First Lady Gets a Big Boot in Big Apple

Every Manhattan social club has its own set of rules, of course.

But throwing out First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton because she spritzed a little perfume? Bouncing her because she had a White House photographer tagging along? Or because her guest, New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams, was using a cell phone?

It is uncertain exactly what happened at the University Club on Wednesday afternoon because the White House is downplaying the event, Adams is confused about exactly why they were asked to leave and the club is refusing to talk about it. But whatever offense may have put her over the limit, Mrs. Clinton, several of her staff members and Adams left the 132-year-old club, which admitted women only 10 years ago, earlier than planned.

“Old Coot Gives Hill and Me the Boot,” read the headline over Adams’ two-page story Thursday, which describes the club as having a stuffy, rather mature membership. “The average age of the members is deceased,” Adams said.

Adams’ version, written in a style that makes it clear she has no hope of being asked to join the club, is that she was waiting for the first lady in a large, elegant room (the library, members say) when she suddenly flipped open her phone.

At that point a “sculpture” standing at the side of the room came over and said: “ ‘This will not happen here. This is not allowed. . . . The use of such private telephones is against the rules here. You may go use the pay phone in the lobby. . . .’ ”

Then the first lady arrived with her staff and Adams gave her a present--a bottle of perfume. Mrs. Clinton tried the perfume spritzer. Her aides deposited papers on the tables. And as the White House photographer circled, the reporter and the first lady began to talk.

Once again, a club proctor appeared--this time to admonish the entire group.

In Adams’ version, the “sculpture” told them they had to quit what they were doing. Told this was the first lady, he reportedly added: “This is not acceptable behavior. You will have to leave.” At that point, Adams said that the first lady got up and said, “Let’s go.”

“We just scurried out like two scared rabbits,” Adams said.

Efforts to get the University Club to elaborate Thursday were met with a marble wall of silence. Notified that a reporter was calling, the switchboard operator said frostily: “No comment. No comment at all.”

But club members who were unable to dodge the press corps encamped outside the club’s lavish old-school lobby almost universally approved the club’s decision.

“I think rules are rules,” said attorney Sanford Schlesinger, who has been a member of the club for about a year. “I have to obey them and so does she.”

Others agreed. Most, however, refused to give their names. Several said they believed the real problem was that the first lady and the journalist were openly doing business.

“We all do business, of course, but it’s not done in the open,” said one member. “There are no papers out. No phones. This is supposed to be social.”

One dissenting member was J. Edward Meyer, a member of the New York state Board of Regents. “I don’t understand how that happened,” Meyer said, saying that the rules about cell phones or photographers should have been eased for the first lady. “That’s not where we are right now.”

At the White House, spokesman Joe Lockhart said the incident was “much ado about nothing. I don’t know what words were used, but I don’t believe that either the president or the first lady see this as a big deal.”

Maybe not, but in swank midtown it was the talk of a very posh neighborhood. One woman walking her dog stopped to praise the club for being brave enough to do what’s right, “throw that Hillary woman out.” Asked for her name, she shook her head and dragged an irritated-looking Schnauzer swiftly down the street.

Mrs. Clinton found a far friendlier audience Thursday when she was in the South Bronx to promote a program to fight childhood asthma.

“There’s always some jerk at these clubs who doesn’t know how to treat a first lady,” said Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer. “She is always warmly welcomed here in the Bronx.”