In New York, a socialite goes by any other name

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With her trademark cascade of curled blonde hair pinned to the side, Tinsley Mortimer is a charity ball staple, attends countless fashion shows and is one of the most recognizable faces in New York society.

To most people, she is the epitome of a socialite. But these days few socialites apply that moniker to themselves: many feel the once-glamorous tag has been spoiled by the antics of Paris Hilton and others.

Mortimer, along with many women who attend charity functions in the high-society circles of Manhattan, has aggressively marketed herself in other roles -- even as she keeps up an almost frenetic social schedule.

Mortimer is "lifestyle director" for a Manhattan condo development, designer for the Japanese label Samantha Thavasa, and Christian Dior's "U.S. beauty ambassador."

Indeed, in many cases professional socialites are calling themselves by other names almost as a ruse, according to social commentators.

"They would rather be known as handbag designers or dress designers or social activists," said Lloyd Grove, a gossip columnist for New York Daily News until 2006. The word socialite "smacks of unseriousness," he said.

Most high-profile socialites -- men are almost never called socialites -- now have an alternative title. Patricia Duff is a political fund-raiser, Fabiola Beracasa a jewelry executive.

David Patrick Columbia, the editor of the New York Social Diary website, calls Mortimer the "successor" to Paris Hilton.