HOUSE OVERSIGHT 021091 Now, New York friends are suddenly hesitant to talk about Maxwell. "She's a high-end 'fixer'," and so what? they ask. "No one in café society gives a damn that a 15-year-old girl gives massages," says one frequent charity-benefit guest. "She gets people into parties and runs around for a lot of people." As to the fallout from her association with Epstein, he says, "If you're Mike Huckabee it would matter but not if you're Ghislaine Maxwell." The crowd at the events top publicist Peggy Siegal has organized for Epstein proves the point, at least behind closed doors. "I and many others that know him describe him as brilliant," says Siegal. "His unique mind is what attracts the world's smartest people to his home." Last September, with Siegal's help, Epstein hosted a Break Fast after Yom Kippur. A group of 120 friends brought their children over for a buffet dinner. One attendee, Jonathan Farkas, a New York real-estate heir, has known Epstein for 35 years and visited him while he was in prison. "The side I've been reading about is a side I don't know," he says. Farkas considers Epstein one of the smartest people he knows and often asks him for investment advice. "Unless I've seen it, I don't focus on it," he says. "From a cerebral and business side he's worshipped," says socialite Debbie Bancroft. "He's incredibly charming and handsome. He's an extraordinary package so I can see why people don't want to believe what they hear. If people come out of jail and are still successful, people are very forgiving, shockingly so." Renowned scientists whose research Epstein has generously funded through the years also stand by him. Professor Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist and author of Quantum Man, has planned scientific conferences with Epstein in St. Thomas and remained close with him throughout his incarceration. "If anything, the unfortunate period he suffered has caused him to really think about what he wants to do with his