FROM TOP: Peterson’s new book, The Education of an American Dreamer; Cooney with several Muppets at the Sesame Street 40th anniversary gala event

Cooney was an award-winning producer for WNET/Thirteen who created the breakthrough show Sesame Street, now celebrating its 40th year. She has been a member of both the Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations and the United Nations’ Reorientation of UN Information Activities Task Force; served on the boards of Chase, Xerox and Johnson & Johnson; and is a trustee of The Paley Center for Media and the New York Presbyterian Hospital, as well as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Peterson, a former Secretary of Commerce under President Nixon, was chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers in the ’70s, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2000 to 2004, co-founder of the Blackstone Group and chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, among other positions. “We built Blackstone into quite a business,” he says. “To my total amazement, I became a billionaire.” He has authored four books, including one best seller, and at the age of 83 he’s currently penning his memoirs, The Education of an American Dreamer.

The couple first met in the ’60s, when she was making a proposal for a Sesame Street-style show to the board of National Educational Television, on which he served. “We were both married to other people, but I would see him and his wife at social functions,’’ she recalls. “I remembered him from that meeting because he was so interesting and asked so many questions.”

She impressed him, as well. “My daughter Holly was five, and after that meeting I said to her, ‘Darling, you’re about to get exposed to some great new television.’ It was a radical idea at the time.”

In the late ’70s, when both Peterson and Cooney were divorced from their respective spouses, Mort and Linda Janklow seated them next to each other at a dinner party. They married 14 months later. They had a place in the Hamptons, which they sold to Mort Zuckerman, and they moved around the area before settling into their present home on Mecox Bay.

Now the high-powered couple leads a lowkey existence during weekends on the East End, spending time with friends like director Joel Schumacher, author Peggy Noonan and ABC News president David Westin. Peterson belongs to four different golf clubs—Atlantic Gold Club, Friar’s Head, Maidstone Club and Sebonack Gold Club—and Cooney is an avid tennis player. Every Friday night they head to Mirko’s Restaurant, and most other evenings they host or attend dinner parties.

Peterson has retired from the business world, but he’s certainly not resting on his laurels. “I thought I would enjoy the bliss of having nothing to do, but it felt quite empty and joyless,” he says. So he gave one billion dollars to start the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, of which Joan is director. Its emphasis is educating, motivating and activating the public. “I think the American Dream is imperiled; if we stay on our current course, we won’t have money for Medicare, Social Security or our foreign debt,” he says. The foundation has given projects to MTV and has also involved YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites.

Apart from her position in the foundation, Cooney is getting ready for Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary in November. “We have kept it up to date,” she says, “like the recently added Abby Cadabby—we didn’t have female Muppets in prominent roles before.” Cooney never actually had her own offspring, but she played a pivotal role in the education of American children. “I majored in early education, was always very interested in children and I have five step-children and nine grandchildren,” she explains. “I am deep in children.”

For two such accomplished achievers, they’ve certainly learned how to relax. “We like to have a life here that’s very different from our life in New York,” says Cooney. Peterson’s favorite pastime is reading on their terrace overlooking the bay. “Joe Heller and Kurt Vonnegut were over at the big house of this hedge funder one day,” recalls Peterson. “Kurt asked, ‘Joe, doesn’t it bother you that this guy makes more money in one day than you made from writing Catch-22?’ Joe said, ‘No. I know the meaning of enough.’ And I understand. I feel that I have more than enough.” H

BY BETH LANDMAN
PHOTOGRAPH BY ZEV STARR-TAMBOR