• by Carrie Cummings , September 16, 2011

Last Friday night, I deviated from my usual routine of ordering Thai food, turning off my phone and watching "SVU" and instead smeared on some makeup and headed over to the W on Lex for the Get Served event after-party sponsored by The Daily and The Macallan. I was supposed to go to the event itself -- the opening of the Vanderbilt Tennis Club in Grand Central Station -- to smack a few balls around the court, but I frown on all sports that don't take place in bars (I'm not joking! After I graduated from college, I wanted to be a professional pool hustler so I could drink beer all day and get paid -- even though I have no idea how to play pool), so I declined the invite and just showed up for the after-party.

Emily Gannett of IRL Productions was at the door when I walked in. Emily is either planning every party or attending every party in New York, because I see her more than I see some of my coworkers. In this case, she was event planner -- and ushered me to the step-and-repeat to take a picture with Roger Federer -- or, Darren Cellemme, the man who was playing Federer for the evening. I cozied up next to him and said, "Make it look real!" -- a rather prescient comment because at that moment I still thought he was the real deal. I'm gullible! Don't laugh!

My plus-one arrived and I was already two Macallans deep. We ran over to the photo-booth-style picture setup that was next to a wardrobe of tennis accessories like sweatbands and old-school rackets and posed. Drinking scotch and dressing up for a photo shoot made me feel like Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" during his filming of the Scotch commercial. A few more drinks and I was Lost in Translation. 

All the standing I was doing made me tired, so I plopped down in the reserved section, discarded the "reserved" sign and sipped my drink while watching people dressed in '80s tennis attire dance. It was lovely. Former tennis player turned model, Marcel Goodman and his girlfriend, Jackie something or another who is an intern at Vogue (my high school dream job, by the way), sat down and we made conversation for a little while -- meaning that I nodded and smiled and said "oh yeah?" over really loud music. They were dressed in formal wear. They told me why but I couldn't really hear them. But it was funny to see them put on sweatbands and pose for pictures in black tie. 

As I was leaving I got a copy of a tennis book and a one-year subscription to The Daily. I don't have an iPad, so feel free to email me and we'll do a barter trade -- the subscription for good industry gossip, Target gift cards, or whatever the best offer happens to be. Also, I found out Macallan doesn't come with hangovers because I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next morning.

Attendees include: Brian Stelter, New York Times; Rina Raphael, NBC's "Today"; Kathryn Minshew, Daily Muse; Toby Daniels, Social Media Week; Maya Baratz, WSJ; Paul Greenberg, College Humor; Ben Popper, New York Observer; Charles Ferri, Star Vodka; Brooke Moreland, Fashism; Mae Karwowski, Gilt City; Charlie O'Donnell, First Round Capital; Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare; Jeremy Fisher, Dinevore; Kim Jose, Producer/President, Elephant Eye Films; Ben Sturner, The Leverage Agency; Mari Sheibley, Foursquare; Seth Mayeri, Evolution Group; Rachel Sklar, Change the Ratio; Tom Leveritt, artist/author, "The Exchange Rate Between Love and Money"; Rex Sogartz, Kinda Sorta Media; and Cynthia Lum, Sports Photographer.

Thanks to Erica Gannett for IRL Productions for providing the pictures. And, as always, email  carrie@mediapost.com if you'd like me to cover your event!