Excerpts from Liz Smith’s Syndicated New York Post Columns

SHE LIKES IT FANCY
By LIZ SMITH August 28, 2007 -- ‘I DON’T know why everything I like has to be, like - the most expensive limestone that was somebody’s antique floor in France! For some reason, I always gravitate toward that.”
TALK ABOUT writers. Tina Santi Flaherty, who has written her own books, including a recent one on Jackie Onassis, gave the Writing Center at Marymount Manhattan College $100,000 to launch a new lecture series called “Irish Voices.” And director Lewis Frumkes landed the renowned New Yorker scribe Edna O’Brien to come from England and join Mary and Carol Higgins Clark, Alice McDermott and Nuala O’Faolain this fall. Tina says she’ll underwrite Italian female authors next and after that, a possible series on black women.

DON HEWITT CUTTIN’ THROUGH IT

By LIZ SMITH October 18, 2007 -- ‘NEVER SPEAK disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that!” wrote Oscar Wilde.
THE OTHER eve at the Waldorf, when the University of Illinois gave Mike Wallace their lifetime achievement award, the venerable TV star of “60 Minutes” was seen onscreen responding in an interview to the famous World War II Navy hero - saying, “Bulls - - - , Admiral Halsey!”
Then, when Mike stepped up personally to the podium to heap praise on his friend and producer Don Hewitt, he got a bit fulsome, causing Don to yell from the audience, “Bulls - - - , Admiral Halsey!” The house came down.
Trekked to Tina Flaherty’s beautiful apartment in Jackie O’s building at 1040 Fifth. (Discovered that it is only correct to call it “Ten four zero Fifth!”) The great Irish writer Edna O’Brien was being feted by Tina, who is a writer herself. And by the many new Italian men in Tina’s new life, plus authors Malachy McCourt, Christopher Mason, Colin McCann and Jason Grant, Marymount’s Lewis Frumkes, agent Mimi Strong, the Bergdorf designer C. D. Greene and his merry aides, plus fashion’s Josie Natori and Christiano Mancini, as well as the distinguished Charlotte Moore of the Irish Theater.
Edna was in town to speak for “Irish Voices” at the writing center of Marymount College this very night. Soon, this charming and brilliant candidate for an eventual Nobel will head to San Francisco to stay with Ann and Gordon Getty while her play “Tir Na Nog (Land of Youth”) opens there. At this party there was lots of Texas barbecue and Memphis molasses beans and cornbread. Delicious!

NEWS

-Tina Flaherty is currently working on her latest book about
the legendary singing group, The Supremes.

-Irish Voices Series at The Writing Center, Marymount Manhattan College

-Queen of Arts Award, March 2008

Press Release

CLEMENTINA SANTI FLAHERTY TO
RECEIVE QUEEN OF ARTS AWARD

Lewis Frumkes, Director of the Writing Center at Marymount Manhattan College, will present Clementina(Tina) Santi Flaherty with the College’s prestigious Queen of Arts award on March 5th at the Doubles Club in New York City on the occasion of the 15th anniversary dinner of The Writing Center. Author, businesswoman and philanthropist, Tina Flaherty will receive the award for her distinguished achievement in arts and letters as well as for her numerous outstanding philanthropies including her support of The Writing Center.
In attendance at the event will be some of New York’s leading patrons of the arts as well as some of the greatest writers of our time including Dominick Dunne, Frank and Malachy McCourt, Barbara Taylor Bradford, John Simon, Ben Cheever, Erica Jong, Roy Blount Jr. Mary Higgins Clark, Lawrence Block, Christopher Mason, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Bruce Jay Friedman, Tony Hendra, Dan Greenburg and Susan Isaacs, who is also being honored.
Mrs. Flaherty, hailed by Business Week as “One of America’s top corporate Women,” established and underwrote the very successful “Irish Voice” series at the College, which featured legendary Irish writers such as Mary Higgins Clark, Edna O’Brien, Nuala O’Faolain and Alice McDermott. The series has been described by many as “A great gift to the people of New York.”
Tina Flaherty is also well known for her devotion to Ireland and Irish culture. She established The Flaherty Cultural Center at the Oscar Wilde House in Dublin and underwrote The Chair of Jewish Studies at Trinity College in Dublin. An active member of the American Ireland Fund, she helped underwrite Sesame Street Northern Ireland, a special television series designed to promote peace and reconciliation among young Irish children of both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds. This BBC series will be launched in Belfast in March of 2008. She is also a supporter of the Irish Repertory Theater in New York as well as the Origin Theater Company.
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Tina helped underwrite the Medici Archive Project in Florence, Italy, which has created worldwide public access to the historical data in the Medici Granducal Archive. She is a major contributor to some of New York’s leading cultural institutions including Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Bronx Zoo, where she underwrote The Flaherty Learning Center, as well as the Animal Medical Center, where she established the Flaherty Oncology Center. She is also a member of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation where she endowed the Ellis Island Chronicles Rooms in honor of her father, Clement Santi.
Tina Flaherty is the author of three books including What Jackie Taught Us: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Currently, she is collaborating with Mary Wilson, one of the original Supremes, on a book featuring this legendary singing group.
Tina credits The Writing Center for being a continuing source of inspiration not only to herself but to aspiring writers around the world.