Who

Ingrid Newkirk's worst nightmare, the generously proportioned Basso is a furrier and QVC pitchman. He's also a fixture at society events around town.

Backstory

Basso started off in the fur business in the early '80s as one of the founders of a company called Pellicce BasCardi. (The name was derived from Basso's name combined with his then-business partner's, James Cardinali). During their early days, Basso showed furs to Nassau and Bergen County yentas out of the trunk of a rented Town Car. In the early '90s, he went off on his own and set up a business selling floor-length pelts to socialites at solo or group fur shows. In 2003, he made a splashy transition to retail when he opened a baroquely-decorated 3,000-square-foot flagship on Madison and 66th with an selection of unshaved shearling, stenciled mink, lynx, chinchilla, sable, grebe and marten coats that cost as much as $150,000. He's since attracted the sort of following you'd expect—Russian plutocrats, Park Avenue biddies, and heavily-preserved celebs like Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Walters, Joan Rivers, Patti LaBelle, Ivana Trump, Hillary Clinton, Eartha Kitt, and Star Jones. (Of course, PETA protestors are regulars, too, except they just stand outside and scream on weekend mornings.) In addition to his thriving high-end fur business, Basso profits downmarket, too. He's a regular on QVC where, in his cigarette-tinged, Harvey Fierstein-reminiscent baritone, he promises Missourian housewives that they'll look absolutely gorgeous in his pelted faux sable coat with convertible collar for just $124.99.

Personal

Basso lives with his partner, the substantially younger (and considerably slimmer) Michael Cominotto, who works as Basso's style director and recently launched a line of his own menswear called MIC. Basso and Cominotto live at the Beresford in a first-floor apartment that features a private entrance; the address is posted on PETA websites and has been the site of noisy protests over the years. They also have a home in Palm Beach.

True story

In 1994, a deranged gunman named Francisco Duran took a shot at Basso when he arrived at the White House with several friends for a private tour. Secret service agents threw Basso and his pals to the ground to protect them from the fire. The shooter later testified that he thought he'd taken shots at President Clinton.