August 28, 2008 --
MICHAEL Gross says his latest book, "Rogues' Gallery: The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money That Made the Metropolitan Museum," was partly inspired by the museum's p.r. man, Harold Holzer, who told him the Met's inner circle would not cooperate with his research because they didn't want him "probing and prodding the deepest recesses of the philanthropic and private lives of our trustees." "That made me wonder what I'd find there," says Gross, who calls the result " 'Casablanca' - if Edith Wharton had written it." The book, due from Doubleday-Broadway in April, will focus on obvious names like J.P. Morgan and former director Tom Hoving, but also on two current-day society princesses who prefer the shadows to the limelight: Jayne Wrightsman, an emeritus trustee, and Annette de la Renta, a museum vice chair and head of the search committee to replace Philippe de Montebello.
