And not just because he found an open diner on Christmas Day. Disinclined to face the millennium alone, the 45-year-old Long Island native was just hours away from uttering the most meaningful words of his life—and we're not talking "yada, yada, yada." At around 6 p.m., he slipped out of the Bolivar building on the Upper West Side, where he owns a modest apartment, and headed for lower Manhattan. In a rented penthouse suite his fiancée, Jessica Sklar, 28, was preparing to have stylist Oscar Blandi, who owns the salon at the Plaza hotel, work extensions into her hair for a braided updo called Love Knots. By 7 p.m. the spacious suite was filled with red, pink and white roses. By 7:30 p.m., Rabbi Charles Klein, who would preside over the ceremony, had arrived, as had about 40 guests—including Sklar's Vermont-based parents, Karl, 57, a computer software designer, and Ellen, 56, a corrections department employee; sisters Elsbeth, 26, and Rebecca Shalam, 32; Seinfeld's sister Carolyn Liebling, 47; and his mother, Betty, 82, who flew in from Boynton Beach, Fla. (His father, Kal, died in 1985.) And by 8:30 p.m., Seinfeld emerged—sans baseball cap. Dressed in a tuxedo by designer Tommy Hilfiger—for whom Sklar has worked as a publicist since August—he met his bride, who wore a simple sheath designed by Hilfiger for the occasion, and they exchanged vows under the traditional Jewish huppah.
"They were very calm, very happy, very smiley," says Seinfeld's comedian friend Mario Joyner. "There was some chuckling during the ceremony. He is a comedian." But through the night, also an atypically (for him) gushing groom. "He said it was the best day of his life," says a guest at the lavish event. "They were teary-eyed."
Perhaps from the smoke-filled room. As musicians played in the background, guests enjoyed oysters and foie gras, pistou soup, veal parmesan, crème brûlée, petits fours, tiramisu and oh, yes, eight ball and stogies. "There was a loungelike atmosphere," says the guest. "Jerry was playing pool and he had a cigar in his mouth and his wife on one side of him and his friends on the other side. He just looked so elated." George Wallace made the customary best man's toast. "I wished Jessica the best. I said, 'I've been trying to get rid of him for 25 years. If he gives you half the love he's given me, you'll be very fortunate.' "
Not everyone, however, was cheering for the new groom. Sklar's old groom, for instance. She had been married for just a few weeks to Eric Nederlander, 34, scion of a powerful Broadway theater family, when she took up with Seinfeld, whom she met at a Manhattan gym shortly before her marriage in June of 1998. That November, Nederlander filed for divorce, and a year later Seinfeld proposed to the runaway bride. "I still feel some anger for her," Nederlander admits. "She never cared about my feelings."
Still, friends say Seinfeld is as happy with Sklar—a native of Long Island who studied political science at the University of Vermont—as Nederlander is unhappy with her. "He told me that he loves her very much and that it feels right," says another friend, comedian Mark Schiff. "When Jerry wants to dedicate himself to someone, he does so completely. He will make a good husband." No longer the overworked superstar of a hit TV series, he is busy renovating a $4.5 million, 3,500-sq.-ft. apartment in a landmark building on Central Park West that also serves as home to John McEnroe, Beverly Sills and Tony Randall. The newly weds—who spent their wedding night at the timelessly posh Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side—plan to throw a New Year's Eve bash in their new digs. But it is the traditional New Year's Day lunch that pal Schiff is looking forward to. Until now, Seinfeld has been the lone bachelor at the long-standing gathering of old comedy circuit buddies (including Mad About You's Paul Reiser) at a New York City restaurant. "Now that Jerry's married, he'll know what suffering is," jokes Schiff. For a wedding present, he got Seinfeld—who, with a reported worth of $250 million, "doesn't need anything," his friend points out—a hat: "In marriage, your hair stands up a lot. He'll need to keep it covered."
Karen S. Schneider
Maria Eftimiades and Jennifer Longley in Manhattan and Paula Yoo in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Maria Eftimiades,
- Jennifer Longley,
- Paula Yoo.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
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