Truman Capote/P. B. Jones; (2) Slim Keith/Lady Coolbirth; (3) Diana Vreeland; (4) Mainbocher; (5) Lee Radziwill; (6) Jackie Kennedy; (7) Carol Matthau; (8) Gloria Vanderbilt; (9) Betsey Whitney; (10) Babe Paley; (11) Ann Woodward/Ann Hopkins, with a priest; (12) Katharine Cornell; (13) Lauren Bacall; (14) Clare Boothe Luce.