New York Daily News
Gatecrasher
Indian Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil‘s weekend party continues on despite Hurricane Irene’s rage
Monday, August 29th 2011
Hurricane Irene proved to be an annoyance but not quite a royal pain for Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil.
While threat of the 700-mile-wide storm prompted most Hamptons event organizers to cancel their weekend parties, recording artist Ivan Wilzig refused to throw in the turban on his fete for India’s first openly gay prince.
The party went on as scheduled at Wilzig’s castle-like home in Water Mill on Saturday night — although not quite as planned.
For starters, a luxury bus that Wilzig had reserved to ferry 45 guests from the city to the party was canceled by the operator over weather concerns.
The photographer and the deejay hired for the event also bailed, although Wilzig’s girlfriend Mina Otsuka gamely took over the second chore.
Out of 200 people who’d RSVP’d to welcome the royal to the Hamptons, only 70 ended up making it. Among the missing were comic and Oscars telecast writer Bruce Vilanch and “South Park” and “Book of Mormon” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who would have found a wealth of material at the party.
Wilzig, clad in an orange suit and matching cape emblazoned with a peace sign, presented the 45-year-old prince with a game-show sized check for $5,000 that was made out to the royal’s charity, the Laksyha Trust, which raises awareness about gay rights and HIV/AIDS prevention for homosexual men.
“If I could give out the Nobel Peace Prize, he would have already won it, but instead I’ll just give him a lovely donation,” Wilzig told the crowd, adding that the check “is only the tip of the iceberg.”
After graciously accepting the sum, the prince compared Wilzig’s estate to his own in India.
Gohil‘s memories of home must be complicated. His family unsuccessfully attempted to disinherit him after he came out of the closet in 2006 and, in 2007, appeared on an episode of Oprah Winfrey‘s talk show entitled “Gay Around the World.”
In 2008, the prince announced plans to adopt a child, which, if he pulls it off, will reportedly make him the first single, gay man to adopt a child in India.
Unlike his struggles in India, Gohil told us “Americans are always very loving to me.”
They can be pretty forward, too. At the party, an attractive young man approached the prince to ask him “What’s your type?”
The royal replied that he doesn’t have “a physical type.” Rather, he said, “it’s mental.”
He described his friendship with Wilzig in similar fashion.
“Sometimes you meet someone and their mental tuning is exactly like yours,” the prince said.