Had your eyes checked lately?
Posted on 02/13/2004 12:10:13 PM PST by presidio9
Girls just wanna have fun - even the President's daughter. Barbara Bush put on quite a show when she stepped out Wednesday night with her "very good friend" Fabian Basabe, a preppy party-hopper dubbed one of the city's most eligible bachelors.
They hit the dance floor at a swank soiree for fashion designer Jennifer Nicholson (daughter of Jack) at the Chelsea hot spots Sette and Viscaya.
First Daughter Barbara wore a flouncy, cleavage-baring slip dress over jeans and high heels, while Basabe, son of an Ecuadoran businessman, had on a sweater and polo shirt.
The 21-year-old Yale senior - who was busted with her twin, Jenna, for underage drinking in Texas in 2001 - sipped margaritas at a table littered with Veuve Cliquot champagne bottles.
Then she and her date showed off dance moves they could have picked up from the sword-wielding belly dancer gyrating on the bar. It was all captured exclusively by Daily News photographer Richard Corkery.
With drag queen Lady Bunny at the turntables, Bush straddled Basabe's leg, gazed into his eyes and let him dip her to the floor. She hung off him like a dangling chad.
And you thought Jenna Bush was the wild one.
The club was mobbed with boldfaced names like Grace Hightower (Mrs. Robert DeNiro) and Ivanka Trump (the original apprentice).
But all eyes were on Bush as she made the rounds, with Secret Service agents tailing her at a discreet distance.
"She hopped around," said one guest. "She's very friendly, uninhibited. She wasn't exactly Paris Hilton, but she's fun. She's not afraid to have a drink."
Christiaan McPherson said he took Bush for a spin - and gave her high marks.
"We got into it, and she was a lot of fun," he said. "She knows how to shake her shoulders."
The genie-themed shindig was hosted by first cousin Lauren Bush, socialites Amanda Hearst, Tinsley Mortimer and Elisabeth Kieselstein-Cord and PR man R. Couri Hay.
Basabe didn't want to talk about his relationship with Bush, and the White House never comments on the private lives of the presidential progeny.
But from the pelvis-pounding dance they did, it sure looked as if Basabe had joined Bush's coalition of the willing.
"He's very attractive, and they were dancing, shall we say, closely," a partygoer told The News. "Some might say dirty dancing."
Bush and Basabe, 25, an aspiring actor featured in E! Entertainment Network's "Young, Rich and Famous," have been quietly close for some time.
"You could say he's her very good friend," one insider said.
Gotham magazine put him on a list of eligible bachelors, and the Learning Channel hired him for its "Faking It" series.
The "it" boy has said he was "promised" to lingerie-empire heiress Martina Borgomanero, but was "semi-single" and dating other people.
That's Joaquin Phoenix, who starred in "Signs" with Mel Gibson. Not that that makes him one of us, but maybe he looks a bit disheveled because he is an arteest.
There was a previous thread? Where?
Paris Hilton? How does hanging out with friends equal making porn videos? You're exaggerating.
...she wouldn't have folks justifingly making an analogy between her and ex 1st child Chelsea.
What did Chelsea ever do that was bad? Chelsea looked pretty normal to me.
Had your eyes checked lately?
Yeah, I'm not putting him down. He obviously is capitalizing on the "wild" look as some like to do. Young women like wild guys. :^)
I really hate the mainstream press.
This qualifies as "nasty-looking" where you come from, huh?
Would "where you come from" happen happen to be San Francisco?
Does this photo do anything for you? 
Its a fine line between shallowness and blindness.
"Rightly" ridiculed. I beg to differ. If Chelsea wants to be a young person and do what young people do, it's none of our business.
The points that are trying to be made are this: 1) Does this have anything to do with President Bush? No! His daughter is an adult and this in no way reflects upon his administration. 2) Should this be news? No! But our society loves this sort of bs. 3) Is she behaving in a manner Laura would approve of? Probably not. Her antics are akin to Chelsea's and should be treated in the same fashion.
I think we should leave them all alone except for obviously taking an interest in the family of the president. Chelsea did nothing disgraceful and neither did the twins that I've seen. I think you all that are complaining are really complaining because you had no friends or were too timid to have fun when you were these girl's age.
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