It is the story running uncontrollably through American high society this summer. At ’s palatial summer home in Amagansett, in the Hamptons, a guest suffered such explosive diarrhoea in their bedroom that they absconded from the scene in shame. An item in Popbitch, a popular gossip site, said the following nugget was being passed enthusiastically around Hamptons circles: “The story goes that a recent houseguest of Gwynnie’s catastrophically s--- themselves in bed while staying there, then fled back to the city before they had to face the music.
” The site added that the incident was only part of a broader problem of “Ozempic-induced diarrhoea”. One reported side-effect of the diabetes medication, which has become popular as a , is apparently less control over one’s bowels. Subsequent reporting has suggested that the culprit might have been Derek Blasberg, a well-connected journalist, or , “socialite and celebrity hanger-on”, who is an old friend of Paltrow’s, as well as Elon Musk, Demi Moore and Sienna Miller.
The story has focused attention on the alluring but intense world of , a place so flush with cash, celebrity and social engagements that it makes the Cotswolds look like a car boot sale. Where $100 crab salads and catered functions for 200 people are as common as popping round for a cup of coffee. Between May and September, a group of tiny hamlets at the east end of Long Island, roughly 100 miles northeast of New York, becomes a fragrant rolling maul .