CELEBRITIES

Sacco a Ping-Pong No Show

The artsy-fashiony members of SoHo House aren't known for their athletic prowess, but on Monday night the club's fifth floor library was quite the sportif scene, as a crowd of about 70 members and friends...

by Haven Thompson

blog_lydia-hearst-and-franck-thumb-220x329.jpg

The artsy-fashiony members of SoHo House aren’t known for their athletic prowess, but on Monday night the club’s fifth floor library was quite the sportif scene, as a crowd of about 70 members and friends took up paddles at the monthly “Sacco-Richman” table tennis tournament. Model and heiress Lydia Hearst took a turn clad in a gold Phillip Lim dress—she won one game and lost the next. “It was 11 to 9—kind of close,” she said of her defeat, which perhaps had something to do with her footwear. “I want to play in style. Unless I’m at the gym, I’m in heels.” The event even drew an actual competitive table tennis player: Franck Raharinosy, a filmmaker and 2012 table tennis Olympic hopeful. “She’s good,” said Raharinosy of Hearst. “Next month she could win, if I give her a couple of lessons.”

But where was Amy Sacco? Turns out the tournie’s namedrop is a gag. “She never remembers me, so it’s an ongoing joke I have with myself,” says tournament organizer and Hearst family friend Eric Richman, a personal injury lawyer in Manhattan, who says he has reintroduced himself to the nightlife diva multiple times.

Photo montage: Sasha Filimonov Photos: Hearst: Scott Wintrow/Getty Images; Raharinosky: Ban Gabbe/Patrick McMullan; Table Tennis: Ryuhei Shindo/Corbis