Rand Paul hits the Hamptons

(CNN) - Photos of Sen. Rand Paul in the Hamptons on Saturday raised some questions about the Kentucky Republican, who had previously said he couldn't attend a social conservative event in Iowa over the weekend because he had a "family commitment."

As it turns out, the likely presidential candidate was photographed in East Hampton at a fundraiser for a public library.

The New York Post reported that actor Alec Baldwin co-sponsored the event, and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and former New York Gov. George Pataki were also at the event.

Paul and his wife were invited to the fundraiser by Kate Hartson of Hachette Book Group, which is publishing a book by Paul's wife, Kelley Ashby Paul, next year. (The same publisher released Rand Paul's last two books, as well.)

"I'm doing a book that's a collection of essays about women of inspiration," Kelley Paul told Bloomberg, adding that the book is "mainly about my grandmother."

She and her husband were spending the weekend with Hartson, in part to work on photos for the book, Kelley Paul added.

Doug Stafford, Paul's political adviser, confirmed that Paul's wife has a book coming out next year.

Stafford said Paul "and his family stopped by an author's event Saturday night at the request of their publisher/editor" while they were in New York for the "family commitment."

Paul had been in Iowa for three days last week on a campaign-style tour across the state. But he left town before the Family Leader Summit, a popular event among social conservatives and a common stop for presidential hopefuls.

Before the summit, Paul's staff cited a family commitment as his reason for not planning to attend the event, though they did not say where he was going. He sent a video–a compilation of his recent anti-abortion speeches–to be shown at the summit.

Asked last week about his thought process behind skipping the Family Leader event, Paul said he simply had other things on his calendar.

"No real thought process, just other things I gotta do," he told reporters in Okoboji, Iowa. "I gotta be in Kentucky for several events, and then I'm going to Guatemala for a week to do surgery down in Guatemala. So it's just a matter of trying to get everything in, and nothing in particular."