Female. When the condition occurs late in the third trimester, mothers are immediately scheduled for childbirth. She looked at me sternly. Manolo Blahnik. Michele passes Becky an instrument. That morning, Ian Holzman and his neonatal residents came in to see me at eight oclock. while Wasserstein was away, point-blank about Wassersteins health. I want you to go right now.. Its higher now! She seemed to be irritated with me. She was defiant during her long illness, and Im sure that my obsession with getting pregnant was partly a wish to bring her some life-affirming news. In January 2009, a few months after the birth of that childa daughterhe married another woman, Angela Chao, then 35, an executive at her fathers shipping-and-finance conglomerate, and the sister of Elaine Chao, George W. Bushs labor secretary. Mothers sat by their tiny infants, fighting for life in their Isolettes. Half an hour later, my gray St. James suit was strewn over a stool in the Labor and Delivery ward at Mount Sinais Klingenstein Pavilion. It becomes an addictive impossible dream. Thank you, Catherine., I hate that Irish nurse, Lola said. Well, pick something. Thing is, lamb, I worry about you, she had said in her stately old New York accent. All rights reserved. I put my hand through the porthole and touched her head. WebWasserstein served as a trustee of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, taught playwriting as an Andrew D. White Professor-At-Large at Cornell University, and founded The Open Doors program, with the Theater Development Fund to provide underprivileged students access to the theater. February 17, 2006. The drama, starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, is a study of male lonelinessa familiar theme in prestige TV that finds renewed urgency in an Asian American context. Well, whats her name? a nurse with a long braid asked me. She wore a tiny pink-and-blue-striped cap that made her look like Santas tiniest elf. How One Mothers Love for Her Gay Son Started a Revolution. Many published reports suggested that Wasserstein was the architect of Krafts strategy and that he personally advised Kraft and its C.E.O., Irene Rosenfeld, during the months before he died. ( 1999-09-12) September 12, 1999 (age 23) New York City, New York, USA. This could be quite exhausting, he recalled. Mr. Zaks came, and Paul Rudnick and Terrence McNally. Howve you been? he asked. When Im frightened, I become excessively polite. Although I have given up trying to estimate how old she is, it is clear that my mother is a trouper. At that point, I started looking into adoption. Most preemies have to build up the strength to suck from a bottle. For the first time in the N.I.C.U., I felt self-conscious about being a single mother. '' So, she decided, ''Once more, with feeling.''. It was really quite special because they were arm in arm, Toby Myerson explains. Lazards apparent obfuscation of Wassersteins health issues is nothing new, however. She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. Most of us didnt really notice for a while that he was gone because most of us had very little interaction with the guy. in the morning, a friend called to warn me that there was a large item in a daily tabloid speculating about the identity of my childs father. I kept it by my bedside for the rest of my stay. Fertility treatments, even more than high-school dances, are a regular confirmation of negative femininity, with every disappointment underscored by megadoses of hormones. He was put on life support immediately upon arrival at the hospital. I couldnt really take it all in. A nurse wrapped a Velcro-lined cuff around my upper arm. Your mother is here, she said. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. But I did envy them. But when we stopped seeing each other I felt there was no reason to abandon the project. (Years earlier, it is said, he suffered from a heart condition and had quadruple-bypass surgery.) She was Holly in ''Uncommon Women'' (1977), about a Mount Holyoke graduate and her friends who cope with the uncertainties of identity in the new age of feminism. He was bruised all over his body, explains one who saw him after he returned to the office that May. We continue to mourn his loss. I felt ashamed of envying themafter all, I was alive, and so was Lucy. She attended Mount Together with the Asian, Caribbean, and Irish nurses, our wing of the N.I.C.U. Wasserstein became ill in 2001. Oh, God, he just wouldnt pose for a picture standing side by side. Your daughter had a bad night, he informed me gently. He just never spent any time with anybody else, except to have us drag his sorry ass to meetings.. There is even debate inside the firm about the role he had in Krafts prolongedand ultimately successful$21.4 billion acquisition of Cadbury, the British chocolate company. Accordingly, the firm announced that it would take a onetime, non-cash charge of $86.5 million and an additional onetime charge of $60.5 million to accelerate the vesting of deferred cash compensation Wasserstein awarded to other bankers during 2008. Ventricles are completely normal! He put up his hand for a high five. He was telling everyone the way the deal should be done from the lawyers standpoint, and I said to myself, Holy mackerel, this guy is unreal, Perella recounted to Institutional Investor in 1987. Gerry Gutierrez came to the N.I.C.U. Wendy Wasserstein is survived by her Not a problem, he told me. Two weeks later, Lucy was born, at about 27 weeks gestation. He believes he is that. For the people who knew him well he engendered enormous loyalty., Jeffrey Rosen, another longtime friend of Wassersteins and his colleague at First Boston, Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Lazard, agrees. Ive never understood why. But I was panicking, and not just about my platelets. Before I returned to the N.I.C.U. Before the preclampsia, I had decided to let the babys gender be a surprise. WebLucy Jane Wasserstein. I looked over at Shayna. A tall African-American woman, she guarded her daughter jealously. As this article went to press, an informed source, in conjunction with Howard Rubenstein and Judi Mackey, Lazards public-relations head, finally told Vanity Fair, While in a car on his way to a lunch downtown with his daughter Pamela, Mr. Wasserstein experienced a sudden and unexpected cardiac arrhythmia. It was the one where Lucy has just had a baby and Ricky rushes to the maternity ward in his voodoo costume, fresh from the Club Tropicana. ''She's very competitive.''. Once their lungs are strong enough, the babies move from I.V.s to nasogastric tubes. Theres going to be a human settlement on Mars, and I want to be part of Mount Sinais advisory team.. My daughter was attached to an I.V. The three of them advised me to stay in the hospital until as close to my due date as possible. CHADWICK: Playwright Wendy Wasserstein speaking before a Washington D.C. audience in 1997. After my return home, one afternoon two weeks later, there was a message on my answering machine from a lab: Congratulations. My father, in a gray suit, sat silently beside her. The phenobarbital, he told me, could make me groggy and forgetful. And this time Ms. Wasserstein got pregnant. Wasserstein hated the nickname and felt betrayed by the presswhich had previously fawned over himbut there was no disputing the storys main premise, especially after both Allied Stores Corporation and Federated Department Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy following a protracted takeover battle won by Wassersteins client Robert Campeau, a little-known Canadian real-estate developer, who offered much more than other bidders using primarily borrowed money that he was unable to pay back. He was very engaged and engaging. He was seated next to Kathleen Begala, Democratic strategist Paul Begalas sister and the wife of Yves-Andr Istel, an investment banker who had worked for Wasserstein for eight years. He has spoken at every type of College gathering from orientation to commencement, read scripture at Christmas Vespers, chaired Winter Forums and was part '', The real-life baby, Lucy Jane, was born nearly three months premature and had to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for two months, though her mother tried to think of her as being away at ''a good Jewish boarding school which specializes in the sciences,'' as usual leavening the painful with a wisecrack. Im fine, I answered, smiling up at him. One rumor that would become a particular favorite of mine was that I had been pregnant and hadnt known it. Im at St. Barnabas Hospital, in New Jersey.. Jacobs has been cleaning house of a number of Wassersteins close associates: for starters, vice-chairmen Donald Drapkin and Chuck Ward and longtime Wasserstein acolyte Doug Taylor have left the firm. Ms. Wasserstein had a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, where she was writing ''Old Money,'' a play about money and class to be produced at Lincoln Center next fall. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. A lot of doctors wear them. It would be as if one sought to measure the expanse of the heavens with the span of the human hand. Something vast and powerful and good has passed from us. Every year, at cocktail time, Fay presented me with a purse suitable for the Queen Mother. All the men your age are either married or gay, and the single ones want young things. Its fine. Im just warning you. Relax and lie on your left side.. You need to punch it up., Yeah, sure. Some marriages end in divorce. Rob Phillips. This is a sign of how out of touch he was, says a longtime partner. Sternly, she showed me how to pump each breast separately or, if I liked, both together, a sort of duet for mammaries. Within a week, she had gained a pound, although, Ms. Wasserstein noted, ''weight gain runs in my family.'' She got serious first at City College, where she found encouragement in Joseph Heller, followed by Yales famously cutthroat drama program, where she was barely In the pictures for the BusinessWeek article, Wasserstein looked thinner, heavily made-up, and awkwardly posed in his Savile Row suit. I was the nurse who admitted your daughter and will be her primary-care nurse during her stay here.. I was examining a twinkling ruby light on my babys big toe. I washed my hands as Catherine opened the incubator. At nine in the morning, William arrived with an armful of cordinated blue floral curtains, pillows, and Monet posters. I tried to take deep breaths and think about those pears from the Fruit of the Month Club. The last time my mother, Lola Wasserstein, had been in a hospital, she had watched her oldest daughter die of cancer. The last years of Bruce Wasserstein, the investment-banking mogul who died at age 61 last October after a brief, undisclosed illness, remain shrouded in mystery, which is probably how Wasserstein would have wanted it. After a brief pause, Brucealways a bit faster and more confident than most of usanswered: And thats precisely your strategic dilemma., 2023 Cond Nast. If the baby didnt come to term after all these years of trying, I wanted it to be a personal loss, not a public one. Lucy had needed a transfusion. in his forties, reminded me of science majors I had known in college. Word around town was that Chao was fine with his decision to adopt Wendy Wassersteins daughter, Lucy Jane, and have her come live at 927 Fifth after Wendys death. In 2009, Forbes had estimated Wassersteins net worth at $2.2 billion, making him the 147th wealthiest person in America. Bhutani and Parr were appointed to the Lazard board in January. The director Jerry Zaks told her his daughter had been in the same neonatal unit and was now bright and healthy. Hed come in; hed go to his office. In a sense, she has lived most of the stories in her plays. The room, formerly a beige netherworld, became the decorator showroom of the second floor. We were a newly public company, says a Lazard partner. So for her sake, and for the sake of my daughter, I decided I could not invite my mother to Labor and Delivery. '' Holly says at one point. '', See the article in its original context from. As I rocked her, I whispered to her, We are so lucky!. But even a man in a suit is no guarantee against lung damage and anemia. I dont really care if you lost. Lucy Jane (born September 1999) Comments. ''Everyone called and said, 'My brother was premature and a brain surgeon,' '' Ms. Wasserstein said. Shes sleeping, Mommy, an N.I.C.U. And why, of course, Slovakia needed a banker like Bruce to steer it forward. ''He said, 'You should try again.' I took my daughter, finally unattached by wires, to a private room where parents bond with their children in the days before they leave the N.I.C.U. Then, in February 2006, he disappeared from Lazards offices for four months. Get the food,' '' Ms. Wasserstein said. He was a very, very strange guy, says one. He was not recovering, nor did he have any prospect of recovering. Lie on your left side and the doctor will be with you in a few minutes.. Well follow it up next week.. On August 2, 2006, after Lazard reported its second-quarter earnings, the Financial Times asked Steve Golub, who had been acting as the firms C.E.O. Lucy was attached to at least six wires and was the size of my outstretched hand. Lucy Jane Wasserstein Age. After his death, Lazard issued another cryptic statement: Mr. My plan was to wait until Labor Day, well into my seventh month, and then to inform my friends that the twenty pounds I had recently gained were not the result of bad habits and anxiety. Its not like I got knocked up. Andrs brother George, an Oxford-educated minister, presided over the service wearing a white robe with gold vestments. Vernon Jordan, the Lazard banker and a member of its board of directors, said, To measure the life and accomplishments of Bruce Wasserstein is as if one would take a thimble and try to empty an ocean. I put my hand through the Isolette porthole and stroked her tiny fingers. Four years after that play opened, Wasserstein began fertility treatments, and in 1999 Lucy Jane Wasserstein was born prematurely. The firm made no announcement concerning the health of its C.E.O., despite the fact that its public shareholders were entitled to know that information. Most likely, shell grow out of it. I ran down the corridor in search of Dr. Green, a large Southerner who was covering for Ian Holzman. She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles . Share. I got up at 5 a.m. on August 27th to write Fay Franciss eulogy. He looked like a guy who had been going through chemo or something. Inside the firm, the explanation was that he was suffering a prolonged bout of pneumonia. ''It was: 'Get the nightie. Bloomberg News wrote on January 19 that the successful deal seals the legacy of Wasserstein, and quoted former Lazard banker Philip Keevil as saying, This deal will be a monument to Bruce., Wasserstein does get credit at Lazard for bringing in the businessin the sense that he finally brought in a dealbut the dnouement was seen by some as the same old script of getting the client to win by paying too much. My friend Gerald Gutierrez, the Broadway director, pulled back the curtain. drip for feeding. . Of course, there was more than a bit of random luck involved, too_._. The writer James Lapine (''Passion,'' ''Sunday in the Park With George'') and the set designer Heidi Ettinger (''Big River,'' ''The Secret Garden'') brought mother and baby home. Two weeks after Lucy Jane arrived, Catherine told me that my daughter was being promoted out of the critical nook. is a large open space divided in the front by a long reception desk and ringed by a wallpaper border of rabbits and Teddy bears in hot-air balloons. If you havent heard about it, that means the family members and others didnt want to talk about it. I figured it had to be psychosomatic. Or maybe I was starring in a pro-life Christian docudrama warning young girls not to grow up into self-centered heathens: Marry young and procreate! Wendy Wasserstein (October 18, 1950 January 30, 2006) was an American playwright. In January 2008, Wasserstein wrung from his handpicked board of directors a new five-year employment contract that paid him $900,000 a year in salary, plus an annual unspecified bonus, plus 2.7 million shares of Lazard, worth just under $100 million the day the deal was struck. Shes my grandchild! or. They need Jews from Mount Sinai!. of the company that you were taking him to see. The message the clients delivered time and time again was a simple one: Dont bring him back. Everyone else there loves me. It will still own 4.1 million shares, worth approximately $150 million. This was the first I had heard of my daughters condition. I think there are very few people who from a business perspective had such an impact on our business over 30 years, spanning four decades, he says. Say hello to Lucy Jane Wasserstein. Thank you. I decided to take this as a compliment. redefined a multicultural neighborhood. Maybe it was imagery left over from the service at St. James. The Newest Wasserstein Creation Comes Home. Thats not to say its inevitable. He smiled at me with a comforting familiarity. WebAssociated Press. Why hadnt he said anything to anybody?. My cesarean lasted approximately an hour. Trading on Lazard shares was halted at 3:43 p.m. Wasserstein's sister, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein, died suddenly in 2006 of lymphoma at 55. After assuring me that everything was O.K., she said, I think I may also have overstepped myself. Sweet Briar College welcomes first wave of local college students Wendy Wasserstein (October 18, 1950 January 30, 2006) was an American playwright. Despite efforts at supportive care and indications of recovery, he ultimately died of heart failure secondary to the arrhythmia.. However, Antonio Weiss, Lazards global head of investment banking, who worked with Wasserstein closely on the deal and led it after Wasserstein died, couldnt disagree more: Bruces last deal was specifically designed to acquire the target company at the lowest possible price, he says. After word of the deal leaked out at the firm, his partners were dumbstruck by his selfishness and greed, especially as they considered him to be well past his sell-by date and even a liability with some clients. I had called my brother Bruce just before the delivery, and at nine that night he approached the desk at the N.I.C.U. Six months later, I was lying on a day-surgery gurney in Livingston, New Jersey, watching my egg-and-sperm combination platter on live-action video. of Morris Wasserstein (textile manufacturer) and Lola Scheifer; Mount Holyoke College, BA, 1971; Yale Drama School, MFA, 1976;