Recession hits the Hamptons' star-studded economy

How exactly does a tanking economy translate in the habits of the luminaries who live in a high-end resort community like the Hamptons, otherwise known as the home turf of the "other half," and the place where zillion-dollar homes, Murcielagos, and a sense of entitlement have taken over the once-bucolic landscape like a bad case of the chicken pox?

For one thing, and contrary to popular belief, celebrities aren't recession-proof. Take, for example, the insidious goings-on inside a tony, celebrity-filled Hamptons restaurant. These days, according to its proprietor, "Instead of ordering a $600 or $800 bottle of wine off our menu," the regular star-studded clientele "dips into their own wine cellar, and brings their own bottles. We've seen a big uptick in the corkage fees we're charging."

And the rest of us thought we had it bad with skyrocketing gas prices, the mind-boggling rise in income inequality, the credit collapse, and the mortgage crisis, not to mention the imminent threat of getting laid off hanging over many of our heads.

At least celebrities and the wealthy are feeling the pinch, too, in their own unique, rich-person kind of way. But other than sacrificing some Châteauneuf-du-Pape here and there, do any celebrities feel a heightened obligation (moral or otherwise) to reign in their excessive spending? Who among their staff, may we ask, are the first to go—trainers? Limo drivers? Butlers? In other words, when the economy goes downhill, do Hamptons celebrities respond in kind, paring down their lavish lifestyles in solidarity with the rest of us regular Joes?