Hamersley's to feed your brain

Loosely Speaking by Nancy Gaines

What's sure to be the hottest ticket in town next month is a membership in restaurateur Fiona Hamersley's new book club. Limited to about 20 people, the club will offer, for about $250 per person, a series of five evenings of candid conversation and dinner with celebrated authors. The lineup includes Sue Miller (The Good Mother), Emily Hiestand (Angela the Upside-Down Girl), George Packer (Central Square), Arnold Steinhardt (Indivisible by Four), and playwright David Mamet. Steinhardt, whose memoir recounts his career with New York's legendary Guarneri string quartet, is the only nonlocal writer.

A curious $3 million war The contest between WGBH-TV and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies for $3 million of author Margret Rey's estate reaches deep into the city's pockets of conscience, and observers are already asking whether the fray will polarize WASPs and Jews in the charitable community. Sources at the Boston Globe, whose Alex Beam wrote about the conflict three weeks ago, say 'GBH president Henry Becton complained sharply to Globe editors and demanded a meeting to discuss undertones in the Beam piece suggesting such a conflict. Neither Beam nor Becton would comment on the matter, but investment adviser John Spooner, co-trustee of the Rey estate and Rey's former money manager, says he'd already been made aware of 'GBH contributors now mulling whether to donate more to the PBS station. The brouhaha stems from co-trustee Lay Lee Ong's account of a 1996 deathbed bequest by Cambridge author Rey, whose Curious George books earned her a fortune. In her will, Rey had left $1.8 million of her considerable estate to the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston; Ong, who was like a daughter to the author, says Rey wanted to leave more but died before this could be formalized. Previously, $6 million of Rey's estate had been set aside, according to her wishes, for 16 local charities, with 20 percent going to 'GBH. In a selfless attempt to accommodate Rey, Ong allocated a $3 million-plus-interest account that would have been hers to the Jewish charity. But 'GBH said that money was part of Rey's estate and it wanted a 20 percent share of that as well. Becton's been quoted as saying it was his fiduciary responsibility to fight for the additional money, adding that he questioned Ong's account of Rey's wishes. Spooner responds that anyone who doesn't think that the Jewish bequest was her last wish "is inhaling something." Meanwhile, the conflict has curious Boston entanglements. Houghton Mifflin chairman Nader Darehshori, whose company publishes Rey's books, sits on the 'GBH board. Cambridge philanthropist Anne Peretz, who, with her husband, New Republic owner Martin Peretz, is a prominent supporter of Jewish interests, sits on the board of Harvard's Phillips Brooks House, a beneficiary of the original Rey bequest that would stand to benefit if the $3 million were split the way 'GBH wants. (Darehshori and Peretz weren't available for comment.) "And, for sure, the Jewish community have been loyal supporters of 'GBH," says one close to the fray who wonders whether that will change in light of the station's actions -- adding, though, that most people involved just wish the issue would go away.

"I liked the idea of having Bostonians," says Hamersley, "and some of these people are long-time friends and customers, and I also wanted to ensure against someone's getting stuck at an airport in a snowstorm." No specific dates are set yet, but she hopes to hold the sessions in February and March.

"My idea is that the people who sign up will have read the author's works beforehand, and we can get some real lively conversation going," she says. "I told the authors this was not a 'reading,' that they shouldn't plan on just sitting on a stand. I also hope the people who come will get to know each other, and we can play our ideas and opinions off against each other."

Hamersley says she consulted with literary agent Jill Kneering of Boston's Palmer & Dodge about the guest writers, who are, not by coincidence, Kneering's clients. Although Hamersley's Bistro is closed for renovations until mid-January, anyone interested in joining the book club can call the restaurant and leave a message.

Eyes too big for his prize?

As the Cellucci cabinet shapes up, state Democratic Party loyalists are snickering over the apparent shafting of state senator Jim Jajuga. The Methuen Democrat scrapped party loyalty to support Cellucci in the election, reportedly eyeing the future prize of head of public safety. Instead, Cellucci named Jane Perlov, a former New York detective, whose diminutive stature is said to contrast with her supertough reputation. That leaves Jajuga, a burly former state trooper, upstaged "not only by a woman," as one cynic puts it, "but by a tiny one."

Native intelligence

Far be it from us to forecast a foodie trend, but with Wellesley's Blue Ginger restaurant copping chef-of-the-year honors from Esquire magazine for chef Ming Tsai, and the ballyhoo buildup for the forthcoming Lumière in West Newton (owned by former Upstairs at the Pudding chef Michael Leviton), and the increasing number of urban diners making modest Michael Richardi's Spazio in Braintree a destination, do we see a suburban-eatery upsurge? Could it be that prime locations in town are getting too scarce and too expensive? . . . Photo blooper of the year (yup, already) goes to the huge Globe sports photo of January 4, which depicts Patriots quarterback Scott Zolak "up in arms," as the caption says, after a bum play. Anyone who's ever played (or edited stories about) football knows that what he's signaling is that he can't hear the plays. . . . And we apologize for misnaming Channel 5's "Five on Five" commentator Hubie Jones last week in this space, calling him Hubie Green, a name that, for some bizarre reason, popped into our head.