A Romanov closes Hillwood Jan. 4

At Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens/By Patricia Leslie

Especially for Russophiles, there's no time to waste to get to Hillwood and see its exhibition, From Exile to Avant-Garde: The Life of Princess Natalie Paley which closes Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. 

Princess Natalie Pavlovna Paley was the daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, who was a first cousin and uncle of Czar Nicholas II. 

Her mother was Princess Olga Valerianovna Karnovich, her father's second wife whose scandalous affair and marriage led Czar Nicholas to ban his uncle from Russia for 12 years.

Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976), Natalie in London, c. 1934, at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

Edward Steichen (1879-1973), Natalie in Vogue Paris, Feb. 1, 1935, at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens/By Patricia Leslie

Princess Paley was born near Paris in 1905 while her father was in exile.  She and her family lived a luxurious life in France with the help of about 16 servants.

For the Romanovs' tercentenary, the czar relented on his banishment of Grand Duke Paul and welcomed him back to Russia in 1912. Once there, Paul renewed his close relationship with the Royal Family and was the one, according to Wikipedia, who told Empress Alexandra of her husband's abdication. (Writer's note:  Google won't allow the link to Wikipedia!)

(The Grand Duke's son from his first marriage, Dmitri, was involved in Rasputin's murder in 1916.)

Eventually, the Bolsheviks killed Natalie's father and only brother, Vladimir, both members of the military. Vladimir was only 21 when he died and was close to Natalie and her sister, Irina. 

The girls and their mother escaped to Finland.

Edward Steichen (1879-1973), Natalie's first appearance in Vogue, Jan. 1928, at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

George Dawe (1781-1829), Portrait of Grand Duke Alexander at age two, 1820, Princess Natalie's grandfather, Emperor Alexander II, a portrait which hung in her father's study in Tsarskoye Selo, and later, in Natalie's Connecticut home, on view at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

Letters, silver, and china on view at the exhibition, Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens/By Patricia Leslie

An evening dress by the House of Worth, Paris, 1888, similar to one worn by Natalie's mother, as part of the exhibition at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens/By Patricia Leslie

Konstantin Makovsky (1839-1915), Portrait of Olga von Pistohlkors, 1886, Princess Natalie's mother, at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

A clock and inkwell presented in 1896 to Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, Natalie's father, at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens/By Patricia Leslie

Princess Olga and Prince Vladimir, Natalie's mother and brother,  1900s, at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens/By Patricia Leslie

On view at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens/By Patricia Leslie

At Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens/By Patricia Leslie

Princess Natalie's good looks and talents shaped her life as a socialite, a Vogue model and influential fashion designer, but her short film career was not successful.  

Over decades living in France and New York, and becoming a naturalized American citizen, Princess Natalie married twice, both times to homosexuals attracted to her style and influence in the world of fashion and society and her positive effects on their businesses. 

From Hillwood's website: "Paley was known for her exquisite taste, someone ethereal and glamorous who dictated her own fashion trends.... (and) embodied the cool, discrete Hollywood allure of the 1930s."

Hats and gloves became her de rigueur accessories, seen in photographs in Hillwood's display. 

The exhibition includes bits and pieces of the princess's life, fascinating and appealing to those  able at Hillwood to gain another glimpse of a Romanov's life. 

Portraits, linens and documents are some of the 335 new items which Hillwood obtained three years ago, many which fill the dacha outside the Hillwood mansion. 

After her second husband, Broadway producer John C. Wilson died in 1961, Princess Paley spent the last 20 years of her life as a recluse in Manhattan where she died in 1981 after a fall at her home.

What: From Exile to Avant-Garde: The Life of Princess Natalie Paley 

When: Now through Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Closed on Mondays. (After January 4, Hillwood will close for the month of January for annual cleaning.)

Where: Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, 4155 Linnean Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008

Admission: Suggested donations are $20 (adults), $17 (seniors), $10 (college students), $5 (child, ages 6 -18) and free for members and those under age 6. $3 discounts are available for adults and seniors who make reservations online for weekdays.

Directions via bus, rail, car

Parking: Free and on-site

For more information: 202-686-5807

Café onsite

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

FSB orchestrated Putin’s election

David Satter, Washington, D.C. Nov. 28, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

On a recent Friday night about 20 attended one of the many weekly public sessions at Washington’s Free Peoples of Russia House, "a platform for the democratic opposition to the Putin regime" that "facilitates dialogue between resistance representatives and the American political elite."  

The speaker was David Satter, the author of articles and books about Russia and the Soviet Union (all books published by academic presses) who lived there from 1976-1982. 

Satter has been a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Hudson Institute who testified before the U.S. Congress in 2007, delivering his constant message of FSB involvement in the murder of Russia's citizens to get Vladimir Putin elected. 

Russia expelled him in 2013. 

David Satter, Washington, D.C. Nov. 28, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Satter encourages audiences to "spread the word," about Russia's involvement in numerous murders of its own people, intended to scare them and instill fear which got Vladimir Putin elected president of Russia the first time.

And the last time.

And those in-between, totaling five elections.

The sad tactic worked.

During times of national catastrophes, public opinion of leaders tends to grow; Russia was no exception.

As Boris Yeltsin's two terms were ending in 1996, a major calamity was predicted. 

An explosion at a Moscow shopping center on August 31, 1999 killed one person and injured 29. It was a test, Satter said, to gauge public opinion and reaction. 

More explosions followed, including a September bombing in an apartment house which killed 64 and injured 133. Another one killed 106, injured hundreds and damaged several buildings nearby.

Another bombing later that month killed 119 and injured hundreds.

There were more explosions (so many that Wikipedia's websites are confusing in the totals killed and injured).

Yeltsin ordered 30,000 buildings to be inspected. 

The apartment bombings are linked to the FSB and show Russia's contempt and lack of respect for its people, Satter said. 

The explosions were intended to panic the people and create animosity towards Chechnya and use the tragedies as a reason to attack that republic. 

It’s a story of how Putin, a FSB leader, rose to power. Scare the citizens and make them afraid, Satter said. Putin's popularity grew.

In January the BBC will air Satter's program about Russia; “American Society is going to have to wake up.”

The results of the Russia's last election in 2024 were obviously falsified; Putin has never been legitimately elected, according to Satter.

After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, a study of the mental health of its citizenry revealed that one-fifth suffered from some kind of mental illness which Satter thinks is a low estimate.

At the time, Russia's mortality rate skyrocketed, resulting in the highest death rate of a country not at war, exceeded only by warring Somalia and Ethiopia.  

Putin encourages a higher birth rate so he can have more soldiers to be killed, according to Satter. For years, Russia's death rate has exceeded its birth rate, a national crisis.

Presidents Lech Wałęsa and Viktor Yushchenko lead the Free Peoples House board of trustees.

I was likely the only non-Russian speaking guest to attend the gathering  on Capitol Hill which Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Duma, also attended.  According to Wikipedia, he and his wife were injured last year in a drone strike at their home in Kyiv Oblast, the fifth attempt by Russia to kill him. 

(Writer's note: For the first time in researching Wikipedia on a person, place, event or thing, I was unable to find a page on the FSB or its predecessor, the KGB, because, say the Economist and Foreign Policy, Russia is rewriting Wikipedia and won't allow it!)  

Free Peoples of Russia House, Washington, D.C. Nov. 28, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

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Shakespeare's 'Wild Duck' is must-see

Melanie Field is Gina Ekdal and Nick Westrate is Hjalmar Ekdal in Shakespeare Theatre Company's The Wild Duck/By Gerry Goodstein

Do you reveal the truth to those around you, thinking it will help when it's none of your business?

When "the truth" may set you free but may make matters worse and upset family dynamics?

Do I tell my best friend her husband is having an affair with her next door neighbor? Or that I heard from medical team members that her mother's cancer has returned and it's terminable?

Is it up to me?

The second act of The Wild Duck caused my hand and fingers to stop moving.

I was hypnotized and my notetaking ceased, overcome by Shakespeare Theatre Company's Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck, "rarely performed" and likely the only time I'll see it, according to program notes by the theatre's artistic director, Simon Godwin, who directs.

Not one sneeze, one cough, or one dropped program by audience members sounded in the auditorium of several hundred.

We were breathless, unable to break the total silence which engulfed the venue.

But lest I go hyperbolic, do go prepared. Read a synopsis beforehand, but even that won't prepare you for this spellbinding performance.

The first act is the calm before the storm, the explosion of the second act when Gina (Melanie Field), a mousy wife we are led to believe, evolves into a forceful dynamo to stand her ground and make her pleas that she is a loving wife, no matter what has happened in the past, but husband, Hjalmar (Nick Westrate), refuses to accept her arguments when she begs for forgiveness and acceptance of the past.


Their daughter, Hedvig (Maaike Laanstra-Corn) is a clingy type, torn by her dad's anger and her blood curdling screams typify the tragedy which I joined in mourning. (Had I not been "prepared," no doubt I would have been sobbing with the woman behind me.)

The first act's gentle husband becomes a possessive spouse/louse, urged on by the devil incarnate, Gregers Werle (Alexander Hurt), always wearing black and spouting the same, trying to "do good," or is he?

Can't you realize, Hjalmar, what's happening? But, Hjalmar is blinded by passion and the past.

David Patrick Kelly is Old Ekdal in Shakespeare Theatre Company's The Wild Duck/By Hollis King

The acting is superb, none finer than that by David Patrick Kelly, the slow and bent grandpa who has a relationship, too, with the arrogant and conceited patriarch (Robert Stanton) who has relationships with everybody, including his disaffected son who resist his father's moves and money.

Alexander Sovronsky is the music director who, with sound designer Darron L. West, has composed a beautiful and unforgettable score of 19th century Norwegian folk and classical music which Sovronsky plays on various instruments between scenes.

It is David Eldridge’s version of Ibsen's play, the place, Norway in the 1880s.

Ibsen is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and, according to Wikipedia, "the most important playwright since Shakespeare" who influenced, among others, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Eugene O'Neill, and James Joyce.

Some consider Wild Duck the most complex and Ibsen's finest work, the first modern masterpiece in the genre of tragicomedy, but writing about it, the humorous parts totally eclipsed me who found it somewhat sexist.

In program notes, Drew Lichtenberg quotes Ibsen: Wild Duck "will certainly provoke discussion, but it cannot possibly give offense to anyone." I beg to differ.

Cast members include Katie Broad, Mahira Kakkar, Bobby Plasencia, and Matthew Saldivar.

Other creative team members are Andrew Boyce, scenics;
Heather C. Freedman, costumes; Stacey Derosier, lighting;
Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum, movement and fight director; Andrew Wade, voices; Satellite Wigs; Jonno Knust, properties; Laura Smith, production stage manager; Dayne Sundman, assistant stage manager.

Produced in association with Theatre for a New Audience, this makes Ibsen STC's second most-produced playwright after ...

What: The Wild Duck

When:  Through Nov. 16, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. with weekend matinees at 2 p.m.

Where: Shakespeare Theatre Company's Klein Theatre, 450 7th St., NW, Washington, DC 20004

Tickets: Start at $39

Audio Description: Saturday, Nov. 8, 2pm 

Open Captioning: Wednesday, Nov. 12, 12 p.m., and Nov. 13, 7:30pm

Audience: For adults and mature children 

For more information: Call the Box Office at 202-547-1122, seven days a week, 12 – 6pm which remains open until curtain time. ShakespeareTheatre.org.

Duration:  About 2.5 hours with one intermission  

Metro Stations: Gallery Place, Archives, Metro Center

patricialesli@gmail.com 

Justice Kennedy asks: Where is civil discourse?

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy with Kate Meeks at the Aspen Institute, Washington, D.C., Oct. 21, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

At the Aspen Institute Washington's office Tuesday night, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy looked out at the audience and said he was “astonished" by public leaders who "use filthy words" and the lack of "respectful discourse" heard on public airways.

(Aren't we all, Justice Kennedy? The name of the chief bad mouth was never uttered in the session nor were any other names, not associated with cases.)

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the Aspen Institute, Washington, D.C., Oct. 21, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Appearing before a "sold out" crowd at the Klein Book Series sponsored by Susan and John Klein, both in attendance, Justice Kennedy came to promote his new book, Life, Law & Liberty, which contains, upon first hearing, more humor than one might suspect.

The interviewer, his former law clerk and Fox News Media's General Counsel, Kate Meeks threw him softball questions, mostly about his growing up years allowing Justice Kennedy to tell about some funny parts.

Just before he took a tax exam he and a buddy took their tax books to a baseball game (the last one Ted Williams played!) to study... (to what?) and lo and behold, the sound of a familiar voice, that of their tax professor, piped up behind them. For years, this professor (who later became the U.S. Solicitor General) kidded Mr. Kennedy about the encounter.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy with Kate Meeks at the Aspen Institute, Washington, D.C., Oct. 21, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

In these forums, the best always comes last and Tuesday evening's session was no exception, with questions from the audience. (Written questions were accepted beforehand.)  

Nothing but polite questions came from the genteel group, most questions devoted to past Supreme Court decisions with no justice names included. (Sigh)

And if you ever wondered if the justices are affected by public opinion, wonder no more since Justice Kennedy cited public opinion at least twice in the hourlong session. 

When asked about Citizens v. United, Justice Kennedy said (paraphrasing) if you don't like it, then change it!  It's up to the voters to get down and effect change at the ballot box!  Please!

Vote for the other candidate who's not receiving Big Money, he said.

That decision was 5-4 and he wrote the majority opinion, that Congress cannot prohibit corporations from giving money to campaigns.  

But, vast amounts of money going into campaigns is very troubling, he said. Billionaires who don't even live in the state pour money into campaigns (omitting the name of Elon Musk and his disastrous results in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race).

Kennedy went on: If we say corporations can't give money, the New York Times is a corporation.  Are they to be limited?  What about a chamber of commerce in a small town?  A bakery shop?

Are we going to have limits on big corporations v. small ones?  

Voters can demand disclosure.  If voters are unhappy with money going to one candidate, they can vote for the other candidate, he said.

About the 1989 flag burning case when the Court ruled 5-4 in favor of freedom of speech by the flag burner, it was a decision, Justice Kennedy said, which the public quickly grew to accept, after initial criticism and rebukes from 80 U.S. Senators. (Editor's note: One can hazard a guess on the case outcome by today's Supreme Court.) 

In Bush v. Gore: "We had 48 hours, I think to write the opinion," and seven justices agreed to take the case. He was unsure a couple of times whether it was seven or six justices, but they agreed there was a Constitutional violation.

"The question was:  What should be the remedy?"

Gore wanted a recount of the votes only in the districts that he lost and "we said, no you can't do that. He wanted to extend the time for more argument and we said no.

"It seems to me, the opinion was quite right," citing surveys that Bush "would have won, but I'm not sure those were correct." 

He said the framers of the U.S. promised (in the Preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence) that "'all men are created equal'" with "certain unalienable Rights" which include "the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" but "judges cannot enforce happiness." 

He holds a "fundamental concern about human dignity," not found in the Constitution. "Freedom means respect for each person," he said.

Kennedy frequently referenced President Ronald Reagan who nominated him to the Ninth Circuit for the U.S. Court of Appeals and later, the U.S. Supreme Court, Kennedy, quite adept at mimicking his old boss.

Kennedy got to know Reagan when Reagan was California's governor, and Kennedy performed legal work for him.

As for moving back to the East Coast for the Supreme Court,

"aw, shucks," Kennedy seemed to say: He and Mrs. Kennedy were not so fond of moving back East from California and they didn't really know anyone, he told Reagan.

"'Well, you know me,'" Kennedy quoted Reagan in his drawl.

"What?" said Kennedy to audience laughter: "Was I supposed to go and have lunch with him every day?" 

Reagan "would be most concerned about the state of our civic discourse, and he would be a wonderful person to try to restore civility that we need so badly." (Since Reagan speaks from the grave about tariffs, will someone bring up his remarks, please, about civility?)

Kennedy's guidance for new members of the Supreme Court:  "The cases are much harder and much more difficult than you think when you sit down to write them."

One questioner asked if it's become "a meaningless ritual when you take the oath of office and the words don't mean anything?"

Kennedy praised the questioner's wording framing the question and answered that every public official has the duty to ensure that what he or she is doing is consistent with the Constitution.

The most important qualities for a judge are "you must be honest with yourself. You must ask yourself every day what is it that is making me do this? Is there some hidden motive, some bias that I have that I can't see?  

"All of us have to ask this in our lives every day. Judges have a sworn duty to ask this question."

Kennedy's "greatest job in the world is a U.S. District Judge.  He or she is all by himself or herself.  That single judge gets to see real people, jurors, witnesses." 

He emphasized that the Constitution doesn't just apply to cases that come before the Supreme Court: It applies even more importantly to those that don't come to the Court.  

"The Constitution requires equal treatment for all."

He said, if our democracy is going to survive, we must have an informed electorate. Our citizens must take an interest in current affairs, they must participate, and if they don't like what they see, they can show it at the ballot box. 

Internet usage is mostly only communicating with those who agree with you, he said.

Answering another question from the audience, he said, the Supreme Court encounters "difficulties" with so many emergency decisions. 

"We would get phone calls in the middle of the night - death cases - these are quite complex and it does seem to me that we have to find ways so the courts have more time.

"The district courts sometimes have just a couple of hours.  We usually just stay it. In some instances, some ongoing wrongs continue."

A reception followed.

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Book review: Who was Perle Mesta?

The author of The Woman Who Knew Everyone:  The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington's Most Famous Hostess, Meryl Gordon, has compiled an exhaustive account of Perle Mesta's life, written well and a "fast read."

It's unlikely that the book will attract many who don't recall Ms. Mesta's name, a woman who enjoyed her heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, and the cover and title certainly don't help.

The title does little to attract readers. For those who remember her, Ms. Mesta's name should be front and center.

The cover makes no sense since it appears Ms. Mesta was a friend of Jacqueline Kennedy of whom she was not, having greatly offended the Kennedys when Jack was a presidential candidate in 1960 and Ms. Mesta went overboard in her support of LBJ.

So much for White House invitations which ceased after JFK took office in January, 1961, darkening Ms. Mesta's lights in Washington where she had been non-stop socialite and party hostess, a Washington institution about and around town during most of her adult life.

Wikipedia says Perle Mesta (1882-1975) inherited what would be today approximately $1.4 billion from her husband, George, a steel industrialist who preceded her in death by 50 years. 

Ms. Mesta used the money to fundraise for the Democratic party and entertain politicians, spouses, Washingtonians, and celebrities.  

Often, her parties were attended by thousands.  She was an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and worked hard with elected officials to gain support for it.

Until JFK's ascent to the presidency, Mesta had been a constant visitor to the White House during Presidents Truman's and Eisenhower's terms, she being close friends with both Mr. and Mrs. Truman and Mamie Eisenhower, however, Eisenhower did not re-appoint her to the Luxembourg ministry like Truman had initially, Truman never naming Ms. Mesta "ambassador" for some unsaid reason, but "minister."

In Luxembourg, the State Department staff ridiculed her, jealous, I suspect, but the Luxembourgers loved her. 

At the first of every first month after they had been paid and could afford to get to the embassy, Ms. Mesta hosted at her expense, parties for U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe.

After Luxembourg, Ms. Mesta toured the world as a "diplomat “ and wrote a newspaper series, lecturing to large audiences who loved her, chronicling her months-long 1953 visit to Russia which welcomed her and permitted her to often visit forbidden places.  

She did not shy from describing Russian life as she saw it, writing about, for instance, women performing heavy labor.

On her trip, she stopped in Ukraine and noted that Ukrainians were highly offended if someone called them "Russian." 

"Their reaction sheds some light on why the Kremlin continues to be troubled about the Ukraine, the second largest republic in the Soviet Union and the source of much of its food, coal and iron ore." (P. 214)

The public and catty comments found throughout the book and attributed to social competitor Gwen Cafritz about Ms. Mesta's physical appearance, her lack of education, and social niceties are astonishing to read. 

Yet Ms. Mesta never seemed to go negative in response (at least, in the book), always maintaining a positive outlook and wide smile. 

"The hostest with the mostes" was a title borne in a Broadway musical about her by Howard Lindsay with music by Irving Berlin, and starring Ethel Merman. It was Call Me Madam.

Ms. Gordon includes all things good and bad about Ms. Mesta, her money, travels, mobility. Ms. Mesta's schedule and energy, even during latter years, left me envious.

Overall, a good read for Washingtonians and others interested in social life in our nation's capital, including those nasty State Department snobs. (Almost 400 pages.)

Who fills her shoes now? Nobody.

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