Amal’s NCY secrets
Anna Wintour helps her shop, George’s assistant is at her beck and call, and a five- star hotel ensures she has everything she needs at her fingertips. Here’s the skinny on how Mrs. Clooney navigates the city
IT’S 8: 30 at night but bright as daylight outside, as paparazzi flashes go off like fireworks.
Sal Scognamillo, executive chef at Patsy’s Italian Restaurant in Midtown, quickly ushers in New York’s newest royal couple: George Clooney and his stunning wife, Amal, who looks like a glamorous Gumby in an animal print Giambattista Valli coat and Stella McCartney bell- bottomjeans.
“Listen, if you like, I can take you upstairs and put you in the private room,” Scognamillo tells the pair. ( George’s mother, Nina, also dining with them, called earlier that day to make the reservation.)
George sticks with his usual back- corner table in the main room. And while the chef leaves “a table next to them empty” outof courtesy, George, 53, and Amal, 37, still can’t keep their affection for one another private as they dine on chicken breast tre colore and penne with spicy marinara. ( Scognamillo says Amal only ordered a half portion of the latter because, as she said that night, “American portions are probably very big.”)
“There definitely was holding hands. You could just see how enthusiastic hewas. I was very happy for him. And I never thought he’d getmarried,” admits Scognamillo. “He definitely picked a good one here.”
Amal Clooney’s entree into New York society has been a seemingly endless parade of glamour and praise. Ever since landing in the Big Apple in February to teach a course at Columbia Law School while George shoots “Money Monster” in Queens, Amal has dined at some of the city’s finest— and costliest— restaurants with some of the country’s biggest players, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, with whom she broke bread Wednesday evening at Harry Cipriani. All the while, she’s looked straight out of a Vogue spread, with camera- ready hair and a five- figure designer wardrobe thatwould put Carrie Bradshaw to shame.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that Amal has a few secret weapons at her disposal, including an arsenal of Charlotte Tilbury beauty products, access to the five- star amenities of the Carlyle hotel— where a suite will run you anywhere from$ 900 to $ 15,000 a night— and, the biggest
gun of all: Anna Wintour.
An associate of Amal’s, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity, says the barrister has eschewed a stylist in favor of the editrix’s assistance.
“She has been getting advice from Anna Wintour and someof the fashion team at Vogue,” says the source. “She gets sent a lot of clothes by designers, to borrow or keep. George also gives his opinion on her outfits; he’s such a veteran of the red carpet, he knows what works in photos and what doesn’t.” ( A Vogue rep had no comment.)
Last month, Amal and Wintour were spotted having lunch together at the Lambs Club, sparking rumors that a possible Vogue cover was on itsway.
Perhaps, though, Wintour was just whipping out her A-list Rolodex to help Amal find new local primpers.
Indeed, the editor, who met Amal through George, introduced her to Londonbased hairstylist Max Coles in 2013.
Coles styled Amal’s locks for her over the-top Venetian wedding to George in September. He tells The Post that Amal’s “chic, bohemian look” has become “a bit more silky as her career progresses.”
While the hairstylist doesn’t know where Amal’s been getting her hair done in NYC, “by the look of it,” he says, “it’s been done professionally.”
Certainly, the salon at the Carlyle on the Upper East Side, where Amal and George are shacked up throughthe spring, offers an array of beauty services, including blowouts starting at $ 75. There’s also a 24- hourfitness centerat the hotel with on- site trainers, and the hotel will senda private yoga instructor to your room for $ 150 an hour.
It’s amazing Amal even has time for a cut or dry given her busy schedule, which includes twice- a- week human- rights guest lectures at Columbia Law.
“She holds office hours for the students inher class, ands he is available to them via her university e- mailwhen she isnot on campus,” says Elizabeth Schmalz, executive directorof communications and public affairs at Columbia Law School.
While Amal’s students told the New York Times theywere “under strict orders not to discuss her or anything about her class,” a Columbia Law third-year student tells The Post Amal’s been welcomed on campus with open arms.
“People are excited to have her as a professor. She has super credentials. And there’s this bonus factor that she’s Amal Clooney,” says the student, who asked not to be named. “I’ve heard she’s a really good lecturer.”
Plus, not every professor saunters around campus in designer ensembles liketheall- white get- up and Oscar de la Renta floral sling backs Amal was photographed wearing last week.
Amal, who only has work assistants at Columbia and her London firm, Doughty Street Chambers, hasbeen leaning heavily on George’s longtime personal assistant, Angel McConnell, to help coordinate her schedule, says Amal’s associate.
“George has had the same assistant, Angel, for over 20 years, so she is firmly in the ‘ circle of trust.’ She has become close with Amal and helps her out whenever she needs it.” ( George is so reliant on Angel, he even built her a detached house on his Los Angeles property.)
After all, Amal hasn’t resided in NYC since 2010, and back then she wasn’t paparazzi bait. During her almost- decade of living in the West Village, she attended the New York University School of Law and worked at white-shoe lawfirm Sullivan & Cromwell, aswell as for the Office of the Prosecutor at the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
“Amal was a true force— with ak een legal mind, an exquisite dedication to her clients andan exhibited interest in individual rights,” Sullivan& Cromwell partner Sharon Nelles tells The Post.
Bythe looks of it, the Lebanon- born Brit is happy to be back on her old stomping grounds. During her downtime she’s been adding to her coveted closet, picking up a mink fur baseball cap, Chanel dress and metallic frock during a March shopping haul at Soho boutique What Goes Around Comes Around.
And she’s been hitting up the restaurant circuit like a seasoned champ, stopping in everywhere from sceney newcomers like Larry Gagosian’s Kappo Masa to mainstays like Mario Batali’s Babbo.
But according to sources, Amal and George are less concerned with the food than theyare the drink.
“They do like to go to places that carry Casamigos, whichis George’s tequila [ brand],” says a source close to the couple who asked tha ther name not be used.
At their home- away- from- home, Bemelmans Bar in the Carlyle, “she loyally gets Clooney’s Casamigos tequila, which is [ an ingredient in] the [$ 23] Agave Gin-gerita. Otherwise she is partial to Moscow Mules,” says an old Oxford mate of Amal’s who asked to remain nameless. ( Amal studied lawas an undergraduate at St. Hugh’s College at Oxford.)
“She favors early evening drinks, because George has to get up early to film,” the friend adds.
Some complain that Amal may be drinking the Kool-Aid a bit too quickly.
“The perception among Oxford Brits is that she’s gone Hollywood,” says the Oxford pal.
“She is going out of her way not to see other Brits,” adds the source, who says Amal used to be active with the Oxford Alumni Association but is now solely interested in ingratiating herself at Columbia. Amal’s even skipping out on the Annual NYC Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race Dinner on April 23—“theOxford- NewYork social highlight of the year,” she says.
Though Amal was “nice, butnot particularly social” at Oxford, “she’s bloomed socially since being with George.” The former friend says the only thing Amal seems to miss is playing netball, an English sport derived from early versions of basketball. Amal played on a West London team.
“She loves that sport andwants to play it in the city.”
If Amal can make a fur crop top look good, perhaps she canmake netball cool enough for New York City.