Wait. You Didn’t Get a Piece of Art Hand Delivered?

In May, Tom Brady, Kim Kardashian, Emily Ratajkowski, Meek Mill and Drake were among those chosen to receive hand-delivered invitations to Fanatics billionaire Michael Rubin’s White party. Not just hand-delivered, but hand-delivered by a courier in a white tuxedo.

This was last year’s White party, Michael Rubin’s Fourth of July extravaganza in Bridgehampton.

The invitation? A framed, individually signed, unique work on paper by the artist George Condo. It’s said that Condo created the personally addressed invites for free: perhaps a hundred or more were hand-delivered to people including, perhaps separately, to JLo and Ben Affleck; definitely together to Usher and his bride, Jennifer Goicoechea; to Scott and Allie Sartiano of Zero Bond (where Rubin is a member) and to La La Anthony, among others. The list of regulars at Rubin’s White Party is long and illustrious.

Some were so tickled to get the invitations they (or their publicists) rushed to show off the prize on Instagram. To wit:

Drake was almost first out of the gate with this post, including a play on Condo’s name. Note the brain melt emoji.

Tom Brady got the sports slang “LFG” (“Lets F****** Go”) on his invitation. He is a fixture at the White Party.

Kim Kardashian once bid on a Condo painting, so she actually knew the artist’s work. His drawing for her, despite the paper-bag-brown wash, has inviting elements and is worthy of further inspection.

Even if Condo did the invitations for free, it does no harm to his reputation to have these works hanging in the homes of famous musicians and celebrities.

Rubin’s White Party is usually held on a Monday night, say, after the Fourth of July weekend. This year, surprise! It’s on Thursday, the Fourth itself! No matter which day it lands on, a certain group of people will plan this holiday around that party.

Another 300 black-and-white Condo drawings — again personally addressed — went to special guests. The drawings looked like this. Honestly, we have no idea how the staff at Plaster magazine, an art publication, decides who gets to go.

In addition to the fancy invitations, Rubin teamed up with rapper Travis Scott, the father of Kylie Jenner’s two children, to create a special edition Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 Low OG shoe for 350 guests. Their names are stamped inside the shoe, and their initials are set in metal on the laces. Last fall (!!) Rubin’s staff called all of the people on his list and asked their shoe sizes, so the new kicks could be ready in time.

Scott and Rubin sent the pairs out to invitees in a custom hard-shell case, with a warning attached to the dust bag. The message said, “Don’t puke on these! Not for resale… I know who you are”

That’s one thing about this event. Michael and his staff know the names of every person invited. It’s not likely that someone could use a shoe to slip in.

George Condo, left, and Michael Rubin, anticipating the party.

All this, of course, is for Rubin’s celebrity-studded bash, which turns Bridgehampton into a high-security, paparazzi-infested, traffic-congested mess for one night. Ok, aaaaaaalllll night.

The party is at Rubin’s $50 million-, water-front mansion. He is the CEO of Fanatics, a sports-merchandize operation. In 1998 he sold an e-commerce site to eBay for $2.1 billion, then bought parts of it back. With those profits Rubin, a Philadelphia native, became a co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils. After he sold that, he built Fanatics into a powerhouse of sports marketing.

Despite the excess of this one event, Rubin is not only a party guy. He is involved with Make-a-Wish, he has set up the Fanatics Foundation, and he is the co-chair of Reform Alliance, a non-profit organization that seeks to reform probation and parole. His interest in sentencing reform grew out of his friendship with Meek Mill.

Attendees at last year’s White Party included Beyonce’ and Jay-Z, Leonardo Di Caprio, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft (Rubin, Jay-Z and Meek Mill gave Kraft a Bentley convertible for his 80th birthday), Kendall Jenner and Justin and Hailey Bieber.

Going to this event is not like being at a concert. It’s like being in a concert. That’s why people have tried to buy their way in, bribe their way in, sneak in. And why there is already speculation about the resale value of the Condo art and those kicks. Chill, folks. Works on paper are not nearly as valuable as paintings. And there are, face it, hundreds of these things. A premium goes for the name of the recipient, but would Kim ever let hers be sold? Doubt it.

Usher woke the party up last year when he came on late and got people dancing. No word yet on who the big entertainer might be this year.

With Rubin, it could be anyone!  But, hey, Bey is off tour…

–FLO ANTHONY