Set on more than 2,200 idyllic acres in southwestern Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands, Nemacolin has long been a favorite resort of those in the know since 1987, with every conceivable amenity a luxury traveler could even think to want.  And that weekend, the resort’s three award-winning hotels—The Chateau (modeled after The Ritz in Paris), The Grand Lodge (which recently reopened after a complete renovation that transformed its ninety-one rooms into fifty or so suites), and Falling Rock (a Forbes five-star winning tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright)—were booked to capacity with a couple hundred guests, including many of today’s most celebrated actors, musicians, models, designers, and athletes, who were flown in to join owner/CEO Maggie Hardy to kick off the summer with what might well prove to be the year’s most scintillating shindig, the Nemacolin Summer Solstice Celebration.

The three-day, two-night celebration kicked off with cocktails on the terrace of The Chateau.  There, a hedgerow maze had been set up, with models who beckoned guests who’d donned their finest Garden Party attire—including Tony Award and Academy Award-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden (So Help Me Todd), Academy Award-winning actress Marisa Tomei (High Tide), Marchesa co-founder Georgina Chapman and Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody (Asteroid City), Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris (Uncoupled) and chef/author David Burtka (Life is a Party), actress/author Megan Fox (Pretty Boys are Poisonous) and rapper Machine Gun Kelly—to explore.  After making our way through the maze, Emmy, Peabody, and GLAAD Award-winning producer turned New York Times bestselling author Carole Radziwill (What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love), Gingi Beltran, Samantha Ronson, and I ambled over to the front of the hotel, where we were given parasols to shade ourselves as Hardy was joined by the weekend’s emcee, Jimmy Fallon, and cut the ribbon celebrating the grand reopening of The Chateau, while an orchestra played, and dancers performed an aerial ballet while rappelling down the side of the hotel.   

Then it was onto one of the waiting shuttles, which whisked us to our next location, a glass pavilion that had been erected for the weekend and was filled with comfortable tables and couches, heaping buffets, and palm trees where disco balls had replaced the coconuts.  There, after dinner, we joined Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actor Nolan Gerard Funk (The Flight Attendant), supermodel Tyson Beckford, Lily Rabe (American Horror Story) and Hamish Linklater (Downtown Owl), champion golfers Fred Couples  (1st place, 1992 Masters Tournament) and Michelle Wie West (1st place, 2017 US Women’s Open) for an up-close-and-personal performance by global superstar and Las Vegas residency show mainstay Lionel Richie, who had everyone on their feet as he performed his hits before he was surprised on stage by Fallon and Hardy who presented him with an enormous cake to celebrate his 75th birthday, at which point we all sang “Happy Birthday” to the legendary entertainer, before he closed out the show with “All Night Long” and invited guests to join him, onstage.  I didn’t go, but Beltran and Radziwill did and were living!

After the concert, the ladies and I sashayed over to Mulligans, which had been transformed for the night into a tropical nightclub with Ronson spinning a deliciously danceable set on the ones-and-twos. After taking in the drone show over the lake and boogie-oogie-oogieing, we bid our farewells and boarded the waiting shuttle, which took us back to our respective hotels.

Continued in Part 2…

Nemacolin Summer Solstice Celebration
Nemacolin
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[Editor’s Notes:  Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress' for her role in Pollack (2000) and the Tony Award for ‘Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play’ for her role in God of Carnage (2009).  She is currently nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series’ for her role on The Morning Show (2024), for which she was also nominated in 2022 // Marisa Tomei won the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for her role in My Cousin Vinnie (1992), and was nominated in the same category for her roles in In the Bedroom (2001) and The Wrestler (2008) // Adrian Brody won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ for his role in The Pianist (2002) // Neil Patrick Harris won the Tony Award for ‘Best Actor in a Musical’ for his role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2014), as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series’ for his role on Glee (2010) and four times in the category of ‘Outstanding Variety Special (Live)’ for his role as producer/host of the 63rd, 65th, 66th, and 67th Annual Tony Awards (2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively).]