Bill Clinton, Peres and Dr. Ruth, partying at World Economic Forum

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Posted 8:03AM on Tuesday, February 5, 2002

NEW YORK - It was the kind of event that the movers and shakers attending the World Economic Forum love -- a nightcap with someone even more famous, in this case Bill Clinton, with a few surprise guests showing up to add extra pizazz to the evening. So many of the forum's 2,700 participants wanted to join the former president for a nightcap that organizers decided at the last minute to move Sunday's soiree to the main plenary hall. While the guests sipped their drinks or coffee and munched nuts, Clinton answered questions on issues ranging from the war against terrorism to North Korea, poverty and Mideast peace. The only subject he wouldn't discuss was his contacts with the Bush administration -- even to confirm that he had any. Just as the hour-long session was supposed to end, in walked Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who had been holding his own off-the-record drinks soiree in another room. When Clinton introduced him, Peres told the crowd they were lucky to have had Clinton for part of the evening. "I'm sorry we didn't have him for another few months," because then there would have been peace in the Middle East, the Israeli said. Clinton praised the 78-year-old veteran politician for sticking with the struggle to find peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He said "the secret" of Peres' life is his attitude of goodwill, of never giving up, and of looking at the world as if he were a 25-year-old just starting out and every issue was new. As the audience burst into applause, Clinton walked over to Peres and engulfed him in a bear hug. Then, another guest emerged from the crowd -- sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer. She got a kiss from Clinton, who then yelled to the crowd that they were free to ask her any questions. ------ Participating in the World Economic Forum isn't cheap. More than half the 2,700 attendees were business leaders from the forum's 1,000 corporate members. Corporations pay $17,500 annual fee for their chief executive's membership, and an additional $7,300 for each person they send to the conference. The political contingent numbered about 300, including 30 heads of state, though there were several "no shows," including interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, Colombian President Andres Pastrana and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who all had pressing problems at home. Every forum participant received a specially programmed "Davos Companion," a Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC with all the forum's events and wireless Internet service. The computer was a gift -- but some participants didn't take theirs home. Organizers said the leftovers would be given to charity. One computer expert valued each computer and attachments at about $800. ------ The traditional Saturday night bash for the forum's VIP participants was at the New York Stock Exchange, just blocks from the remnants of the World Trade Center, thanks to one of its members, the exchange's chairman and CEO, Dick Grasso. He thanked the guests for having the "courage and commitment" to move this year's forum to New York from the Swiss ski resort of Davos, saying they had earned "the respect, gratitude and appreciation of all New Yorkers." On the trading floor, the rich and famous wandered among the silent computers, sampling food from Morocco, Asia and the Americas and listening to Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista and Grammy winners Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Tsidii Le Loka, who stars in "The Lion King" on Broadway. But the hottest spot was the seventh floor, which was turned into a "Rock 'n' Roll Cafe," with music from New York's own Gary U.S. Bonds and Johnny Maestro and The Brooklyn Bridge. U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, a Democrat from New Jersey, was among the huge crowd listening to the music and trailed by a TV crew. As he left, he shook hands with guests, one of whom asked how he was enjoying the forum. Corzine, the former chairman of the investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said he hadn't gone to any of the forum's sessions. "That was part of my other life," he said.