Who

The daughter of billionaire Pete Peterson, Holly is a longtime socialite and occasional author who chronicled her Park Avenue exploits in The Manny.

Backstory

Peterson had a charmed upbringing: Her dad is billionaire financier and Blackstone Group co-founder Pete Peterson. After graduating from Brown, Peterson took a job at ABC News—Diane Sawyer happens to be a close family friend—and eventually ended up as a producer on World News Tonight. A decade later she left the network to become an editor-at-large at Tina Brown's Talk and has since penned occasional pieces for Times, Harper's Bazaar, and Newsweek. In 2007, Peterson published her debut novel, The Manny, an account of Upper East Side domestic excess. (The book's main character? A socialite who works "part-time as a producer for a prime-time news program.") The Manny achieved a good deal of buzz within society circles thanks to Peterson's connections. (Her Vogue-sponsored book party took place at the East Hampton Ralph Lauren store.) She also generated attention with a short YouTube video starring socialite pals like Tinsley Mortimer, Jennifer Creel, and Carole Radziwill, in which an actress raps about her illegal immigrant house servants.

Personal

In 1994, Peterson married Rick Kimball, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. The couple had three children—Chloe, Jack, and Eliza—before eventually splitting up in 2009. Holly lives on Park Avenue, in the same building as Francine LeFrak. She also has a summer house in Water Mill.

True story

Peterson once wrote a story for Talk called "Oops! I Bought the Wrong Birkin Bag." She recounted the excruciating shame of accidentally paying $6,000 for a soft Birkin (as opposed to the traditional stiff leather version), which she derided as "flaccid."