A General Gets Down in the Hamptons

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. â€" This is from the “Thought You’d Seen It All” Department.

The big political action in the Hamptons on Saturday night was supposed to be a fund-raiser in Southampton for Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. But the true political sight to behold took place at Ronald O. Perelman’s 60-acre estate here, called the Creeks, where he held his annual Hamptons fund-raiser for the Apollo Theater on Saturday.

Mr. Perelman, the Revlon chairman, has worked both sides of the aisle over the years, and his home along Georgica Pond has played host to fund-raisers for both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mitt Romney.

There, at a long center table in his converted barn where the fund-raising dinner took place, was one of the more eclectic groupings one could see at a big-money charity event: Representative Eric Cantor, the House Republican leader, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, with Lorne Michaels, the “Saturday Night Live” executive producer, sitting between them and Ellen DeGeneres, the comedian and talk show host, across the way.

Hovering nearby as the Roots kicked off a musical program that included Jon Bon Jovi, Lenny Kravitz and Mary J. Blige, was Bill O’Reilly, the Fox News nighttime host, and Brian Kilmeade, the Fox News morning co-anchor.

After a rousing performance by Mr. Kravitz, the intimate crowd was mostly on its feet, and the ensemble of musicians, adding Pharrell Williams and the actor and singer Jamie Foxx, brought Ms. DeGeneres and the actress Katie Holmes onstage. But this was not enough, and Mr. Foxx and company began calling for the unlikeliest of names to join: Colin L. Powell, the retired four-star Army general and former secretary of state, who was trying to demure.

But he could not resist. And that created a scene that is unlikely to come up again the annals of politics and media or the region in between: Mr. Powell, onstage, dancing and even singing, with Ms. Holmes, Mr. Foxx, Ms. DeGeneres, Mr. Williams, et al.

As Frank Knuckles of the Roots put it on Twitter: “Ok tonight I witnessed Colin Powell singin Daft Punk ‘Get Lucky’ on stage. Yeah, I know…how crazy is that! #Hamptonswknd.”