New film chronicles longtime celebrity reporter For three decades, George Carroll Whipple III, who lives in a castle atop a hill in Philipstown, has been a beloved staple of 24-hour cable channel NY1. With his trademark eyebrows, the entertainment reporter would snag the attention of passing red-carpet celebrities and was such a fixture he was parodied on Saturday Night Live. And next weekend, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, a documentary about his life, Whipple's World, will premiere. When director Adam Paul Verity proposed the film several years ago, Whipple demurred. "I said, 'That is a very stupid idea because nobody would be interested in my life,' and even though I'm sort of a public person, I'm an extremely private person." Verity persisted, and Whipple participated, but says he doesn't have immediate plans to see the 78-minute film. "I can't watch myself," he says. "But, somehow, Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal took it into the Tribeca Film Festival [which they founded following 9/11], which was extremely gracious and kind of them." How did a prep school (Choate) and Ivy League (Columbia) grad become a paparazzo and entertainment reporter in signature Brooks Brothers suits? Blame Andy Warhol. The two met at Studio 54. "He always had that Minox camera," Whipple says. "He said to me, 'Take pictures of your friends, George. It's very important.' Andy realized it was a gilded youth and a very unusual time. So I started photographing my friends, and I did that for a decade while I was practicing law." After a decade as a photographer for publications like Playboy, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine and Town & Country, Whipple enrolled at New York University's film school. His student film, he says, was terrible. "I decided I'd report on movies instead of making movies," he says. Whipple digitized his 30 years of celebrity interviews for The Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio). He considers them part of the history of New York City. Whipple's World follows him to Putnam County, where his family has farmed for generations. Today, he's on the board of directors and specializes in employment law at Epstein Becker Green. His Whipple Heritage Conservation Foundation preserves endangered North American livestock breeds. "When I grew up here, we used to have to stop on the way home, and the cows would cross the road," he says. "Those days are gone, but I would like to have children in the next generation to at least be able to glimpse farm life." Another family foundation, Preserve Putnam County, protects historic buildings and landscapes. He has been hands-on with one landmark: Castle Rock, where he lives with his daughter, Elizabeth. Whipple purchased the 10,518-square-foot mansion, which had been vacant for 35 years, in 2021 and began restoration work. "My friends who grew up in castles, from old English families, said, 'George, you can never finish a castle. They're always falling down.'" Whipple is a Putnam County booster and is working with former Gov. George Pataki and others for the county's celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence. "But for the chain [across the Hudson], we would be under a British flag," he says. "No question about it. The revolution was won in Putnam County." Whipple's home includes a room where he displays an impressive collection of Putnam County artifacts and memorabilia. He also has a wig and Revolutionary uniform ready for reenactments. Next on his list: rebuild the Ludington Mill that burned in the 1970s. "Washington was there. We fed the troops from that mill, and it should be reconstructed," he says. "As George Pataki says, 'The only problem with George Whipple is he doesn't have any energy.' " Whipple's World will have screenings during the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on June 12, 13 and 14. See dub.sh/whipples-world.
