Shot On Site
Palm Beach Post
“Al and Nancy Malnik threw the most deliciously immoderate bash South Florida has ever seen. The couple spent five years building Beaux Arts, their lavish 35,000-square-foot Ocean Ridge palace, and even then spent a small fortune on their private housewarming party that floored even the most seasoned palatial-estate-goers. The preambles to every cocktail chit-chat turned redundant (“Now I’ve been to some serious mansions in my life. I’ve seen some real houses, but this is, this is…Jesus Christ”), but there was really nothing else to say. The scene of the Barton G.-produced event-the 15 bedroom, three-story, Old World-style, Monet-and-Picasso-bedecked residence-upstaged just about every one of its auxiliary antics, from the gold-painted gymnasts who postured alongside the fiber-optic lit swimming pool to the trapeze artist who dangled beneath a hovering helicopter and performed bold acrobatic feats. Models in vintage flapper wear with Irish wolfhounds sauntered the grounds to the sounds of a 14-piece jazz band. The champagne flowed and the foie gras, stone crabs, lobster tails, white truffles and swan-shaped éclairs never, stopped. Russell Simmons, Jimmy Jackson, Ricky Williams, F. Lee Baily, Barry Slotnik, Itsak Asher, Theodore Johnson, Roy Caruthers, Nova Acevedo, Candise Shabbron, Kevin Lurie, Brian and Ricky Elias and Fabian Besabe were among the 500 luminous minglers, thanks to Al and son Shareef Malnik’s cultivated black books.
– Suzy Buckley
