Desert snobs get just deserts

Duane Hagadone’s house in the desert is the talk of the Aspen, Colo., jet set. Consider. JBelle, a fave Spokane globetrotter, overheard a riveting conversation about Hagadone’s controversial mega-house on a Palm Desert, Calif., hilltop Friday night (see Huckleberries Online photo today) while dining at the new Montagna restaurant (think foie gras for $19 and deer loin for $35) in the renowned Little Nell hotel. JBelle was there to check out designer David Anthony Easton’s redo of Little Nell’s dining space. The talk between two middle-age couples was worth the price of admission. The quartet was indignant. “He’s just destroying the place,” whined one. “He’s devastating the ecology.” Groused another: “The newcomers are wrecking things. The desert isn’t the same.” And another: “His place is so gauche.” JBelle tried to join the conversation by half turning her chair toward the table behind her. But the foursome eyed her with disdain and then ignored her, as though she were a dog dropping on their manicured lawns. She took the hint and continued to eavesdrop. One of the “posh, pampered, spoiled” femmes at the nearby table was so distraught about Hagadone’s digs, which sprawls 32,016 square feet in the desert’s mountain viewshed, that she talked about staying over at her Aspen home despite the end of the summer season. “I don’t know when I’ll go back to the desert,” she said. The four agreed that out-of-staters like Hagadone are ruining their lives. Sums up JBelle: “Damn the North Idaho Trailer Trash.”