Celebrity-friendly Virginia town welcomes newcomer Tripp

WASHINGTON — The temporary window display is festooned with colorful figurines, chocolates, Teddy bears and plastic fruit centerpieces, all imported from Germany.

In Middleburg, Va., a tiny, tony town that is home to French antique shops, saddleries and historic militaria, the newest business on Washington Street is the Christmas Sleigh, a year-round holiday store scheduled to open next month with the help of Linda Rose Tripp.

Local officials, business owners and Tripp's 27-year-old son, Ryan, say the move is part of her gradual re-emergence into public life, four years after she handed independent counsel Kenneth Starr tape-recorded conversations with Monica Lewinsky. Investigators heard on those 20 hours of tapes Lewinsky confide a sexual relationship with President Clinton.

After the political scandal and impeachment proceedings, Tripp, a former Pentagon employee, withdrew to a cottage on a Fauquier County, Va., estate just outside Middleburg. For her return to the world of work, she has chosen a town that has mastered the art of whispered commentary about its celebrity residents, beloved or controversial — or both. Middleburg, about 40 miles west of Washington, has served for decades as a retreat for politicians and movie stars who like privacy and fox hunting.

So folks here aren't saying much about their newest commercial neighbor.

"It's pretty discreet — that's why Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis moved here, because they left her alone," said Dee Dee Hubbard, president of the Middleburg Business Association.

"We've had bigger and more important celebrities. I've got Liz Taylor, Robert Duvall, Paul Mellon, John Kent Cooke. And then Linda Tripp? People here aren't star-struck."

Vice Mayor Mark Tate, who owns the Coach Stop Restaurant next to the Christmas Sleigh, said celebrities famous or merely notorious "usually just blend into the fabric. I get Jerry Springer in here a lot when he visits relatives who live here, and sometimes people don't even recognize him."

Tripp's lawyer, David Colapinto, said she would not comment for this story because she is recovering from breast cancer, diagnosed in March. He said Tripp does not own the store and declined to say whether she is helping finance it.

Tripp and her daughter, Allison, 23, a senior at Radford University, are listed alongside proprietor Dieter Rausch as "partners or officers" of the firm, Atila LLC, on the store's business-license application. Rausch did not return telephone messages left at a home number that is the same as Tripp's.

The construction crew refurbishing the building, which last housed the Middleburg Hardware Store, said Tripp has been directing the design of the store.

"Linda has known what she wanted since the first day," said Eric Kondzielawa, the project manager for Nash Construction. The former hardware store — the town's last, dating to 1929 — will be carved up for three tenants, with 1,200 square feet of it housing the Christmas Sleigh.