Sep 4, 2007 12:20 pm US/Eastern
Corzine Parties With Bon Jovi, Springsteen In N.Y.
A-List Bash Held In Bon Jovi's House In The Hamptons
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) ―
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Sayreville native and Middletown resident Jon Bon Jovi threw an end-of-summer bash that drew luminaries including Gov. Jon S. Corzine and Bruce Springsteen. (File)
CBS
Who says you can't go home?
New Jersey's governor and its two most famous rock stars -- one of whose songs is the centerpiece of the state's tourism campaign -- partied Saturday night not at the Jersey Shore, but at the Hamptons in Long Island.
That's where Sayreville native and Middletown resident Jon Bon Jovi threw an end-of-summer bash that drew luminaries including Gov. Jon S. Corzine and Bruce Springsteen.
What, Island Beach State Park is chopped liver?
Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, threw a dinner party over the holiday weekend for friends in East Hampton, where they have a home. Invitees were decidedly A-list: Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, Renee Zellweger, Naomi Watts, Howard Stern, "Today" show anchor Matt Lauer, designer Donna Karan, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner and "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels, according to the New York Daily News.
Sounds tempting enough. But for a state where tourism is the third-largest industry, generating $37.6 billion last year, might it not send the wrong image to have New Jersey's chief executive and top rockers -- whose music is laden with glowing odes to the Garden State -- close out the summer on Long Island?
Although Corzine has use of a state-owned beach house on Island Beach State Park in Ocean County, his press secretary, Lilo Stainton, said the governor vacations in the Hamptons because his girlfriend, Sharon Elghanayan, has a home there, and some of his children either live or stay in the area.
"And wouldn't you go to a party that rocked like that, even if not in Asbury Park?" she asked.
The party featured an hour-long jam session with Joel on keyboards, and McCartney, Bon Jovi, Buffett and Waters trading vocals. Corzine reportedly led guests out onto the dance floor when the band played "Who Says You Can't Go Home," Bon Jovi's Grammy-winning single that New Jersey has built its tourism campaign around.
Both Springsteen and Bon Jovi have been New Jersey's top rock troubadours for decades; the state is as much a part of their music as catchy choruses and wailing guitars.
Bon Jovi named one of his albums "New Jersey," and frequently railed against "Turnpike jokes" during his live concerts in the state. His band will christen the new Prudential Center arena in Newark with 10 concerts this fall.
And it's not like he lives in a dump; Bon Jovi's spread on the Navesink River in Middletown was good enough to host fundraisers for the last two democratic presidential nominees, Al Gore and John Kerry.
Springsteen named an album "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." and wrote "My City Of Ruins" about the faded Monmouth County resort. He routinely plays concerts there, and helped put The Stone Pony on the map in the '70s. `My Hometown" is an ode to Freehold, and The Boss immortalized racing along Route 9 in his anthem "Born To Run."
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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