PAGE SIX
By RICHARD JOHNSON with Jeane MacIntosh
CIGAR INCITES HORSEY HOOLIGANISM
THE anti-tobacco jihad turned violent at a charity horse show in Greenwich Saturday night when a cigar-chomping Wall Streeter was roughed up by an anti-smoking vigilante.
The smoker was Peter Kiernan, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs who specializes in media companies. He was enjoying a cigar at Jump for Joy, an exhibition to raise money for Pegasus, which sponsors riding for disabled children, and Hole in the Wall Gang, a favorite charity of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, who were enthusiastic backers of the event at Lionshare Farm.
Kiernan's pleasure was intrerrupted when an unidentified woman bustled up to him and demanded, "You'll have to put that out."
Kiernan was unpersuaded. "Who's going to make me?" he is reported to have retorted.
His answer wasn't long in coming. The woman disappeared for a moment and returned with her beefy spouse, who seemed only too eager to force Kiernan to douse the stogie.
Fists were soon flying. The unfortunate Kiernan got the worst of it and was dumped at the exit, our spies report.
But one Kiernan supporter gave a different account, stating that the stunned smoker put out the cigar the moment the muscular anti-tobacco torturer grabbed him from behind. After a few minutes of raucous horsing around, this source said, both men were asked to leave the show.
"All I can tell you is we had a real nice party," said Lionshare Farm owner Peter Leone. "A fellow was smoking a cigar and he put his cigar out."
Leone denied there was any shoving or punching. "I brought him outside and told him to chill out," Leone said. "We went over the fact that smoking is not cool."
Leone admitted that "it took a couple of attempts to get him to acknowledge that smoking is not cool," but insisted there was no brawl. He suggested someone must have mistaken the evening's dancing for fighting.
"I was right there and I didn't see any of that. He came to terms with not being able to smoke his cigar."
Leone said Kiernan phoned him the next day to say what a "wonderful event" the show had been.
"I have no comment," Kiernan said.
"I don't know anything about it," said Clea Newman, Paul's daughter who co-chairs Jump for Joy. Marcella Leone, Peter's wife and also co-chair, could not be reached.