From glamour to slammer

IT'S December 2002 and Lizzie Grubman, 33, is throwing a Christmas party.

Dressed in tight designer jeans, flanked by a bodyguard and surrounded by New York's brightest, she commands as much attention as the celebrities in the room. But this is her first public outing in 18 months. Just two weeks before, she had been released from jail after serving a sentence for backing her Mercedes into a nightclub crowd, injuring 11 people. The incident made the front pages around the world.

Here was a spoilt rich kid getting her comeuppance. Her career seemed to be in tatters. But at her party she is putting on a brave face and air-kissing her way though an adoring crowd.

Grubman - the daughter of a high-profile entertainment lawyer and a music manager - had enjoyed a privileged childhood on the Upper East Side. At 19 she went to Boston University and once there found her vocation: promoting nightclubs and organising parties for her well-connected friends. She dropped out, moved back to New York and by 1996 had set up her own PR company, which at its height would have an annual turnover of millions of dollars. Dubbed the "Queen of Nightlife", her flamboyant parties made her the talk of the town and soon her clients included Britney Spears, P Diddy and the Backstreet Boys.

Like many highflying New Yorkers, she lived and breathed her job. She was always immaculate - her hair was blowdried, she worked out regularly and stayed a tiny size zero. She famously never spent an evening in, but would have dinner with friends - who included society couples like the Von Furstenbergs. On the rare occasions she wasn't working, she would spend summer weekends at her family's beach house in The Hamptons.

On 5 July 2001, her life fell apart.

She spent the day in hospital visiting her mother, who had just been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. The next evening, Grubman was due to host a nightclub opening in The Hamptons but, at 5pm, still distraught about her mother, she was told there was a problem at the club. With her two closest friends, Dori Cooperman and Mark Turk, she took the threehour drive to sort out the mess.

Once there, she cancelled the opening and agreed to drive her friends to Conscience Point - a nightclub on her client list.

She parked in her usual VIP spot and they went inside. But the club was hot and overcrowded, and they decided to leave almost immediately. Grubman went outside and waited in the car for everyone to regroup.

According to tabloid reports, at this point a slanging match erupted with a bouncer, during which Grubman reportedly yelled "F*** you, white trash."

Grubman denies this, saying no one asked her to move her car.

Grubman claims that, at the wheel of the Mercedes, she took her foot off the brake, thinking she'd remain parked, but the turbo- powered car careered backwards into the queue of partygoers. Grubman, hysterical and in shock, got out of the car to find herself surrounded by people lying on the ground and crying out in pain.

The injuries included a fractured pelvis, a fractured rib, a broken toe and multiple cuts and bruises. Everyone was calling 911 on their mobiles. Her ex-boyfriend, Andrew Sassoon, a nightclub owner, arrived on the scene and, according to Grubman, dragged her into his car. They drove to his home, and it was only at six the next morning that Grubman turned herself in to the police.

Two days later, she publicly apologised, but by then no one cared. The next three weeks were the worst of her life. As well as dealing with the accident, her mother died. In September, Sassoon was asked to give his version of the events to a grand jury. Grubman was shocked when he placed the responsibility for leaving the scene on her.

His version of events was enough to indict her, and the fact that Grubman had left the scene became pivotal to the hearings that were to land her in jail.

FRIENDS say Sassoon's betrayal hurt Grubman the most.

Hours after his testimony, Grubman was indicted with vehicular assault and, despite not having been breathalysed, driving while intoxicated: a charge that could carry a seven-year sentence. Grubman has always maintained she wasn't drunk. She was devastated, and terrified of going to prison.

In the end, Grubman's case never made it to trial. Hearings were continuously postponed and the wait meant she was stressed and could barely sleep; photographers followed her everywhere. After a year of waiting, she'd had enough. When she was finally offered a chance to settle out of court, she decided to plead guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in prison. As one of her friends put it, she was already a prisoner in her own home. To prepare for jail, Grubman gave up smoking and started kick-boxing.

On 23 October last year, Grubman was sent to New York's Suffolk County Jail.

She was placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. The noise was deafening: the prison reverberated with music and women yelling and fighting.

Initially, she tried to read but couldn't concentrate. Healthy eating went out of the window - she survived on Snickers bars.

She was allowed out of her cell for only an hour a day to shower and phone friends. Despite her privileged background, Grubman says her fellow inmates were welcoming and she made several good friends. Her sentence was reduced to 37 days for good behaviour.

On the surface, little has changed. She still eats dinner at Nobu and lunches at Balthazar near her SoHo offices, and business is booming: she has just taken on rap star Eminem.

She is still coming to terms with what happened, and friends say she is much more serious and quiet. Since the accident she has expressed nothing but remorse.

"To this day I still think about the people who were injured in this horrible accident and hope that they find it in their hearts to forgive me," she says. "That's all I care about."

Copyright 2003
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