Bill and Hillary Clinton shared a weekend lunch on Italy's Amalfi Coast with media mogul Barry Diller and fashion icon Diane von Fürstenberg, a cozy gathering of elite power players far from the political battles back home.
The group dined at Lo Scoglio, a family-run restaurant on the Amalfi Coast that has drawn celebrities for three generations, Page Six reported. Also at the table was Lee Brian Schrager, founder of the New York City Wine & Food Festival. The party posed for photos with Tommaso, Antonia, and Margherita De Simone, the siblings who run the restaurant their family has operated since their grandparents' era.
An unnamed observer described the scene as a "shared a lively lunch." For the Clintons, it was a sunlit afternoon on the Italian coast with a billionaire media figure who is simultaneously pursuing an $18 billion deal to buy one of the biggest casino companies in the world. For ordinary Americans watching grocery prices and interest rates, the optics land differently.
Barry Diller arrived at the Amalfi table in the middle of one of the largest pending corporate plays in the entertainment industry. His company, People Inc., is in talks with MGM Resorts to acquire the casino giant in a deal valued at $18 billion, a figure first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Diller owns a 26 percent stake in MGM Resorts.
Diller addressed the offer directly this month, telling Page Six Hollywood:
"As a 26% owner of MGM Resorts, I love Las Vegas and its very long term prospects."
MGM Resorts has set up a special board committee and advisors to review the deal but has not officially commented. The company's silence leaves the transaction's future uncertain, and raises the question of what, exactly, a former president and former secretary of state were discussing over seafood with the man trying to close it.
Before heading to Italy, Diller and Diane von Fürstenberg attended investment banker Herb Allen's annual Sun Valley conference in Idaho, the gathering often called "summer camp for moguls." The conference draws some of the most powerful figures in media, technology, and finance each summer. That Diller and DVF moved from Sun Valley to an Italian lunch with the Clintons within the same month underscores how tight these elite social circles remain.
Bill Clinton's Italian vacation followed a pointed July Fourth post on X in which the former president criticized the current political climate without naming President Trump directly.
"Today, we celebrate this milestone amid another period of deep division, renewed questions about America's future and role in the world, and serious threats to our own institutions and to our democracy itself."
The post carried the familiar Clinton formula: invoke democratic ideals, hint at institutional peril, and leave the target unnamed but unmistakable. Days later, Clinton was dining on the Amalfi Coast with a billionaire dealmaker. The contrast between the somber tone of the post and the setting of the lunch speaks for itself.
Hillary Clinton, for her part, has remained publicly active in recent months. She called Biden's reelection bid a "terrible mistake" that handed the White House back to Trump, a remarkable admission from someone who lost her own 2016 race and spent years blaming outside forces for the result.
The former secretary of state has also waded into foreign policy, at one point backing Trump's Gaza peace plan in a move that broke with Democratic critics. That willingness to cross party lines on occasion has not stopped her from lecturing the current administration on White House decorum, a posture critics were quick to challenge given the Clintons' own record.
The restaurant itself has become a magnet for the famous and well-connected. An unnamed source described Lo Scoglio as "the beloved coastal gem, owned and operated by the De Simone family for three generations," calling it "a top pick for visiting American chefs and a hidden hotspot for A-listers." Previous visitors include Jennifer Lopez, Sofia Vergara, Matthew McConaughey, David Foster, and Katharine McPhee.
The Clintons were not the only boldface names in the area. Singer Adele was also vacationing on the Amalfi Coast with filmmaker and fashion designer Tom Ford. Adele is set to make her acting debut in Ford's next film, "Cry to Heaven," based on a 1982 Anne Rice novel.
Meanwhile, Diane von Fürstenberg's fashion empire has its own news. She recently named Henry Zankov as artistic director of her line, with his first collection set to debut at New York Fashion Week in September. DVF's presence at the lunch, fresh off the Sun Valley conference and in the middle of a brand transition, adds another layer of business to what was framed as a social meal.
Hillary Clinton's recent public positioning has ranged from bipartisan overtures to sharp-elbowed political commentary. She broke with Democratic critics on Trump's Gaza plan, a move that drew attention precisely because it cut against the party's dominant posture. Whether the Italian getaway signals a retreat from that public stage or a recharging of it remains to be seen.
No one begrudges a former president a vacation. But the scene at Lo Scoglio, two Clintons, a billionaire angling for an $18 billion casino acquisition, a fashion mogul reshuffling her brand, and a food-world power broker, is a snapshot of how Washington's permanent class operates. The players change tables, not habits. They move from Sun Valley boardrooms to Amalfi Coast terraces, from Fourth of July broadsides about "threats to democracy" to long lunches with the people who bankroll it.
The purpose of the gathering was not disclosed. No agenda was released. No staff briefed reporters on topics discussed. The only public record is a set of smiling photos with the restaurant owners, the kind of image that says everything and nothing at once.
Americans struggling to make ends meet can be forgiven for noticing that the people who spent decades running the country never seem to struggle at all.