New York Social Diary - Social Diary

Daffodils and turtles along the Lake in Central Park. 12:30 PM. Photo: JH.

Monday, April 21, 2014. The weather this past weekend was fair and mild, with bright sunny days, the pear trees blooming and warm jackets most of the time. It was also the Easter holiday and that, combined with Passover turned the city into a somewhat quiet place. According to the cabbies I had.

Thursday early evening I went over to Joan Hardy Clark's on Gracie Square to celebrate her birthday. It was a great New York party, the kind that invited a John Koch painting to mind. It was a hazy late afternoon (6:30) but Joan has this fabulous view of Carl Schurz Park with Randall's Island and the Triboro. On the left beyond the pear trees in bloom is a Peter Marino designed condominium. About two inches to the lower left of the American flag waving o'er the East River, you can barely make out the mayor's house in the trees north of Carl Schurz.

Friday afternoon in front of Zabar's. I often pick up a book from the bookseller there. He's American of Italian descent and every Saturday he's got the Met Opera on the radio.

A pear tree in its delicate glory across the avenue from my apartment.

A couple of pears on East 81st Street between East End andYork.

One of my favorites: Across Third Avenue from Eli's on 80-81st.

And then the block south (79th - 80th). Saturday afternoon.

82nd between Third and Second Avenues. Same time.

Nevertheless, it was a beautiful Spring weekend. JH went out into the Park on Saturday early afternoon where the Mother Nature's brushes are about to reveal her magnificent palette, although we're not quite there yet according to JH ...

History Lessons from the Emperor Nero. I spent quite a bit of the weekend catching up on some reading. I’m still moving along with “Dying Every Day; Seneca at the Court of Nero.” I bought this book half-expecting to lose interest halfway through. It’s one of those preconceived notions of mine that invites ignorance. However, Seneca and the Court of Nero will keep your interest. Although it’s creepy at its roots. A lot of poisoning going on. Agrippina killed Claudius (poison), then his son Brittanicus or Germanicus (more poison), and then Nero had his own mother Agrippina murdered in a botched crime. I haven’t got to what happens to Seneca, philosopher of the ages.


	Click to order Dying Every Day.

So far Seneca is still alive. He was famous in his day and in modern times as a philosopher of note. As the first tutor and then “adviser” to Nero, he becomes ... very rich ... Sound familiar? Although the Romans were brutal and completely decadent to the point where I wonder if their brains had been toxified. At least the ruling classes. Even the poisoners got rich. We don’t know about the working classes. Until, of course there’s a revolution; and that was a long way off, at the time.

James Romm, the author of this history presents his story through Seneca’s writing at the time. Philosopher and all, Seneca was a guy who talked out of both sides of his mouth. Especially as he was amassing his fortune. That’s all I can tell you right now because I’ve got another third to go. But if you like history, it is an amazing experience grasping what life was like and how those people behaved under the circumstances of temptation.

Also this past weekend I saw “Dancing In Jaffa.” Last year about this time at the annual “Through the Kitchen” benefit at the Four Seasons, I was seated next to Diane Nabatoff, a film producer who was briefly in town from LA. She’d come for the Tribeca Film Festival where her most recent film, a “non-fiction feature” – “Dancing in Jaffa” – premiered.

What got my attention was the subject: It’s about Pierre Dulaine, a man now in his 70s, who made a career out of dance – mainly as a ballroom dancer – who now goes around to inner city schools and teaches young children how to ballroom dance. Back when I was a kid, my mother made me go to ballroom dancing lessons given by Mr. Ryder in the reception hall of the First Congregational Church. 10 year olds. I always hated going but I liked it when I was there.

Pierre Dulaine showing the children how to dance ...

Dulaine has now taught more than 21,000 fifth graders in New York City Schools, and has a program that he’s hoping will eventually be taught in all inner city schools. What he learned, now long ago, was that ballroom dancing was a way for people to communicate with ease and even with pleasure, to be able to touch each other, to look each other in the eye while taking in the music with the dance. All of which gives them the opportunity to learn about the world and learn about each other and cooperating with each other. It sounds idealistic but actually it’s realistic in that it diminishes hostility in relationships.

“Dancing” is the story of Dulaine’s life and his essence. It’s a documentary but like the modern documentaries they are shot as features. It’s a delicate balance to keep credibility on track but this film achieves it easily. You laugh, you cry (with joy), you laugh again, as you watch these beautiful children (fifth graders) progress from strangeness and fears and shyness to joy and pleasure and self-confidence in relationship to others.

Dulaine is a complete professional and you see in his conduct with the children that he knows how to use his age to clown to make them laugh. The children in “Dancing in Jaffa” are Israeli and Palestinian. Coming together; not exactly excited about it. You are presented with the issues immediately. Then you see that on both sides there are adults who in the name of their children’s futures are willing to try it. The result is a triumph ... especially for the kids and for the parents and teachers. And maybe eventually for everybody.

This is a film that you know going in (or from reading this) has a happy ending. So you could think there’s nothing to be learned. Aha! But this is a film that teaches you something better about our lives around us than just what we see for chaos and threat in the tabloids and on TV everyday. You will see that there is a tomorrow for these children, and with men and women with the foresight and courage of Pierre Dulaine, it seems a realistic possibility. It’s a thought that will cross your mind even though you have your doubts; it’s called good-ness.

Last Thursday night John Demsey opened his East Side townhouseto lots of friends for a Kick-Off Party for the upcoming Apollo Gala on June 10th when they will honor Dick Parsons for his long time service to the Theater, and BNY Mellon. This year marks the 80th birthday of the legendary Apollo and they are embarking on a $20 million campaign to extend the theater institution’s role in fostering artistic innovation and in building appreciation of American culture around the world. The 21st Century Apollo Campaign has already raised $10 million with the support of the Ford Foundation, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone; Time Warner, Citi, the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation and Apollo’s Board of Directors.

The Spring Gala will be hosted by comedian Wayne Brady, Nathalie Cole, The Isley Brothers, and Smokey Robinson will perform along with some of contemporary music’s brightest stars. Gonna be a Big Show.

Dick Parsons and Alexandra Trower.

Andrew Fry, Thelma Golden, John Demsey, Marcus Samuelsson, and Bronson Van Wyck.

Yolanda Ferrell Brown, Rita Jammet, Debra Shriver, and Jonelle Procope.

Pricilla Waters, John Demsey, and Lexann Roland Richter.

Sophia Signorelli, Liz Richards, and Lytle Harper.

Bill Lighten, Nadja Fidelia, and Ed Lewis.

Marcus Henderson and Danielle Wescott.

Andrew Richter and Lexann Roland Richter.

Kiara Tinch.

Michael Gross, Elisabeth de Kergorlay, and Isoul Harris.

Neal Fox and Martha Kramer.

Christine Pressman.

Sylvia and John Mazzola.

Dana Hammond Stubgen and John Demsey.

Joan Haffenreffer and David Bartsch.

Pricilla Waters, Jean Yves Legrand, and Marilyn Gauthier.

Jimmy Finkelstein, Robert Zimmerman, and Jay McInerney.

Ali Scott, Jodi Doherty, and Nina Flowers.

Stephen Strick, Dr. Lisa Airan, John Demsey, and Christine Pressman.

Michael Arlotto, Stephen Petronio, Jamie Figg, and Mike Lee.

Jumi Falusi, Deyvis Rodriguez, and Angela Ellis.

Jason Carrol and Alina Cho.

Georgina Schaeffer and Patrick Mele.

Lila Perkins, Jamie Figg, Jumi Falusi, Bill Lighten, Pat Zollar, and Al Zollar.

Felicia Gordon, John Demsey, and Faye Wattleton

Hassan Pierre.

Marcella and Mia Jones.

Debra Shriver, Cindy Butts, William Lauder, Leslie Uggams, and Grahame Pratt.

Sara Moss and Michael Gould.

Jumi Falusi and Bill Lighten.

Stephen Petronio and Alison Mazzola.

Mikki Shepard, Alberto Cribiore, and Kris Sebastian.

Marianne Freda and Fabrizio Freda.

Kevin Nickelberry, Jacqueline Nickelberry, Debra Shriver, and Jerry Shriver.

Donna Lieberman and Nina Flowers.

Rodrigo Braga, Colin Shanley, and Jake Farley.

Joe Levy, Marilyn Booker, Jacques Brunswick, Louise de Jordan, and Philip Pitruzzello.

Marko Matijas and Cornelia Guest.

Contact DPC here.

Lounging in Central Park with the Beresford on Central Parfk West behind. 1:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014. A sunny day in New York, with temperatures in the low to mid-60s.

I went down to Michael’s to lunch with Bill Stubbs, the interior designer from Houston who was headed for a new Designers Conference in Argentina, which will attended by several Americans designers including Charlotte Moss. You might know him as William Stubbs, who hosts the PBS show “A Moment of Luxury.” I first met him when he was shooting his first show down in Palm Beach at the Brazilian Court Hotel where JH and I were staying while covering the Palm Beach Antique show.

Bill Stubbs shooting a "Moment of Luxury" for PBS in Palm Beach.

We happened to walk out of the hotel and onto the shoot, and were introduced by a mutual friend. The show has gone on to a great success with an audience of 8 million. Off-camera, from all I can tell, he’s the same as when on camera: a Texas boy who made a big success out there in the Big World but is still that Texas boy who had big dreams when he was growing up.

After lunch, my cab took the route through the Park to 72nd Street and the East Side. The Park was crowded with people on bicycles, running, in those bicycle rickshaws. It was almost a traffic jam. We're looking southeast toward the corner of the Park and Fifth Avenue.

Blame it on my lumbago. I could have gone to New Yorkers for Children’s annual “Fools Fete” at the Mandarin, and taken some pictures and just come home with “something” to write about. I could have gone to the opening of Henry Jaglom’s new film The M Word, which had its premiere last night at Florence Gould Hall (it opens in May in theaters across the country). Its cast includes Tanna Frederick, Corey Feldman, Gregory Harrison, Michael Imperioli, Frances Fisher and Mary Crosby. Some told me that the director as well as Frederick and Immperioli were present.

Jaglom’s film is about Women and the experience of getting older. This is a hot topic for the largest demographic in the country all of whom are almost there, or there. So Mr. Jaglom definitely has his finger on the pulse. Or the return key. Among his talents, Henry Jaglom published a book of interviews with Orson Welles a year or so ago. It is so engaging and at times riveting that you realize the book is as much the work of the director as of the actor. Of course Welles was also a director too. So maybe you could call it a collaboration. Whatever his medium, Jaglom chronicles contemporary life, no matter the era. The generation in his film today is the same generation that was in his films thirty years ago. Jaglom’s work is an oeuvre now, and he’s still doing it. He and Woody.

I had hoped to get to the screening but I had some issues at home to take care of. No matter the reason I always feel a little guilty if I’m not out there, especially for the philanthropies, and even more especially when they are dealing with young people getting started in life. Starting adult life and in this great big city was difficult even when I was that age. And living in New York was A LOT cheaper. Jobs were plentiful to people coming out of college and people coming out of high school. It is even more difficult for young people if there is not a platform of support behind you – even if it’s knowing your bedroom at home is still there if you’re in a pinch. New Yorkers for Children help thousands of young people coming out of Foster Care with no nuthin’ but their wits about them. That assistance, which can be financial and mentoring, is invaluable and often forms the future of the individual involved. Many who have had very little to begin with often shine with even the smallest gifts of care and support.

Last night at NYFC's Annual Dinner Dance: Susan Magazine, Katia Steward, Seong Hong, Shavonn Wheeler Zhanna Raymond, Amara Toure, Lauren Khoo, Crystalann Rodriguez, Sandra Grant, and Shavonn Wheeler.

Now, the party that I missed? I’ve been to that party several times. I actually attended the first fundraising dinner for NYFC about seventeen or eighteen years ago. The “Fools Fete” is a great party. It’s dressy and the young women wear all the great designer dresses and gowns like models on the runway. The boys are in black tie so everything gets a lift in the hotel’s grand ballroom with its city views of Central Park and Columbus Circle and Fifth Avenue at night. The guest list is mainly the young set. The younger the better, because it is a good party for younger people who find going out and being part of a large group like that is fun in and of itself. And they dance the night away.

Marisa Brown, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Amy McFarland, Alina Cho, Natalia Echavarria, Lydia Fenet, and Clare McKeon.

Still catching up: Over 200 people attended the 16th annual Healthy Give and Take luncheon sponsored by the Auxiliary of NSLIJ- Lenox Hill Hospital. This year's luncheon was held at the Metropolitan Club with the theme "A Healthy Give & TakeLuncheon: Relationships, Friendships and Intimacy: The Mind/Body Connection.”

Jane Hanson, the Emmy award winning broadcast journalist acted as moderator for the event. The topic focused on relationships and the affect they have on our minds and bodies. Just like Henry Jaglom’s new film “The M Word,” in a way.

Jane Hansen and Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum.

An expert panel of Lenox Hill Hospital physicians – including Suzanne R. Steinbaum, MD, Director, Women’s Heart Health, The Heart & Vascular Institute,; Jennifer Wu, MD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Elizabeth Messina, PhD, Department of Psychiatry – and Elizabeth Bernstein, prominent Wall Street Journal columnist who writes on relationships – provided insights and practical advice on the emotional and physical impact of relationships on our health at every stage of our lives.

Proceeds from the luncheon support a wide array of Auxiliary programs that promote the NSLIJ-Lenox Hill Hospital’s commitment to the health and well-being of patients, staff and the community.

Michele Jeffery, Chair of the Lenox Hill Hospital Auxiliary; Donna Ramer, Luncheon Co-Chair; Louise Gunderson; Michelle Larson, Luncheon Co-Chair; and Kathleen Boak.

John Gupta, Executive Director of Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital; Rosanne Raso, Associate Executive Director, Lenox Hill Hospital; Michele Jeffery; Brian Lally, Chief Development Officer, The North Shore-LIJ Foundation; and Dr. Robert Graham.

Kathy Grano, Julie Kling, Kelly Langberg, Diane Finnerty, and Stefania Garson.

Michele Jeffery, Michelle Larsen, Jane Hansen, Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, Elaine Rosenblum, Senior Associate Director of Lenox Hill Hospital; Dr. Elizabeth Messina, Elizabeth Bernstein, Dr. Jennifer Wu, and Donna Ramer, Luncheon Co-Chair.

Dennis Connors, Executive Director Lenox Hill Hospital; Michelle Larsen, Michele Jeffery, and Gus Costalas, Associate Executive Director of Finance, Lenox Hill Hospital.

And the Friday before that, on April 11th, Planned Parenthood of New York City held its Annual Luncheon at The Pierre. They honored Dyllan McGee, Founder and Executive Producer of Makers: Women Who Make America, a 3-hour PBS documentary on women who have created change in the U.S. over the past 50 years. The Special Guest Speaker was Christy Haubegger, founder of Latina magazine and an agent at Creative Artists Agency. This was a good lunch too. With more than 400 attending, Planned Parenthood New York City raised $525,000.

The event was co-chaired by Katie Danziger, Lisa Beattie Frelinghuysen, Lisa Kadin, Tracey Kemble, Margot Levy, Diane Max, Lisa Pevaroff-Cohn, and Nicole Angel Wachter.

PPNYC Board Chair Diane Max.

Dyllan McGee, founder of Makers.

Christy Haubegger.

Contact DPC here.

The anticipation. 1:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014. Another bright sunny day in New York, with the lightest spritz from time to time in the late afternoon and into mid-evening. The pears are even more pronounced and to me it’s like a reward for the spirit after the hard cold winter.

Last night I went to see Liz Smith interview Frank Rich and Alex Witchel at the Cosmopolitan Club on East 65 and 66th Streets. Billed as “An intimate evening of conversation” moderated by Liz, that is exactly what it was. Or as intimate as two adults/writers are going to get in a room of a hundred people.

Liz has been conducting these interviews (last year I think it was Whoopi Goldberg) every year to benefit Maria Droste Counseling Services.

Founded by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd 32 years ago and named for a Good Shepherd sister who was renowned for her ability to console those who came to her in pain. The Mission of the Counseling Services is to provide affordable therapy. Last night’s benefit raised funds that will augment that mission. Elizabeth Peabody, who works at the Services, organized this annual benefit and produces it each year.

Liz and Bette in 2012.

Liz and Whoopi in 2013.

This was the first of these interviews that I’ve attended. Guests were provided with tables and chairs, as you can see, and hors d’oeuvres (excellent) were passed along with wine, sparkling water, etc. It was a middle-to-older crowd, not surprisingly, many of whom know each other, perhaps through the club, or professionally, or socially. I saw many faces that I see when I am out and about, or at dinner or lunch, or a culture event. It’s kind of a neighborhood of mutual interest and curiosity. There was also a center table of Barbara Walters, Peter Brown, Marie Brenner and Ernie Pomerantz, Suzanne Goodson, Lesley Stahl and Aaron Latham, all close acquaintances or friends of the three conversers.

For me it was somewhat of a Proustian moment in that last night was the first time I’d crossed the threshold of the Cosmopolitan Club since the day I changed my life at age 23 and got married, in October 1964. The Cos Club is mainly a private woman’s club where a lot of wedding receptions and dinners are still held. I remember the day very well, of course, from morning (early) to night (late) in Nassau, the Bahamas. The first and only time I was there also. We were divorced nine years later, although amongst all my memories of that day and that place, it was a very major step into grown-up life -- no matter how it looked to the real grownups around us. All these years later she and I remain in fairly close communication, and on a similar level of “intimacy” that we experienced when we were together. There is no better alternative, for which I’m grateful.

Last night at the Cosmopolitan Club for “An intimate evening of conversation” to benefit Maria Droste Counseling Services.

So, there was that. Even the colors of the room seemed to jog my memory of that far off moment. I was far more relaxed in the room last night, however.

The Interview. Liz told the guests that the “theme” of these interviews, following the mission of the Maria Droste Counseling Services, was “resilience.” A good one for all of us.

Frank Rich, if you don’t know out there in cyber-land, made his name in New York when he was the Drama Critic for the New York Times from 1980 to 1993. The Drama Critic for the New York Times has been a very powerful position in theatre, culture and the arts for the past seventy or eighty years, and therefore not a voice in the wild.

Frank Rich, Alex Witchel, and Liz Smith listen while Elizabeth Peabody opens the evening for the conversation.

A bad review in the Times could, probably still can kill a show (but not always), and not a few people (producers/theater owners, etc.) felt killed by Frank Rich’s words at one time or another. I always found his reviews reasonable and kind, unless it was impossible; and literate and intelligent. He didn’t take swipes at people and clearly he was on the side of the talent (except when he couldn’t see the side). Others accused him of being a Liberal politically. As if it mattered. Also, it’s just his opinion.

Away from his keyboard, he is a genial quiet-spoken fellow, often with a ready smile. Yet David Merrick, perhaps the most famous producer of the 1960s Broadway, publicly felt Frank Rich was very unfair, and he chastised him whenever he could (and also used Rich’s “praising phrases” in his newspaper ads whenever he could).

And then he left. When Rich left the Drama Desk he moved over to the Op-Ed page for the next decade and a half, lending a political analysis to his columns. Barbara Walters was the one who asked from the audience what it was like to leave the Times: did he consider how his life would change, that he would no longer have that gilded platform (my words not Walters’) of “journalistic distinction” (again, my words).

Liz asks Alex Witchel about her memoir and her experience of the loss of her mother, and how Witchel handled it ...

No, he explained that he felt it was time. He’d been thinking about it for a long time. He could tell by his waning interest in his task. He was turning sixty and he sensibly realized there was more unexplored out there. To change was his “resilience.” To continue their work – Rich and Witchel – is their resilience.

Both Rich and Alex Witchel have written memoirs and Liz used them to ask them about their marriage. They were married in 1991 and she was working at the times as a journalist also. Somewhere along the line of her career she did interviews and features about. I specifically recall a very funny review of taking her mother to a weekend at the brand new Alexis Stewart (daughter of Martha) motel in the Hamptons. I recall the design/decor was “minimal.”

They raised two sons from his first marriage (shared custody), they both work at home (they email instead of phone or interrupt). So they spend a great deal of time together. Liz asked Witchel about the sorrow of losing her mother of dementia at 71, and a younger sister who died of breast cancer leaving two sons, 8 and 4; and how she dealt with it. She responded that although these were very sad times for her, she believed that we all have these very rough times in our lives, and it’s important to know that it’s part of everyone’s experience; we are not alone in them.

And so it turned out to be what was promised. Rich, Witchel and Liz Smith have known each other for a long time, so the conversation had a “private” quality to it, always most interesting to listen to and perceive. This is New York.

Photos from the walk home: I'm still dazzled by the flowering pears beautifying the town of bricks, glass, stone, steel and mortar. Then along Lexington at 72nd Peter Elliot's window is featuring the Spring look for the men in the nabe (that nabe).

Contact DPC here.

View from a window. 2 PM. Photo: JH.

Thursday, April 24, 2014. A sunny day but not warm yesterday in New York; a chill in the air, a strong breeze and big grey clouds moving across the blue.

I went down to Michael’s to lunch with Connie Spahn who is one of the co-chairs of the 2014 Annual Spring Environmental Lecture and Luncheon which will be held next Wednesday, April 30th at the Museum on Central Park West and 77th Street.

This is a great New York event. Connie introduced me to this a number of years ago. The “lecture” is really a discussion, moderated by Lynn Sherr, with a panel of three authorities related to the subject. The subject is always the environment: water, food, health. The discussion is held in the LeFrak Auditorium, draws a big crowd of mainly women (it’s in the middle of the day), and you learn.

Lynn Sherr and Connie Spahn.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC), “which has advanced environmental understanding and biodiversity research and conservation around the world since its founding.” The topics are current and specific to the moment of our life here on planet Earth.

After lunch I walked up Fifth Avenue because I wanted to get a shot of the pear trees around the Pulitzer Fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel. It wasn’t a great day for capturing the drama of the trees because the Sun was clouded over in the afternoon. But I also like passing the Bergdorf windows which are always creative and clever and beautiful. A young woman had just finished taking a photo of this window featuring Carolina Herrera’s dresses.

I crossed over 59th Street to Madison Avenue and ran into this little white pup, a canine princess being wheeled up the avenue by her adoring mistress. That’s when I caught the picture of pear in bloom next to the scaffolding. You see how they take the edge off the city even on a cloudy day. There are side streets that are veritable tunnels of pear blossoms. They even add something to the store window displays. I caught a cab at 66th and Madison (the photo is looking south). Getting close to home, I couldn’t resist the tree by an unremarkable brick apartment house blazing Springtime.

Late in the afternoon the news came out about the sudden, untimely death of Mark Shand, an Englishman who had been here in New York promoting his Elephant charity with The Faberge Egg Hunt auction that was held this past Tuesday night at Sotheby’s. To the many who knew him, it was shocking. Shand had gone on to a party to celebrate the great success of the auction fundraising for the elephants. At some point, he either was leaving the party, or went out onto the street to have a cigarette. At curbside, he briefly slipped or lost his balance and fell headfirst onto the pavement. He was taken immediately to Bellevue Hospital, had surgery, and never recovered. He died at noon yesterday. He was sixty-two.

Head wounds are often fatal and New Yorkers, all New Yorkers, including visitors, are at risk. It is important (and almost impossible) to watch where you’re going all the time. Even then, an accident, like a slipping or tripping, can land you on your head. It’s a most ordinary accident that can occur under any circumstances any time of day. And very often fatal. For Mark Shand, it was night time and it was not light. A moment’s distraction can be one’s fate.


	Mark Shand and Caroline Kennedy, when Shand became a household name.

	Shand was movie star handsome and with a bright personality full of curiosity.

Mark Shand was first in the American press in the 1970s when it was reported that he had a date with the then teenage Caroline Kennedy. She had been in London and they met there. The item was newsworthy because it was showing that the late President’s daughter was growing up. Shand was no more than in his early twenties, if that.

I met him in the early '80s when he was in Los Angeles with his friend Harry Fane and they were doing business internationally collecting and selling vintage Cartier jewelry, watches, etc. The two young men were staying with our mutual friend Lady Sarah Churchill in Beverly Hills. Sarah often had houseguests and there was the resulting camaraderie between everyone, as she liked to entertain. These boys she had known all their lives.

Shand was of particular, if uneventful interest to me because I was meeting a “celebrity” in an ordinary social situation. He was movie star handsome and with a bright personality full of curiosity. So conversation was engaging, and laughter was often present. Sarah’s dinner and luncheon tables were often full of animated conversation supplied by the hostess if not the guests.

He was one of those Englishmen, an aristo who had a passion for adventure. You could see that almost on meeting. I never saw him again after that time at Sarah’s, but I wasn’t surprised to learn that he had had an adventurous life that passed through exotic lands and a plethora of peoples. The kind of man you read about in books; the kind who writes books of their adventures; as did he.His involvement with the Elephants reflects the bigness of his heart and his lust for life, truly joie de vivre.

He was a man of many many friends. I am certain there are scores, maybe hundreds, maybe even thousands who are very sad at learning of Mark Shand’s sudden demise.

Incidentally, he was famous to a degree, in the world, because his sister Camilla is married to Prince Charles. There is no doubt the sadness and loss they are feeling now is wounding.

Delia von Neuschatz profiled Mark Shand and his work with the elephants on a recent NYSD. She was at the party last night at Sotheby’sm and took some photos of the evening and of the man who only hours later would leave his friends, and loved ones, and the world for good. Delia’s coverage of the Auction party below (and her personal tribute to him) are featured today on the NYSD ...

David Linley and Mark Shand next to The Royal Egg - Humpty Dumpty, submitted by the Prince’s Drawing School and signed by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

On Tuesday night, Sotheby’s hosted an auction the likes of which its 72nd Street premises have never before encountered. Twenty one gorgeous one-of-a-kind eggs (yes, eggs) went to the highest bidder to raise funds for two worthy causes: conservation and children’s education.

Created by artists, architects and fashion designers including Jeff Koons, Julian Schnabel, Zaha Hadid and Ralph Lauren, these were part of a treasure trove of 250+ eggs which have recently been dispersed throughout New York City, the objects of a Fabergé-sponsored treasure hunt. Enthusiastic bidding, at the capable hands of Jamie Niven, Chairman of Sotheby’s America, culminated in a whopping $900,000 paid for Jeff Koons’ creation. The evening raised an impressive $1.6 million dollars altogether.

Missed out on the auction? Not to worry. Many singular and eggs-traordinary works can still be had through the online auction house, Paddle8. Better hurry though. Bidding ends on April 26. Proceeds will benefit Mark Shand’s Elephant Family which strives to save the endangered Asian elephant from extinction and Agnes Gund’s Studio in a School which brings the visual arts to under-served public schools.

Ruth Powys, CEO of Elephant Family, Jamie Niven, Agnes Gund and Mark Shand.

Eggs by Retna with Nikolai von Bismark, Kelsey Brookes, Antonio Murado and Frank Hyder.

Jeff Koons’ egg.

Judy and Albert Taubman.

Princess Eugenie of York.

Egg designer, Jon Koon standing next to his work made of 24-kt gold leaf covered by the shards of two smashed vases that had once belonged to Chairman Mao.

Waris Ahluwalia, one of the egg designers, with Hailey Gates.

Waris Ahluwalia’s egg is hand carved from a single piece of Saur Wood in Bali.

Music during cocktail hours was provided by Frankie Sharp.

Suydam Lansing, one of the egg designers, and Jamie Niven.

Michael Head andMaggie Norris.

Alexandra Bowes-Lyon.

Miniature versions of the eggs were available for sale.

Egg designer Clifford Ross with Virginia Coleman and Agnes Gund.

The flower-filled entrance to the event served as backdrop to displays of Fabergé jewelry.

Imad Izemrane, Constance Jablonski, Laura de Gunzburg and Bame Fierro March.

Matthew Lohmann and Baldev Duggal.

Julian Schnabel’s egg.

Nicole Mollo and Donna Schwartz.

Fiona McKinstrie and Jamie Niven.

Simon Hepworth and Rachel Waldron.

John Hemingway and Lisa Woodward.

Kelly Vitko and Andrew Fenet.

Delia and Kevin von Neuschatz.

Several of the eggs that were up for auction including Bruce Weber’s Kate Moss collage, second from left.

Zaha Hadid’s egg is on the left and Tracy Emin’s is second from the right.

Hosanna Marshall enjoying a chocolate Ladurée macaroon.

Musical entertainment after the auction was provided by legendary “Soul Man” Sam Moore.

Contact DPC here.

Pear trees almost in full bloom on West 69th Street. 1 PM. Photo: JH.

Monday, April 28, 2014. A mainly sunny, somewhat cool weekend in New York, with clouds and some rain coming in on late Saturday afternoon through the evening. Unremarkable otherwise, and still early Spring.

It rained lightly and briefly Saturday afternoon, and about 5:30 a friend called me and told me to get down to the river to see the rainbow that stretched all the way from the Triboro Bridge to the southern tip of Roosevelt Island. By the time I got there (ten minutes later), the top of the rainbow was hidden by haze. However, you can see how intense it was. 5:45 p.m.

Early Sunday afternoon with lots of big clouds rushing across the blue -- to the south and the Queensboro/59th Street/Edward Koch Bridge.

Same time but looking north away from the Sun, looking toward the same spot where Saturday's rainbow appeared.

And the Promenade looking north toward Randall's Island. All those dark clouds, but no precipitation.

West 82nd Street Saturday afternoon about 4. I took this picture for its brief tunnel of pear trees.

The neighbors have their tulips out. Gracie Terrace, Sunday afternoon about 2 p.m.

Same hour, over on the corner of 85th and East End by 120 East End Avenue.

And back home, the real thing and the bronze doré version.

Last night in New York at the Four Seasons Restaurant the Irvington Fellowship Program of the Cancer Research Institute held its annual “Through the Kitchen Party.” Perri Peltz, who briefly emcees the evening, told us how this was their 32nd, all started by her mother Lauren Veronis, who every year swears it will be her last, and how every year Perri talks her into doing it one more time. Perhaps there will be a 33rd.

It is a very successful fundraiser. 260 guests and many of the most prominent people in town buying a ticket. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a long time supporter of the Irvington Institute, was there. I don’t know how much they raised although Jamie Niven conducted an auction and raised at least $400,000 by asking people to give in increments of 50, 25, 10, 5 and one thousand. He also sold a dinner for six at RAO’S for $15,000. Getting a reservation at RAO’S can’t even be had for that price. You have to know somebody who’s not using their table that night.

The Chrysler Building from ten blocks north at 7:15 p.m. last night. I'm so used to the image with the lights but the sunset on the building gave it a different majesty. I never get tired of looking up at the Chrysler Building. It's almost as if I'm seeing it each time for the first time.

The guests last night in the Grille Room for cocktails before the Through the Kitchen dinner.

The chairs: Lauren Veronis, Perri Peltz, Jeanne Siegel, and Jo Carole Lauder.

The process is the same. It’s a Sunday Supper, New York style. A magnificent buffet in the kitchen in the restaurant. An: all-you-can-eat-and-drink-and-dessert. And people aren’t shy about filling their plates.

The evening always has a theme (it’s held in the pool room). Last night’s was “Dancing” and so the tables had names of dances. Mine was the “Belly Dance” table. I was a guest of Herb and Jeanne Siegel and they had Joanie Schnitzer, in from Houston, on her way tomorrow to Rome; Richard Meier, Peggy Siegal, who made a mountain of food on her plate; Regis and Joy Philbin, Tony Bennett and Susan Crow, Bill Finneran and his guest.

Then the kitchen doors open and they're already lined up, and the apron servers assist with the wearing. That's architect Richard Meier on the top right. Mr. Meier is currently walking with a cane because he is recovering from his third hip replacement. And still managing a smile.

Perri Peltz thanking her mother Lauren Veronis for the great success she created and expressing her hope that Mrs. Veronis will go for her 33rd next year.

Sotheby's Jamie Niven raising about $400,000 in fifteen minutes by selling a couple of auction items and then just asking for special donations beginning at $50,000.

After the auction they open the dessert and people literally run up the steps to get to it. All these prominent, sophisticated New Yorkers (not exactly spring chickens, either) run to the dessert tables. A tribute to the pastry chef.

Last night’s host committee: Christine and John Fitzgibbon, Denise and Michael Kellen, Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder, Jamie Niven, Margaret and Andrew Paul, Perri Peltz and Eric Ruttenberg, Betsy and Paul Shiverick, Jeanne and Herb Siegel, Diane and Tom Tuft, Lauren and John Veronis. A good night, and home by ten.

I didn't get all the food that was put out. But the guests got to see it all. It was one of those situations where you can have everything on the menu and you decide to see if you can actually put all of that on your plate. Ridiculous but impossible to avoid: it's all very good.

Guests ready to begin ...

Last night’s theme was “Dancing” and so the tables had names of dances ...

Thursday last. I had lunch at Michael’s with Cornelia Guest. American’s debutante of the 1970s. American Heritage-goes-Studio 54. I mention this only because Cornelia today is possibly more beautiful than she was in her gilded youth, and now she’s a one-girl industry. I mean the girl works. She’s got a catering business that is growing by leaps and bounds. She’s got an all-natural handbag business and is coming out with her Spring line in the next few weeks. And between here in New York and the family house in Long Island, she’s got about eight dogs. And may be acquiring another any day now. Her mother, the fabled CZ was like that, and Cornelia in that way is a chip off the old coif. And she likes L.A. too, like this old fan.

Thursday was the day she also signed the papers to sell the family house “Templeton” with its sixteen acres and ten bedrooms. More than she needs, eight dogs and all. Cornelia will remain in residence for about a year and by then will have got herself a new piece of property. She plans to remain on Long Island.

Michael’s was doing business, especially with the ladies. By which I mean, at table one were these three at brunch: Rosanna Scotto, Jeanine Pirro, and Maria Bartiromo. The guy is Steve Millington, the Michael’s GM who always takes the pictures in Michael’s that you see on the NYSD, so he wanted to be in one too. It’s the selfie-effect at work in the room. He’s having his moment with the three.

Steve Millington, Rosanna Scotto, Jeanine Pirro, and Maria Bartiromo at Table One,

It would be interesting to listen in on those three girls at table. Oh, if the flowers behind them only had ears. Or hidden mikes. Never mind, it was probably all about dermos, manicurists, shrinks (of friends) and the downside of this and that. Remember there’s always downside when your life is in a rush in NYC. It’s all a challenge for balance everywhere, including in the head.

Meanwhile, speaking of balance in the head, in the Garden Room at the same hour Peggy Siegal put together a luncheon for Marlo Thomas and her new book: “It Ain’t Over ... Till It’s Over”. And what would that be that ain’t over? The whole magillah. The room was filled with a lot of girls who have just that on their minds all the time.


	Marlo Thomas with a copy of "It Ain't Over." Click to order.

Such as: the hosts -- Arianna Huffington, Diane Sawyer and Judith Curr, President and Publisher, Atria Publishing Group, in honor of Marlo Thomas. Also: Nancy Armstrong, Maryam Banikarim (SVP of Gannett Company), Joy Behar, Candice Bergen, Myrna Blyth (SVP and Editorial director of AARP), Joanna Coles (EIC Cosmopolitan), Lucy Danziger, Cristina Cuomo (EIC Beach Magazine), Gayle King (CBS This Morning host), Ellen Levine (Editorial Director of Hearst), Susan Lyne (Vice Chairman of GILT and on the board of AOL, Inc and Starz), Sheila Nevins (President of HBO Documentary Films), Elaine May, Zhena Muzyka (author), Jennifer Raab (President of Hunter College of the City University of New York [CUNY]), Carolyn Reidy (President & CEO of Simon & Schuster), Gloria Steinem, Meredith Vieira, Diane Von Furstenberg and Ali Wentworth.

Also attending were some who were subjects in the book, like Julie Azuma (mother to an autistic daughter, who launched website to help autistic kids), Lori Cheek (Match Game, dating website), Kerry O’Brien (CEO of Commando) and Sue Rock (created a clothing line for victims of domestic violence).

There’s always a lot going on for these ladies who lunch nowadays. The entire luncheon was a marketing activity, in other words, business-as-usual -- and, although many of the guests have friendships and ongoing social relationships with others, this is a ritual of helping a friend. And seeing people you haven’t seen in awhile. And nobody wears a hat.


Prince and Princess Karl Friedrich von Hohenzollern

That night I went over to the Pierre where the Versailles Foundation was having its annual New York City black tie benefit. This dinner is hosted by Barbara de Portago who runs the Foundation that was begun by her stepfather, Gerald Van der Kemp and her mother Florence (Flo-RAWNS). Van der Kemp was the man who restored Versailles in the 20th century. No small feat, an extraordinary journey through life. The Van der Kemps also got involved with the preservation of Monet’s Giverny. The work continues through the present day Versailles Foundation.

Each year Barbara invites a royal personage to speak to the guests about some aspect of the experience of royal life. Almost all are individuals whose royal/political power has long since disappeared into the political changes of the past century and a half.

This year’s guest of honor was His Highness, the Prince Karl Friedrich of Hohenzollern and his wife Princess Katharina (known as Nina to her friends). The Prince and Princess were in the “royal receiving line” with Gillian Fuller, the Foundation Director. After the cocktail reception (Taittinger), The Patrons are photographed with a backdrop of handsome red plumed Cadets from Valley Forge Academy from which Mrs. Portago’s son Russell Grant graduated.

Then the Color Guard enters as the guests stand and then the trumpets herald the cortege of Foundation supporters, Director Mrs Camila Koenig, International Committee Member Mrs John Dorrance III. They are closely followed by the Foundation's Royal International Committee Members : their Imperial and Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess George Frederick of Prussia and Her Royal Highness The Duchess and Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria. All are cousins and neighbors of the Prince Karl Friedrich who some believe bears an uncanny resemblance to King Frederick the Great of Prussia.

The ballroom of the Pierre set for the Versailles dinner as guests assemble at their tables.

In his fifteen minute talk before dinner the Prince told us that the family Hohenzollern is more than 950 years old. In other words, that’s how long they’ve been important in the political scheme of things. Although that importance was lost with the First World War. A small percentage of the thousands of Hohenzollern descendants retain the financial clout and wealth.

The name itself means “toll taker” (tax collector) which is exactly how they started out in the business of eventually acquiring enormous political and economic power. "Zoll" translated is a toll as in a tax levied for the liberty of crossing a bridge for example, or a country border, selling goods in a market etc.

The Prince also told us that .18% of Germany's population is of royal and noble descent and that one percent of it still owns all their castles, collections and lands ... intact.

Barbara de Portago and Donald Tober

Barbara Tober and Cat Jagger-Pollon.

Cat Jagger-Pollon's "Lazy Ring" designed for her by Prince Dimitri.

The Prince is the father of three children from his first marriage to Count von Stauffenberg's daughter. The Count, you may remember, was the man behind the plot to blow up Hitler in a coup that failed. As an officer he was executed; his children (whence the daughter of Hohenzollern's first wedding) were thrown into the anonymity of orphanages and his brothers hung from meat hooks. The prince did not remind us of this in his talk.

Also present at the evening was His Imperial Royal Highness The Prince George Frederick of Prussia who is the direct descendant of Frederick the Great of Prussia and the great-great grandson was Kaiser Wilhem II, and a great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria. Aside from his very royal blood, the prince was a very pleasant fellow as interested in history as I and no doubt, moreso.

Melissa Morris, Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, and Cat Jagger-Pollon.

Princess Elisabeth of Prussia with Gillian Fuller.

The Foundation continues the mission of Barbara’s late mother and stepfather, Florence & Gerald Van der Kemp for The Chateau de Versailles and the Home & Gardens of Claude Monet.

There are also projects of French origin such as the restoration of Thomas Jefferson's Georges Jacob Mobilier at Monticello, the performed revival of Versailles XVIIth century Court Music by William Christie's "Les Arts Florissants".

At Giverny the Foundation underwrites Garden Volunteers culled from all over the world, an Artists in Residence Fellowship Program and the current restoration of Claude Monet's Greenhouse.

DPC and Susan Gutfreund.

Sheik Khalaisa Al-Khalisa, Alana Parry, and Thomas Leddy.

After the Versailles dinner, I had to make a quick run down to Michael's to pick up my credit card that I'd left behind at lunch. On my way back north, I stopped to get some shots of the great new Bergdorf's windows.

Catching up. Last Wednesday night at the Pierre, CASAColumbia hosted its 22nd anniversary dinner and honored Jon and Lizzie Tisch with the Distinguished Service Award for their philanthropic and civic leadership in health, arts, and education.


	Elizabeth Vargas.

“To be in this room tonight with individuals who care so much about a cause that touches us all is very meaningful,” Jonathan Tisch said. “Everyone will deal with addiction in some manner and by being here tonight you are giving the much needed dollars and your support to CASA to break down all of the walls that surround addiction and allow us to talk about addiction in a manner that is respectful to the seriousness of the disease.”

Joe Califano, who founded CASA, introduced the organizations newly appointed President and CEO Dr. Samuel Ball. Elizabeth Vargas, co-anchor of ABC News 20/20, served as master of ceremonies.

CASAColumbia, formerly known as The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, is a science-based organization focused on developing effective solutions to address the disease of addiction. It is committed to understanding the science of addiction and its implications for health care, public policy and public education. It was founded in 1992 by Joseph A. Califano, Jr. former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Samuel Ball, Ph.D., Joseph A. Califano, Jr., and Jeffrey Lane.

Jonathan and Lizzie Tisch with Nancy and Jeffrey Lane.

Sondra and David Mack.

Jay Diamond and Alexandra Lebenthal.

Olivia De Grelle and Jamie Niven.

Photographs by Eric Weiss (Casa).

Contact DPC here.

Tulips in Central Park. 3 PM. Photo: JH.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014. Sunny and warmer, yesterday in New York cooling down to the mid-50s by nightfall. Rain on the way; it’s still April with its showers.

Scenes from a New York Monday, as seen by JH ...

Last night in New York there was an element of music everywhere on the charity gala scene. Down at Carnegie Hall The New York Pops was celebrating its 31st Birthday at a gala concert (followed by a dinner) and honoring the musical team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman who wrote the hit musical show Hairspray. The team now has an original musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now breaking box office records on London’s West End.

Meanwhile up in Harlem at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse, the Harlem Stage was celebrating its Gala with an “evening honoring genius.”

And down on West 46th Street the New York Conservatory was hosting a tribute to Herbert Greene, Broadway conductor, arranger, composer and voice teacher.

Down at Capitale, Symphony Space was honoring lyricist Sheldon Harnick with a gala event “Fiddler at 50.” At Best Buy Theater, the National Dance Institute was hosting its annual gala with dinner, awards and a performance.

At the Waldorf, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation was hosting its annual Spring Gala “Hot Pink Party” to a sold-out crowd with Sir Elton John in concert. Even up at the Pierre where the New York Dinner Dance was honoring Sofia and Peter Blanchard. Again. Music. All in a New York night.

Yesterday, Tom Edmonds, the president of the Southampton Historical Society sent me a few photographs from an upcoming collection of the work of society photographer Bert Morgan. In a thirty-year period, roughly between 1930 and 1980, Morgan was one of the most prominent private photographers to Society and the American social.

Jacqueline Bouvier Leading a Pony, August 1934, Southampton Riding & Hunt Club. Photograph by Bert Morgan.

This exhibition, called Southampton Blue Book, 1930 – 1960: Photographs by Bert Morgan, opens in a little more than a week at the Southampton Historical Museum at 17 Meeting House Lane on Saturday, May 10, 2014. It will be on view through October 18, 2014. The exhibition comes through the courtesy of Patrick Montgomery of the Bert Morgan Archives.

The exhibit presents a sampling of the thousands of photographs Morgan took during the summertime in mainly Southampton and East Hampton at private parties, horse shows, weddings and the occasional charity gala. Morgan’s archive contains more than 500 photos of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and her birth family and her Kennedy family.

Jacqueline Bouvier Jumping, July 29, 1939 at the Southampton Riding & Hunt Club. Photograph by Bert Morgan.

Bert Morgan was born in England in 1904. Seven years later he came to America with his parents. He started his photography career with a camera he bought in a pawn shop for $7. In 1930, age 26, he went on his own as a freelance photographer. He focused his lens, he once told an interviewer, on the “Southampton group, the Newport group, the group that went everyday to the races, the group that regularly went to Jamaica and Bermuda. Shortly, no matter where I went, I found plenty of people I knew I could make pictures of.”

In a career that spanned more than half a century and established him as the dean of society photographers, Bert Morgan spent many weekends photographing Southampton’s wealthy summer residents. This exhibit presents a sampling from the thousands of photographs Morgan took of Southampton’s rich and famous at their exclusive clubs or as guests at private parties, weddings and galas.

Mrs. Winston Guest with Dog, Southampton Bathing Corporation, ca 1953. Photograph by Bert Morgan.

In his fifty year career, he followed society through what he regarded as three separate phases: “the Four Hundred; Café Society -- “which haunted the Stork Club and El Morocco;” and the Jet Set. Morgan penetrated those inner circles of high society by impressing his subjects with his gentle professionalism and discretion. People looked good, and yet interesting also. They trusted him. They knew he’d never to show them in an unkind way.

Plus he was charming and friendly, so he’d they’d invite him to their parties. They were also happy to oblige when he asked them to pause for a moment or two for a picture, on their way to the beach. The photos would then make it in to Town & Country and Vogue.

Diana Vreeland posing outside of the Southampton Bathing Corporation, ca. 1953. Photograph by Bert Morgan.

Who can resist the five year old Jacqueline Bouvier, already easily identifiable to us 80 years later? How familiar is the resoluteness on the face of the 10-year-old Jackie as her horse makes the jump. Then there’s the 33-yea-old CZ Guest emerging from her car with one of her dogs in front of the Southampton Bathing Corporation. Or the 50-year-old Diana Vreeland ever-chic in her shorts, halter and sandals, carrying her umbrella to be certain to shield herself from the Sun’s rays.

The young bride and groom are Anne McDonnell and Henry Ford II, both in their early 20s. The bride was a member of the wealthy McDonnell-Murray family whose joint land holdings (where they lived in summertime) covered hundreds of acres along Wickapogue Road to the beach. Miss McDonnell was one of 16 children, almost two generations of siblings. Five years later, fresh out of the service in World War II, after the death of his father two years earlier, 28-year-old Henry took over as head of the Ford Motor Company, a position he held for the next 35 years. The Ford marriage lasted 24 years, living in Grosse Pointe, Southampton and New York. They divorced in 1964.

Henry Ford II wedding (to Southampton Socialite Anne McDonnell Ford), July 13, 1940. Photograph by Bert Morgan.

The Bert Morgan exhibit opens at the Rogers Mansion, a property of the Southampton Historical Museums and Research Center on Meeting House Lane. The Mansion is open Wednesdays through Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (631) 283-2494 or visit www.southamptonhistoricalmuseum.org.

Contact DPC here.

Ready for takeoff. 8 PM. Photo: JH.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014. Cloudy, cold, rain, and some wind. Not what you think of as Spring weather, but then, if not, what is it? It’s not winter and it’s not summer and not even fall.

Over at the New-York Historical Society, they were holding their annual Strawberry Festival Luncheon. This is mainly a ladies luncheon, for several hundred, with a featured speaker of some note and/or achievement.

This year’s honored guest was Doris Kearns Goodwin whose most recent history is “The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism."

Last night in New York, there was more music in the air over at Juilliard with their “Dreams Come True: A Celebration of Julliard Music” Gala black tie Evening. William Christie and Renee Fleming made appearances.

After the Concert, there was a dinner and dancing in The Tent at Lincoln Center.

Susanna Phillips and Isabel Leonard backstage after their performances at “Dreams Come True: A Celebration of Julliard Music." They raised $1.4 million in support of the next generation of artists.

Dinner and dancing took place under The Tent at Lincoln Center.

Also up the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts, they were celebrating the 115th birthday of the Duke at the Ballroom Off Fifth. While over at Riverpark, Tom Colicchio (“Top Chef”) hosted Children of Bellevue’s “Toast to the Children 2014” honoring author Jerry Pinkney and chef Jose Andres.

Down at Pier 60, Riverkeeper was holding its annual Fisherman’s Ball and honoring Chelsea Clinton and SolarCity with Special Recognition of George Hornig, who has been involved with Riverkeeper for the past 15 years, and chaired the board from 2004 through 2009. Yesterday was a busy day for Ms. Clinton who was also honored at a luncheon given by the American Jewish Committee over at the Pierre.

And that’s just what was on my list of invites. I started the night at the Park Avenue apartment of Fernanda Kellogg and Kirk Henckels who were hosting a cocktail reception, a kind of kick-off for the National Audubon Society’s Women in Conservation Luncheon and the 2014 Rachel Carson Awards, which will take place Tuesday, May 20th at the Plaza.


	Allison Rockefeller last night at Fernanda Kellogg and Kirk Henckels' reception for the Audubon Society's upcoming Women in Conservation Luncheon.

This year they are honoring Ellen Futter, who has been the President of the American Museum of Natural History for the past 21 years. Mrs. Futter was previously the President of Barnard College for 13 years, where at the time she was the youngest person to assume the Presidency of a major American college. During her administration of the AMNH, Mrs. Futter has raised more than $1.3 billion.

Allison Rockefeller told me at the reception that they are also honoring Kaiulani Lee, the playwright and performer of “A Sense of Wonder,” the award winning play about Rachel Carson’s love for the natural world and her fight to defend it. And they are honoring Nell Newman, Co-founder (with her father Paul Newman) and President of Newman’s Own Organics. They will be paying tribute to CityHarvest too.

Talking about food production with Allison, she asked in amazement: “Did you know that there are more than 700 urban gardens growing food here in New York?”

No. Where?

Rooftops, backyards, penthouse terraces. Also: “Did you know that there is a colony of 250,000 (yes!) bees being housed at the top of the Waldorf-Astoria?” No! This is something Allison’s just heard about. She also told me another amazing statistic: 15% of all the food being consumed in the world today is raised in urban gardens.

"last supper" cast bronze, 2014. Urs Fischer at the Gargosian Gallery at 75th and Park.

As I was walking up Park Avenue in the low 70s last night, I passed these extraordinary curb gardens in front of 823 and 829 Park Avenue. Lush with some subtle accompaniment ...

Also, last night over at Sotheby’s there was another kind of natural bounty on stage. There was a new world auction record price per carat of any sapphire, with the Exceptional Platinum, Kashmir Sapphire and Diamond Ring which sold for $5,093,000 / $180,731 per carat (est. $4/5 million).

The square emerald-cut Kashmir sapphire weighs 28.18 carats, and is considered one of the finest sapphires ever to appear at auction, described by the American Gemological Laboratories (AGL) as “a gem of singular importance.”

I do not possess the “jewel gene” (my words), nor could I afford them even if I did. But I remain fascinated by the allure of precious gems to many who even become obsessed.

The Exceptional Platinum, Kashmir Sapphire and Diamond Ring which sold for $5,093,000 / $180,731 per carat (est. $4/5 million).

The legendary sapphires of the Kashmir region were discovered in the early 1880s as a result of a landslide in the remote Kudi Valley of India. Initially the local Indians traded them for goods such as salt. But soon the mine became the property of the Maharaja, and all stones flowed to him, of course.

By only 1887 the original mine was depleted. Other mines were developed over the following decades, but the majority of sapphires from the Kashmir region that are on the market today were drawn from the ground in the short life of this original mine.

The uniqueness of the Kashmir emeralds is a softness that can be described as “velvety,” an almost tangible texture that tempts the eye. Their rich, lustrous blue color is often compared to that of a cornflower, and it surpasses that of sapphires from any other part of the world. Also unlike other sapphires, its color excels in any light, without the purplish or grayish hues that can “stain” non-Kashmir stones.


	Magnificent Fancy Intense Orangy Pink Diamond and Diamond Ring that brought $6,101,000 (est. $6/7 million).

	The El Dorado Emerald, an emerald-cut Colombian emerald weighing 36.53 carats: $2,165,000 (est. $1.8/2.2 million).

These sapphires make up only a tiny percentage of the world’s total sapphire supply. Finding an unheated Kashmir sapphire of more than 28 carats – particularly of such extraordinary quality – is exceptional. The American Gemological Laboratories labels this stone a “Classic Kashmir,” denoting that it not only exhibits the classic gemological features of the Kashmir region, but also represents the top quality of stones from the region.

This Kashmir sapphire was purchased at Sotheby’s New York more than 30 years ago. Since that time, new records have been set and broken for sapphires, with the most recent, both in terms of total price and price-per-carat, set in November 2013 at Sotheby’s Geneva by The Richelieu Sapphires, a pair of Kashmirs both in excess of 20 carats which went for US$ 8,358,520 total, US$ 175,821 per carat).

My personal knowledge of precious gems is non-existent, yet they have amazed me since I was a young man first living in New York where such rarities can be seen fairly frequently. My observations of these beautiful stones has always been the personal drama of acquiring. What does one do when one gets the precious gem home and now possesses it? Wear it, of course, if it is wearable. Or stare at it for what it represents.

Their “wealth” value is also accompanied by their “survival” value, viz., the stories of people in history escaping political upheavals with their precious stones sewed into the linings of their suits and clothing. After the Russian Revolution not a few of the nobles and royals and members of the elite who escaped to Europe lived (as long as they could) off the sales – one precious stone at a time – of their treasures, now the bounty of desperate lives.

This is the writer always thinking, dramatizing, of course; but these extraordinary items plucked and polished from nature’s catastrophes, always remain mysterious, and infinitely alluring to the human condition.

Yesterday’s auction of “Magnificent Jewels” at Sotheby’s achieved $44,313,500 in total, led by a Magnificent Fancy Intense Orangy Pink Diamond and Diamond Ring that brought $6,101,000 (est. $6/7 million). The cushion-cut diamond of 15.23 carats, VS2 clarity, “displays a soft, feminine color reminiscent of pink diamonds in historic and royal collections.” Also there was the sale included The El Dorado Emerald, an emerald-cut Colombian emerald weighing 36.53 carats: $2,165,000 (est. $1.8/2.2 million).

There was also a selection of jewels from the estate of American entertainment icon song stylist Eydie Gorme, which altogether fetched $2.2 million. Almost all of the jewels were given to the recording and nightclub star by her husband (and often performing partner) Steve Lawrence– to whom she was married for more than 55 years. They were known everywhere as ‘Steve and Eydie,’ America’s most sophisticated and award-winning pop vocal duet.

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.

Contact DPC here.

On the outskirts of Columbus Cirlce, 9:30 PM. Photo: JH.

Friday, May 2, 2014. A beautiful day in New York, bright and sunny with temperatures reaching up into the high 70s, and a touch of humidity in the air. My lunch was canceled, and so I decided to take a walk over to Via Quadronno on East 73rd Street between Madison and Fifth for their Orchidea sandwich (smoked ham, goat, camembert & fontina cheeses, tomato, Tabasco), a bottle of Pellegrino, and a cuppa cappuccino.

The restaurant is a sliver of a space, decorated with a Madison Avenue-Italiano touch. In the entrance there are little wooden stools and tiny square tables against the wall. It’s not a lingering space (although many linger anyway), and there’s often a line to get even a stool, and the food is good – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My sandwich was $13.50. The cap was five bucks and the sparkling water another five or so. The total with tax: $25.05. Plus tip. This is New York.

My view from my little table in the front room of Via Quadronno.

I made this trip a walk (a little more than 20 blocks, or a mile, total). Carrying my camera as I do, I got some shots of Spring in its glory. There’s an apartment house on York Avenue between 74th and 73rd that has spectacular flowering trees and several beds of tulips. I’ve been noticing it every year for its floral abundance that has a moment when it’s at its height. Yesterday was one of those moments. Then, the pear blossoms are falling like silken snow petals along the sidewalks and roadsides on the neighborhood streets and avenues. Got it. And it’s tulip time (in more ways than one), along the sidewalks with the mini-gardens surrounding the trees.
Well worth the trip.

Along East End Avenue. I think these are tulips, although they opened in a way that looked as if they might be something else.

This is the corner of 74th and York Avenue. One apartment building occupies the block and it has rather lush landscaping for a Manhattan apartment house. Now is the peak of its flowering season ...

Closeup of the trees below on the southern-most corner of the property, on the corner of 73rd Street.

A view from 73rd Street looking north to 74th, of the entry way to the building.

A little garden on East 73rd Street between Lexington and Park.

Pansies on the the steps of a house on East 73rd -- between Park and Lex -- that was one of the very first buildings put up in that neighborhood at the end of the 19th Century. The house was designed by Stanford White for Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, he the great illustrator of his age of "the Gibson Girl."

Standing on an island in the middle of Park Avenue at 73rd Street, looking south. 12:45 p.m.

Miles and miles of tulips.

Also on East 73rd between Park and Madison, the pear petals raining amongst the white tulips in a sidewalk garden.

Orange tulips in a sidewalk garden on East 84th Street. 1:30 p.m.

Back in the middle of Park, at 84th Street, looking north.

East 84th Street between Park and Lexington (I'm on my way home).

And more; all beauty everywhere.

The week’s calendar has been hectic with multiple events every day and night. Wednesday lunchtime over at the American Museum of Natural History, they were hosting their annual Environmental Lecture Luncheon and celebrating the AMNH’s 20th anniversary of the Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

Lynn Sherr, former correspondent of ABC News’ 20/20, who now reports for a wide range of media including PBS, was in regular role of moderator of this series. Her panelists on the subject were Dr. Eleanor Sterling, director of the Museum’s CBC; Dr. Armando Valdés-Velásquez, associate professor at the Cayetano Heredia University (UPCH) in Lima, Peru; and Andrew Revkin, who has been covering environmental sustainability for more than three decades, mainly for The New York Times.

Panelists Andrew Revkin and Eleanor Sterling, Moderator Lynn Sherr, and panelist Armando Valdés-Velásquez.

Panel discussion in LeFrak Theater.

After the lecture, guests moved to the Milstein Hall for lunch where they honored Connie Spahn, who has been organizing the Lecture Luncheon for the past twenty years. Connie has a long affiliation with the museum having served on its board for more than two decades and participating in many of the museum’s projects and events. In her honor, they’ve named one of the coral reef displays in the Milstein Hall after her.

Museum President Ellen V. Futter, DPC, and Chair Connie Spahn.

The luncheon tables set and ready for the Lecture guests in the Milstein Hall at the American Museum of Natural History (this is the room that has the great blue whale suspended from the ceiling). 1:10 p.m. on Wednesday.

When we emerged from the lunch, it was pouring out. This is a view from the West 77th Street entrance of the museum, looking East toward Central Park West.

Wednesday night I went over to the Metropolitan Club where the Council for Canadian and American Relations was hosting a 40th Anniversary dinner honoring Jacqueline Desmarais and Frank Gehry, both of whom are Canadians. Mr. Gehry, one of the world’s most famous architects, now lives in Los Angeles, but Madame Desmarais still resides in Canada where she and her late husband Paul Desmarais presided over much cultural activity and philanthropies.


	The Honorable Hilary Weston and Dailey Pattee on their way into dinner.

While the Desmarais name is not a household word in the United States, it is a household word in the homes of some of America’s richest families and corporate boardrooms, along with not a few prominent political circles. Paul Desmarais started out his professional life working at a Montreal accounting firm. At the time of his death last October at age 86, he was CEO of the Power Corporation of Canada (PCC), a Canadian company active in the fields of mass media, pulp and paper, and financial services. He was long regarded as one of the richest men in Canada with a fortune of several billion, and an international reputation as a brilliant businessman. He was also a member of such international associations such as the Bilderberg Group, the North American Competitiveness Council and the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Desmarais own a large estate in the forests of Quebec with an area of more than 75 square kilometers (approximately eighteen thousand acres). An invitation to a weekend with the Desmarais has been a confirmation of one’s arrival and importance in the spheres of interest they inhabit. The value of that invitation was greatly enhanced for the individual by the bonhomie of the hosts; a weekend became a family of friends.

The cocktail reception.

There were several hundred guests at the black tie dinner on Wednesday night, including Madame Desmarais and members of her family, and Frank Gehry. The honorary chair was former Canadian Prime Minister The Right Honorable Brian Mulroney and his wife Mila Mulroney, the Honorable Hilary M. Weston and Galen Weston. Chairs for the evening were Audrey and David Mirvish with Lauren and John Veronis.

Guests taking their places in the dining room, with views from its entrance looking south ...

... and north.

Dinner's entertainment. I don't know what they call themselves but they were got up as Mounties and for a moment a lot of people in the room thought they were the real thing. Then they harmonized a medley of popular songs including one that is a national Canadian favorite about "hockey." They were very good, and amusing and could sing Cole Porter too.

Guests that attended included: David and Carol Appel, Count and Countess Arco, Michael Audain, Ashleigh Banfield, Aszure Barton, Dennis Basso, Charles and Rita Bronfman, Geoff Beattie and Amanda Lang, Lucien Bouchard, Zita Cobb, Mr. and Mrs. Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien, Brad Cloepfil and Lisa Strasfeld, Tom d’ Aquino, Sophie Desmarais and Daniel Valoatto, Ambassador Gary Doer, Rupert Duchesne, Dee Dee Taylor Eustace, Leslie Feely, James Fleck, Robert Foster, Sam Gehry, Peter Gelb, Peter Herrndorf and Eva Czigler, Ambassador Bruce and Vicky Heyman, Ambassador David and Julie Jacobson, Bank of Montreal, Hélène de Kovachich and Pierre Marc Johnson, Greg Kane and Adrian Burns, Dorothy Kosinski and Thomas Krähenbühl, Phyllis Lambert, Robert Lepage, Jessica London, Robert McEwen, Diana McQueen, David Mirvish, Brian and Mila Mulroney, Anthony Munk, Kent Nagano and Madeleine Careau, Judy Ney and Lee Elman, Gordon Nixon, David and Gail O’Brien, Gordon and Dailey Pattee, Dominique Poirier, Consul General John Prato, John and Phyllis Rae, Ambassador Guillermo E. Rishchynski, Leon and Paula Root, Wilbur Ross and Hilary Geary Ross, Francois Roy, Dame Jillian Sackler, Stephen and Christine Schwarzman, Jay Smith, Lesley S. Smith, Frank and Harriet Stella, Peter Stringham, Ambassador Kenneth Taylor, Matthew Tietelbaum, Stephane Tétreault, Arni Thornsteinson, John and Lauren Veronis, and Hilary and Galen Weston.

Peter Gelb, Former Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney, Jacqueline Desmarais, and Ambassador Gary Doer.

Frank Gehry and Ambassador David Jacobson.

The gala evening’s program highlighted the accomplishments of its distinguished honorees, whose contributions have made a significant difference in the arts and culture of both Canada and the United States. The evening was also a celebration of CCAR's 40 years of achievement, as well as the organization's future plans for important cultural collaborations between Canada and the United States. A portion of the funds raised during the event will go a newly named Jacqueline Desmarais Fund for Young Artists and to the TurnaroundArts initiative (an affiliate of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities) on behalf of Frank Gehry.

Adrian Burns and Bryce Douglas.

Alberta McLeod Stringham and Peter Stringham.

Jessica London and Lauren Veronis.

Blair and Isabelle Fleming.

Gail O'Brien, Consul General John Prato, Ellen Kratzer, Frank Gehry, and Jacqueline Desmarais.

Judy Ney, Isabel Carden, Mila Mulroney, and Maria Luisa Mendoza.

Adriana Embiricos.

Hilary Geary Ross, Madeline Desmarais, Wilber Ross, and Alexander Desmarais.

Jillian Sackler, Stephen Schwarzman, Christine Schwarzman, and David Graham.

Gianna Corbisiero, Frank Gehry, Jacqueline Desmarais, and Jean Michel Richer.

Former Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney, Jacqueline Desmarais, and Ambassador Gary Doer.

Frank and Sam Gehry.

Julia Jacobson and Ambassador David Jacobson.

Laura Bindloss, Andrea Budau, Scott Budau, and Siimon Bindloss.

Rob McEwen, Cheryl McEwen, and Kevin Lorenz.

Violaine Bernbach, Charles Bronfman, John Prato, and Genevieve Torriani.

W. Galen Weston and Beatrice Arco.

Also this past Wednesday, Bergdorf Goodman hosted an intimately luncheon at Goodman’s Café to celebrate FIT Foundation’s 2014 Gala honorees; which includes Bergdorf Goodman’s ‘style setter’ Linda Fargo.

Luncheon guests included: Mallory Andrews, Martine and Prosper Assouline, Pamela Baxter, Dr. Joyce Brown, Noreen Buckfire, Barbara Cirkva, Cristina Greeven Cuomo, Dee Dee Eustice, Linda Fargo, Robert Ferguson, Hilary Geary, Yaz Hernandez, Joan Hornig, Reed Krakoff, Adam Lippes, Carol Mack, Cheryl McEwen, Gilles Mindel, Liz Peek, Paulina Porizkova, Kelly Rutherford, Martha Stewart, Dee Dee Eustice Taylor, Barbara Tober, Elizabeth von der Goltz, and Cindy Weber-Cleary.

Joyce Brown, Liz Peek, and Martha Stewart.

Looking ahead: The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) Foundation will honor its Board Chairman (and former Kohl’s president) Dr. Jay Baker, Bergdorf Goodman’s Linda Fargo, and jewelry designer and philanthropist Joan Hornig at the foundation’s annual gala Monday, June 9, 2014 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. Alber Elbaz will fly from Paris to make a special presentation of the award to Linda Fargo. The Gala’s Chairs are Pamela Baxter, Joy Herfel Cronin, Victoria Elenowitz, Yaz Hernandez, Jane Hertzmark Hudis, and Liz Peek. A special décor will be created by Devon Bruce and invitations will be in the purple and silver in honor of Bergdorf Goodman.

Adam Lippes, Prosper Assouline, Martine Assouline, Linda Fargo, and Gilles Mendel.

Barbara Tober, Noreen Buckfire, and Liz Peek.

Carol Mack, Hilary Geary Ross, and Robert Ferguson.

Pamela Baxter and Gilles Mendel.

Paulina Porizkova.

Cheryl McEwen, Kelly Rutherford, Yaz Hernandez, and Dee Dee Eustace.

Joyce Brown, Barbara Cirkva, and Elizabeth von der Goltz .

Linda Fargo, Yaz Hernandez, and Joan Hornig.

Reed Krakoff and Linda Fargo.

Hilary Geary Ross and Cristina Greeven Cuomo.

Also last Wednesday, they honored Chelsea Clinton and Linda Mills with the global advocacy organization's Interfaith Leadership Award for co-founding the Of Many Institute at New York University. The award was presented at the AJC Women's Leadership Spring Luncheon, attended by more than 350 at The Pierre Hotel.

"Your visionary leadership in advancing interfaith partnerships in pursuit of the common good has paved a vital pathway for all who seek to build a world based on generosity and mutual respect," states the inscription on the award. Cori Berger, Chair of AJC's Women's Leadership Board, and Betty Cotton, president of AJC's New York Region, presented the award.

Betty Cotton, president of AJC New York Region; Linda Mills, NYU's Chancellor for Global Programs and University Life; Chelsea Clinton; Cori Berger, chair of AJC Women's Leadership Board.

AJC Executive Director David Harris, Chelsea Clinton,, and Linda Mills discuss the Of Many Institute after presentation of AJC's Interfaith Leadership Award.

Catching up. Monday evening, April 21st, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center honored Meryl Streep at a sold out gala event at the Edison Ballroom. The 14th Annual Monte Cristo Award was presented to Streep by Yale classmate, friend, and film and stage vet Joe Grifasi. Red carpet and cocktails began at 6:30pm followed by dinner and a program celebrating the honoree.

“Every venerable old lady like the O’Neill and myself, doesn’t like to think of themselves as a larded, old institution – no matter how many tributes they’ve gotten, no matter how many successes we’ve launched,” Streep said in her acceptance speech. “We like to think that new work will come to us and our best work is ahead of us. And because of places like the O’Neil that foster new work, it’s possible.”

Preston Whiteway, Meryl Streep, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Michael Douglas.

Judith Light, Tony Kushner, John Patrick Shanley and Tracy Letts shared stories about their time working with Streep as the part of the evening’s program. Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez rounded out the event by performing a tribute song for Streep to the tune of “Love is an Open Door” from Disney’s “Frozen.” O’Neill Executive Director Preston Whiteway and Chairman Tom Viertel hosted the evening.

During the speeches, Kushner remembered the first time he met Streep, as she assured him not to worry, as Kushner stated she must have been able to tell that he was nervous about working with “the Meryl Streep.” John Patrick Shanley commented on how enjoyable it is to win an Academy Award before encouraging Streep saying, “Your time is coming,” as she laughed in response. Tracy Letts wrapped up the speeches discussing their work on August: Osage County. He said that after working with Streep, he is like the thousands of aspiring actors who have approached her over the years, sharing the sentiment, “Meryl is my acting hero.”

Judith Light.

Andy Karl and Margo Seibert.

2012 Monte Cristo Award honoree Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones also attended, along with actors Betsy Parrish, Marcel Rosenblatt, Andy Karl, Orfeh, Billy Magnussen, Alice Ripley, Margo Seibert, Susan Blackwell and many more.

A graduate of Vassar College and Yale School of Drama, one of Streep’s first professional jobs was at the O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference in 1975, during which she acted in five plays over six weeks. Since that time, a distinct empathy for her characters and the diversity of women she has chosen to portray has distinguished her work in film, television, and theater for nearly three decades.

Robert Lopez, Joe Grifasi, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and Preston Whiteway.

More catching up: The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance celebrated its first inaugural dinner and awarding the Pershing Square Sohn Prize to six young, innovative scientists in New York City for cancer research.

The dinner included the foundation Advisory Board (Bill and Karen Ackman, Olivia Flatto, PhD, Allen Modell, David Klafter, Whitney Tilson, Jeanne Ackman, Bill Doyle), the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Governing Board, and the Prize Advisory Board (Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Ph.D., President, Rockefeller University; Craig Thompson, M.D., President and CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Bruce Stillman, Ph.D., President and CEO, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Siddharta Mukherjee, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Columbia University Medical Center; Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., President, Worldwide Research and Development, Pfizer, Inc.; Allan Goodman, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Institute of International Education.; and Pablo Legorreta, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Royalty Pharma) , and the Scientific Review Council (Riccardo Dalla Favera PhD, Columbia University, Joan Massague PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, David Lyden MD, PhD, Weill Cornell, Ali Brivanlou,PhD Rockefeller University, and additional guests from the business and pharmaceutical industry community.

Their special guest that evening was Siddharta Mukherjee, MD, PhD, Author of the Emperor of All maladies who gave a talk after dinner.

Allen Model, Siddhartha Mukherjee M.D., PhD., Olivia Flatto PhD., Naomie Macena, and Bill Ackman.

Bill Ackman, Olivia Flatto PhD., and Moses Chao PhD.

Richard Gregory PhD. and Bruce Stillman PhD.

Pascaline Servan Schreiber and Ed McDermott.

Geoffrey Smith, Richard Gilbertson M.D. PhD., Steven Burakoff M.D., and Yibin Kang PhD.

Jackie Bromberg M.D. PhD., Victoria Richon PhD., and Michael Sadelain M.D. PhD.

Sujit Sheth M.D., Lauren Breslow, Scott Armstrong M.D. PhD., and Evan Sohn.

Jeanne Ackman and Marc Tessier-Lavigne.

Laurie Glimcher and Bill Ackman.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. Click to order.

Contact DPC here.

On call. 12:30 PM. Photo: JH.

Monday, May 5, 2014. Beautiful weekend in New York; pleasant although not warm. Some Sun and lots of cloudiness. Last night about 5 o’clock, it rained, coming down like a deluge for ten minutes and that was that. But all in all in was a lovely weekend in the city.

Friday afternoon, driving down East 86th Street to East End, this is what I saw at the junction. I'd forgotten how rich and astounding this grove is.

A closeup in Carl Shurz Park of the same.

And the tulips at their base ...

Last Thursday night I went down to Sotheby’s for a black tie dinner benefiting the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. ADDF was created in 1998 by Leonard and Ronald Lauder, sons of Estee. In the past eight years they’ve established a public profile.

The Lauders are an interesting family. Mama and Papa (Joe Lauder) started the business in the mid-1940s. Estee Lauder started with a fragrance called “Youth Dew.” If she ran into you at Bloomingdale’s or on Fifth or Madison Avenues, she’d give you a little spritz and a sample. That initial marketing foray was highly successful; people talked about it and those old enough still recall it. It became a hit. When Leonard, the eldest son, joined the company in 1958, they had annual sales of $800,000. That was not a figure to be scoffed at (the equivalent of more than ten times that in today’s currency).

Joe Lauder, Evelyn Lauder, Estee, and Leonard Lauder with his sons, William and Gary. Photo: Palm Beach Daily News.

I don’t know much about their father Joe, except that he was the rock of the company management. It was with him that Estee could create an organization that is now 68 years old, and one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair products with annual sales of more than $10 billion. And Mama Estee is a household name across the world.

Estee Lauder was the center of the story. Ambition was personified. She had all the makings of a tycoon and indeed she became one. By the early 1960s, the company was prospering and Estee had other fields to explore and develop. Society.

Estee Lauder with her family in 1978: (L-R) Gary Lauder, Evelyn Lauder, Joseph Lauder, Estee Lauder, Aerin Lauder, William Lauder, Jane Lauder, Leonard Lauder, Ronald Lauder and Jo Carole Lauder. Photo: EPA

In those late mid-century days, New York still had a society. It had transmogrified from the days of the Mrs. Astor but there was still a hierarchy with several branches, all of which were respected on some level of legitimacy. The Lauders were newcomers but Estee and Joe befriended the Duke and Duchess of Windsor among others, and entertained them, feted them, and some say, even paid them (the Windsors were always said to be pleased to be rewarded financially for their company). Nevertheless, Estee Lauder went from being ambitious to becoming a force. The rest is history. The woman herself thrived on her success and with it she took on the mantle of great success by being a very nice lady who loved social life and meeting people.


	Leonard and Evelyn.

Leonard Lauder ran the company from 1972 to 1995 when he was CEO, and it became the enormous enterprise that it is today. Estee died in 2004 at age 97, having lived to see the heights of her business success. She left behind a legacy of a business and two sons who not only enhanced their mother’s business but also embarked on establishing the Lauder name in philanthropy and culture not only in New York, but in the world.

What the boys did with the family fortune which has evidently grown and grown into the billions, is to find ways of sharing the wealth through their personal interests. Both Ronald and Leoanard have been important contributors, along with their wives, to many charities and organizations in New York. Ronald, like his brother, is an avid art collector, but now has established a museum the Neue Galerie on Fifth Avenue and 86th Street.

Leonard got behind supporting his late wife Evelyn’sBreast Cancer Research Foundation, which is devoted to funding research and has made great strides in successfully treating the disease. Last week the BCRF also had its annual Pink Party luncheon where they raised a record $5.4 million. Since its inception the BCRF has raised well into the mid-nine figures, almost every dollar going to research.

The galleries at Sotheby's with their latest exhibition of works of art to be sold at auction.

A Matisse.

An early Picasso.

Matisse.

A Giacometti on the right.

The dinner table.

The colors of the branches cast on the ceiling added to the ambiance.

The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation has been hosting these dinners at Sotheby’s for the past several years. I’ve been invited from the first to cover it. It’s a beautiful dinner yet very understated. No razz-matazz. Sotheby’s art galleries are always the venue for the cocktail reception. It’s a very pleasant and soigne atmosphere. Almost serene.

The guests (probably about 200) include doctors, scientists and a cross section of New Yorkers including people from industry and finance. The dining room is spacious and beautifully presented. The dinner tables are full of lively conversation, and the food (by Glorious Food) and wine are excellent. It almost seems like a large private dinner party under optimal circumstances. But it’s not.

Mitch Eichen.

Nancy Corzine.

Once everyone was at table, Nancy Corzine, the international interior designer who is also president of the ADDF Board of Governors, took the rostrum and welcomed everyone. Corzine was inspired to become part of this movement because she lost her own mother to Alzheimer’s. She also introduced Norah O’Donnell, who co-anchors CBS This Morning with Charlie Rose, and would service as emcee of the evening.

O’Donnell introduced Jamie Niven, Chairman of Sotheby’s America. Jamie told us about the wines that were being served: two reds, a white and a rose champagne. Then came dinner. I was seated between two interesting women, Carol Lee Friedlander, the jewelry designer (who cashed out of her business several years ago and is now in the financial advisory business), and Felicia Taylor, the television journalist and producer (now for CNN).

Jamie Niven.

Dr. Fillit telling the guests about the progress that has been made in discovering and developing drugs to treat Alzheimers as well as other neurological conditions.

After dinner, Dr. Howard Fillit, Executive Director and Chief Science Officer of ADDF talked about their work and the progress that is being made in research. He was preparing the guests for a Live Fund A Scientist Auction benefitting the Phase IIa Clinical Study of Rasagiline for Alzheimer’s Disease, which is being led by Jeffrey L. Cummings, MD, ScD at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Dr. Fillit is a quiet-spoken, circumspect individual who delivers the facts clearly and credibly but with a sense of progress in his reporting.

You’re sitting there at this lovely dinner in this spectacular room, drinking the great wines, and you realize you’re on the journey of the ADDF. After Dr. Fillit was finished, Jamie Niven took the podium for the “auction.” These “auctions” are simple requests for money. Jamie started by asking the room for donations of $250,000. There was one. It was from two of the co-chairs of the evenings who were not there – Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Goodes. Mr. Goodes is the former CEO of Warner Lambert Pharmaceutical. Jamie followed this asking for donors of $100,000. Then $50,000. Then $25,000, then ten, the five, then one. Before he was finished Jamie Niven raised more than $1 million in a period of ten minutes.

Leonard Lauder and Norah O'Donnell. Leonard Lauder has just told the guests about a new lipstick they've come out with and it has a special case, which he pointed out makes a product unique. He demonstrated it in front of Norah and the audience. Closing the case, it clicked. Norah is trying on the new color.

Then Norah O’Donnell introduced Mitch Eichen. Mr. Eichentold us that he was standing there in place of Mr. and Mrs. Goodes who could not be there. He acknowledged their donation and then told us that Mr. Goodes has Alzheimer’s and that one of the drugs that was developed where he had been part of the tests had given him five more years. Onward.

Then Leonard Lauder took the podium. Now, this was obviously an evening of talk – something that can lose an audience after the first twenty minutes. Not so last Thursday night. The mood of the night, created in an environment that was a pleasure to be present in, was one of educating the guests to something that could potentially affect everyone in the room. Norah O’Donnell told us that the disease is on the increase, that every 65 seconds someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and within a few years it will be every 25 seconds.

Leonard told us how years ago he had been at a party in France a number of years ago when one of his dinner partners mentioned that her mother had died of Alzheimer’s. She told Leonard she had heard of a test that one could take to determine if they were susceptible to the disease. Leonard asked the woman why she’d want to take a test when the diagnosis was a death sentence. Nevertheless she wanted to know.

Leonard confided to the guests on this night that he felt bad about what he’d said to the woman about the fate of the disease. He told his brother Ronald about the incident, and how he felt that this was something that they should try to get involved in finding a solution. Ronald Lauder suggested that they start a foundation that would focus solely on researching/discovering drugs to prevent, treat and cure Alzheimer’s and related dementias and cognitive aging. And thus it began. Since then, in the past fifteen years, ADDF has invested more than $65 million to fund nearly 450 drug research programs at academic centers and biotechnology companies in 18 countries.

Harrison J. Goldin and Diana Goldin.

Chris Johnson and Kiera McGill.

George and Joan Schiele.

Patrick McMullan, Norah O'Donnell, and John Demsey.

Simon and Tina Beriro.

Peter Lichtenthal, Georgia Garinois, Nancy Mahon, and Philip Garinois.

Kasper.

Thomas and Allison Haug.

Susan Braddock and Margret Culver.

Carol Weisman and Larry Leeds.

Larry Leeds and Dalia Leeds.

Nancy Sanford and Dr. Howard Fillit.

Selita Ebanks.

Anne Keating, Jack Hruska, and Alexandra Trower.

Ronald and Harriet Weintraub.

Ann Nitze, Pierre Levai, and Marcia Levine.

Sean Driscoll, Connie Spahn, and Patrick McMullan.

John Demsey and Alina Cho.

Frank Richardson and Kimba Wood.

Jeff Kaufman, Carol Lee Friedlander, Myra Biblowit, and Rupert Nestanes.

Roberta Amon and Richard Ziegelasch.

Steve Leber, Bonnie Lautenberg, Barbara Tober, and Donald Tober.

Diane Bazelides, Phil Bazelides, and Barbara de Portago.

Marjorie Reed Gordon and Ellery Gordon.

Niall and Elizabeth Ferguson.

Betsy Ruprecht, Robert Belfer, and Renee Belfer.

Ekaterini Malliou and Dalia Leeds.

John Matthews, Sharon Sager, and Loring Swasey.

Karin Marzullo and Anna Pollaci.

James Bartholomew and Lita Rosenberg.

Paul Myerson, Kathi Colby, and Mike Colby.

Anna Shervinina and Olga Maliouk.

Phebe Farrow Port, Stephen Leek, and Alison Pace.

Elizabeth Gilpin and Martha Hunt.

Alex Rotter, Clarissa Post, and Gregoire Billault.

Rupesh Khot, Alkesh Amin, Dino Mangione, Sean McEntee, and Denis Fallon.

Joan Straus and Michael B. Davies.

Lisa and Marc Lefkowitz.

Lucretia Gilbert, Myra Biblowit, WIlliam P. Lauder, and Judy Glickman.

Kit Jackson, Bob Karson, and Jeanne Scungio.

Randal B. Sandler and Liz Sandler.

Judy Glickman, William P. Lauder, and Jo Horgan.

Anne Keating, William P. Lauder, and friend.

Alison Zaino, Jeffrey Cummings, Kate Zhong, Susan Kind, and Buzz Zaino.

Barbara Tober and Bruce Gelb.

Hadassah and Joe Lieberman.

Jane Hertzmark Hudis and Dr. Clifford Hudis.

Norah O'Donnell and Leonard Lauder.

Julie Weindling and Philip Geier.

Michael and Kim McCarty.

Felicia Taylor.

Judy Glickman, Richard Ziegelasch, and Myra Biblowit.

I left the dinner last Thursday night thinking about how I always leave intrigued by this particular evening. As I said, it's almost low key for a black tie affair, although it's artful and the atmosphere is comforting, even relaxing. You know it's strictly business, but the business at hand is presented by enhancing our knowledge and consciousness of Alzheimer's. We can hear it. There is no panic inferred. And then you get Leonard Lauder at the very end standing up there before the guests announcing that he is certain they are going to find success in a not very long time, as he raised his right arm in victory! You believed him. I still do. Just like they believed Estee. And she was right.

Contact DPC here.

Central Park. 2:30 PM. Photo: JH.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014. Yesterday was sunny and mild and a little on the cool side in New York. But beautiful.

There was a major luncheon at the Pierre. Fountain House was hosting a symposium along with it (the subject was Dual-Diagnosis), and honoring Dr. Mitch Rosenthal, founder of Phoenix House. Mitch, who is known far and wide for his work (and his camaraderie) continues to work tirelessly behind the scenes for Phoenix House and its work.

Then early yesterday evening, the Ford Foundation – Darren Walker, President – hosted an evening celebrating Jessye Norman with an interview of the great American diva, followed by a reception. At about the same hour, the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art hosted the Arthur Ross Awards at the University Club with cocktails and dinner. While over at the New York Junior League headquarters in the old Vincent Astor mansion on East 80th Street, the French Heritage Society was hosting a lecture by David Garrard Lowe, the historian. The subject: “Sarah Bernhardt: Actress of an Age.”

Michelle Obama cutting the ribbon on the entry to the newly named Anna Wintour Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The nighttime calendar for that wide array of social gatherings that make up New York today, was full and influential in the current media scheme of things. The largest focus was set on the Met Costume Ball which is the property of Anna Wintour (and therefore Conde Nast). This gets huge attention in the entertainment media. My web mailbox last night was filled with photos of attendees, and their gowns and accessories and even details about their makeup. The look from what I could see from these photos was a kind of a retro Yvonne de Carlo/Debra Paget/'50s look (although most wearing it have never heard of the girls).

The day began over in that neck of the woods with Michelle Obama coming to town and cutting the ribbon on the entry to the newly named Anna Wintour Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum. It was reported to be an emotional moment for Ms. Wintour and the First Lady extended her comforting arms at that moment when tears came to the fashion editor’s eyes.

The Met Costume Ball was created back in the days of Diana Vreeland (who put the Costume Institute on the map) to fund the exhibitions. And possibly pay Mrs. Vreeland’s salary after she was unceremoniously dumped as Editor in Chief of Vogue around that time. Although it was said that Babe Paley and a couple of other friends of Mrs. Vreeland paid her salary in the beginning. She needed the money. Vogue editors were not paid in the millions in those days.

The Costume Ball in those days – '70s and '80s– was chaired by some of the ladies who were prominent members of what made up Society in those days. Many of these women were also the fashion and trend setters of cultural/social New York at the time. It was a special ticket and a social arbiter.


	Ms. Wintour on the red carpet last night.

These kept it going for years – women such as Nan Kempner and Pat Buckley, and it was a force on the social calendar. Even Jacqueline Onassis attended (and looked like the queen of the world). It was a fashion media event also, of course, and while it drew a lot of media attention, it was nothing compared to the magnitude of coverage today. There was also no sense of brass-baby and razz-matazz. These were the descendants of Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction.

I briefly recount this history because the Ball today reflects the dramatic differences between then and now. No matter how one views it, Anna Wintour changed the rules and the image and the point of this event in keeping with the times. Today the Met Ball is an entirely different animal. It now competes with several other red carpet media events, especially the Golden Globes and the Oscars. A kind of “people’s ball” (as long as the people can pony up two hundred grand or more for a table, as well as get Ms. Wintour’s nod of approval). It’s all a promotion of celebrity in the Kardashian style in the land of plenty. Plenty of money and plenty of chutzpah.

On the lighter side and in the early part of the evening, The Corner Bookstore, on Madison and 93rd, hosted a Cinco de mayo book party for Bill Doyle's latest children's book, Invasion of the Junkyard Hog, his third book in this series published by Random House (Following Attack of the Shark-Headed Zombie and Stampede of the Supermarket Slugs). According to a lot of parentals around town, the titles are just the icing on the cake.

The Corner Bookstore, 6:30 PM.

"The humor is spot on for the target age (6-11), with just the right level of silliness in the plot. There's plenty of suspense and, for all the magic and mayhem, Henry and Keats are characters kids can relate to, even if they don't have enchanted livestock in their lives. All these elements add up to a great story, and there's some really savvy reading curriculum built into this. From a character who talks backwards to the use of puns to the wonderful descriptions of actions, this is a fun way to build reading skill and comprehension, especially for reluctant readers." — Chris Byrne

In other words, a good book for the whole fam.

Bill Doyle holding a copy of Invasion of the Junkyard Hog. Click to order ... or better yet, buy from The Corner Bookstore (1313 Madison Ave, 212-831-3554).

Angie Miller, Nancy Druckman, Marcelo Gomes, Bill Doyle, and Riccardo Salmona.

Lily Braun-Arnold and Bea Braun-Arnold. Bill named two of the characters in the book after these adorable twins.

The crowd at The Corner Bookstore.

The other major event last night was the annual PEN LiteraryGala which was held at the American Museum of Natural History in the Millstein Hall of Ocean Science (the Blue Whale room). If you’re a reader or a writer, this is a most amazing evening. More than 400 attended the black tie affair where the tables of ten were hosted by some of the most prominent writers in America and the world today including Malcolm Gladwell, Timothy Garton Ash, Andre Aciman, Martin Amis, Adam Gopnik, Molly Haskell, Gay Talese, Calvin Trillin, James Salter, Simon Schama, Simon Winchester, Judith Thurman, Deboran Solomo, Victor Navasky, Jay McInerney, Francine Prose, Stacy Schiff, Ariel Levy, Hendrik Hertzberg, Sir Harry Evans, Tina Brown, Roz Chast, Robert Caro, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Ron Chernow, Carl Bernstein, Barbara Goldsmith, David Remnick, Siori Hustvedt, Nciole Krauss, Kati Marton, Roger Rosenblatt, John Waters, Taye Selasi, Valeria Luiselli, Chang Ray Lee, James Goodale, Ken Auletta, Deborah Eisenberg, Alvaro Enrique, Philip Gourevitch, as well as many other authors, editors and journalists.

The annual PEN Literary Gala in the Millstein Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History.

This is an Awards evening with the purpose of promoting the work of PEN America. The key word for the work of PEN is FREEDOM. Freedom to write and express yourself without barriers of tyranny. This matter of Freedom is at the heart of everyone’s personal rights. The majority of those attending last night are in one way or another ardent supporters of this idea. The struggle to maintain that runs throughout recorded history and is never, it seems, without its massive opposition which exists in all political spheres around the world. And as the world has got smaller because of technology of this era, the issues are magnified.

Shirley Lord Rosenthal and Peter Haywood.

Eleanora Kennedy and Paige Peterson.

Kate Gubelmann and Katherine Mezzacappa.

PEN’s president, Peter Godwin opened the evening and reported that while last year was the most successful in terms of fundraising, this year was even more successful. He regarded that as an increase in interest in PEN’s work and the freedoms it stands for.

My hosts last night, Toni and James Goodale have also funded a PEN Digital Freedom Award under their name. Its first recipient Dick Costolo, the current CEO of Twitter, received it last night. Eight years after its founding Twitter has become a catalyst for free expression and the spread of ideas in the world with billions of messages shared everyday all over the world.

Mr. Costolo expressed his surprise and gratitude and humility at receiving this award. Digital Freedom is a new one, a concept again, thanks to technology.

Peter Godwin, President of PEN/America. This photo and several more were taken of the video screen rather than the actual podium, which gives then a slight vertical distortion, My apologies.

Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, recipient of the Toni and James Goodale PEN Digital Freedom Award.

The 2014 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award (given by Annette Tapert and Joseph Allen) was presented to Salman Rushdie by Toni Morrison. The best-selling author has also been president of the PEN American Center for the past ten years. He created the PEN World Voices Festival, expressing his courageous support of creative freedom across the world and promoting freedom from prison for writers who have been incarcerated by regimes who believe in freedom only under their terms (for which they are completely free to determine).

Author of a dozen works of fiction, Mr. Rushdie, in referring to his experience as a writer talked brilliantly about the ordeal of dealing with those politically powerful individuals and groups who silence ideas of which they disagree, on the false grounds of higher moral motives. Rushdie is a kind of literary refugee from his homelands, but now a resident of New York – which he loves for its diversity. He focuses on the idea that motivated him to create the World Voices Festival: “We can turn it into a way of looking at people’s work as work, not just because they’re in jail or tortured but to talk about them as artists and … that is what they would want.”

Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison reading her introduction of Salman Rushdie, who was receiving the 2014 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award for his 10-year leadership of PEN.

Salman Rushdie talking about what it is like to live as a "refugee" because of his literary expressions of ideas. He conceded that he loves New York City life which is dynamic, diverse, and always changing (my words, not his).

This is the foundation of PEN’s work in the world. Promoting freedom of expression and helping to free those writers who are political prisoners today.

After Rushdie’s speech, Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director of PEN prepared the guests for the presentation of the annual Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award by first introducing two women who have been freed from prison—the two members of Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk rock protest group. The women Maria Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova, you may remember were imprisoned by Putin for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” The Russian president said that the group had “undermined the moral foundations” of the nation.” As absurd a notion as it is, this is how people maintain political power without having to explain their own moral foundations.

The women spoke briefly (in Russian, with a translator) of the experience of being imprisoned on this account. They made it clear that prisoners need books to read; that that is their only source of freedom to sustain themselves.

The two Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova, with translator and Nadya's husband, describing the experience of being a prisoner in a Russian jail for exercising their freedom of expression.

The girls told the audience that one thing they could do for the prisoners was to send them books. They need books.

Journalist Ilham Tohti, recipient of the 2014 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

After his daughter accepted her father's Barbara Goldsmith Award (he is in jail in China), this sign showed on the video screen: "Spread the word on Twitter to #FreeIlham @ PENAmerican.

When their interview was over, Suzanne Nossel introduced the recipient of this year’s Barbara Goldsmith Award, which is given in absentia to a writer who is currently in jail somewhere for the simple “crime” of expressing his opinion. This year’s recipient is Ilham Tohti, who is now in prison in China. There have been 38 imprisoned writers who’ve received the Award. Through the pressure of PEN and millions of supporters across the world, 35 of these prisoners were/have been freed, often within months of having received the award. Two never made it out, and one killed himself in jail.

Mr. Tohti’s award was accepted by his daughter Jewher Ilham. She was with her father, boarding a plane to fly to the United States when he was taken away. She was allowed to fly. She spoke of her family life and the positive influence of her dear father. After her speech a number of people held up protest sheets.

Guests, including the two Russian members of Pussy Riot, Mr. Ilham's daughter (on far left), Barbara Goldsmith, John Waters, Dick Costolo, Suzanne Nossel, Salman Rushdie, Peter Godwin, and Jay McInerney.

John Waters and Peggy Siegal (who had just arrived from the Met Ball).

Barbara Goldsmith and Suzanne Calhoun.

This is an inadequate account of the experience of the PEN evening. The tables are filled with prominent New Yorkers and PEN members as well as prominent media people. It is that polished, shiny, sophisticated New York in that way. But the message that is related over and over by example of experience, the reason PEN exists, is the crucial importance in a society of the freedom to express. All creative thought in the human existence that has created this modern civilization, is ultimately the result of that freedom. Everyone, every life is affected by it. You know this by the time you leave your table. It is a given whether you’re thinking about it or not. That’s PEN, and this is New York.

Guests leaving the dining tables.

Kate Gubelmann taking a photo of guests.

Contact DPC here.

Lunch break on 23rd and 10th in front of Jim Kempner Art Gallery Building. 2:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014. Yesterday was another beautiful Spring day in New York, sunny and bright.

JH, from the inside (of Central Park) looking out ...

Stories from the nabe; truth in fiction. Thirteen years ago in 2001, Deborah Buck, an artist and design connoisseur opened up a shop on Madison Avenue in Carnegie Hill (the 90s) which was a cross between an art gallery, a design gallery and a kind of decorator’s showcase. She called it Buck House. It was a small shop, right on a corner with one large display window that was soon the talk of the neighborhood.

The retail stock was basically a distinctive collection of eclectic furniture, art and decorative objects, and with it Deborah created what she described as a “salon for the cognoscenti.” And soon after, it was. To draw attention to her new enterprise, she committed herself to a series of bi-monthly window installations that were devoted to the theatre of design and would launch them with a cocktail reception to include her eclectic array of friends and neighbors.

Deborah Buck.

To assure variety and uniqueness for the shop, she created a half dozen fictional females whose inhabitable spaces were in the Buck House window. She even had names and bios for them. The fabulous females included: Anna Force, New York ad executive; Sheelock Holmes, London detective; Goldy Banks, Geneva investment banker, Velocity La Rue, Automobile designer and Maddy Tscientist, German chemist.


	Click to orderThe Windows of Buck House.

Her colorful characters were a courageous, stylish lot – ready to take the world by storm. Their salons were a 6 by 6 jewel-box in which the Buck House design crew produced larger than life profiles of these individual women. Design expert KennethCarbone referred to the window lairs as the result of Deborah’s ability to blur “the line between fantasy and reality.”

Deborah closed Buck House in 2012, although her business continues — she’s currently overseeing the design and restoration of a large modernist residential project in Sagaponack. She’s also documented the life of these Buck House windows in a beautiful book “The Windows of Buck House; Fabulous Fictional Females,” 22 theatrically-inspired window installations, designed and curated by Deborah and photographed by Jaka Vinsek, just published by Acanthanus Press. It’s a beautiful coffee table book but after reading it, and having known Deborah since the early days of her shop, it is its own chef d’oeuvres, an exhibition of an artist’s work, her business and her life.

There was a launch party for Deborah’s book last night at the Madeline Weinrib Showroom at 126 Fifth Avenue.

At Buck House, twenty two Fabulous Fictional Females inhabited the living space windows that Deborah — artist and design entrepreneur — created for the effervescent installations at her Madison Avenue gallery-cum-social-salon. It was from her imaginative heart, mind and soul that these women sprang — and Deborah has preserved the theatrical vignettes in the new book to be published May 6th.

Scenes from the book ...

More artists, more exhibitions. Last night at the new Leila Heller Gallery on 43 West 57th Street, there was a preview of a new exhibition: LOOK AT ME: Portraiture from Manet to the Present” curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody and Paul Morris, a founding director of the Armory Show.

The show was of particular interest to me because Beth and I are old friends. We’ve known each other since she was fresh out of college. Her interest in art and collecting was already apparent, in retrospect although in the early days she was feeling her way into the process. I don’t know that it was intentional, but then she married an artist — James DeWoody, with whom she had her son Carlton and daughter Kyle— and about that time her interest began to develop into the connoisseurship that belongs to her today.


	Warhol's Blue Jackie, 1964

In all the years that we’ve known each other well, we’ve never discussed this business of her life work, which is: Collecting. She is now a notable collector in the art world, and not accidentally has she been compared to Peggy Guggenheim. What I always knew about her even before she became a committed collector was that she is a great and natural nurturer of talent. I have personally benefited from that nurturing as have many others.

Beth loves talented people. She is by nature in their thrall. This show that she curated with Paul Morris is a clear reflection of that thrall of hers. The subject, the subjects, the artists and the attitudes are all aspects of the lady’s vivid artistic interest.

This is a new gallery for Leila Heller, who is now also an old friend and whom I met through Beth DeWoody about twenty-five years ago. Leila, who is also the mother of two growing sons, has been in the gallery business for a number of years. In the last several years she has been expanding her interest and business. The Fifty-seventh Street location, now her second in the city, is big -- eight floors. Thomas Arnold will lead the new gallery. Arnold comes from 14 years with Mary Boone Gallery where he managed 150 exhibitions.

This debut exhibition is ambitious and includes works by many renowned artists, including: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Tom Wesselmann, Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, Mitra Tabrizian, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Firooz Zahedi, Jack Pierson, John Currin, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, George Condo, Loretta Lux, Marilyn Minter, Ai Wei Wei, Youssef Nabil, Iké Udé, Farideh Lashai, Shoja Azari, Rachel Lee Hovnanian, Josh Azzarella, Reza Aramesh.

The exhibition includes many seminal works, including Warhol’s “Blue Jackie,” “Bill” by Elaine de Kooning and “Peintre et son Modele” by Picasso.

The show runs through August 29th and if you like portraiture, this delivers. I loved it, although I’ve got to go back and spend some time taking it all in.

An early Renoir sketch of a portrait of a lady in her garden.

A Picasso.

Co-curator Paul Morris and Patty Caparaso.

That's Leila Heller squeezed into the elevator about to close.

Bob Colacello.

Mary Cassatt and a Warhol Elizabeth Taylor.

Andy Warhol in the kitchen of Elaine's restaurant with Elaine.

Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi with Lorne Michaels (in the early days of SNL) also in Elaine's kitchen.

The show runs through August 29th. Don't miss it ...

More Art. I left the Leila Heller Gallery to go up to Swifty’s where Tiffany Dubin was hosting a dinner for her friend Louisa Guinness, who is in from London for a selling exhibition at Sotheby’s of “Artists’ Jewelry.” Tiffany had about thirty friends at four tables.

I’m not well informed about the business of the art and auction world but right now is the season for a lot of sales – that much I know. Louisa Guinness, I learned last night, has a gallery in London (at 45 Conduit Street) and deals in artist-designed jewelry. Her father was an art dealer, and so is her husband, Ben Brown, in London.

The Man Ray necklace that Louisa Guinness was wearing at last night's dinner. The color is off in this photo as it's a burnished gold with a black eye.

She has been interested in art and its business since she was a young girl because her parents always took the children to galleries and museum – something that was of little to no interest in childhood developed into a way of life as an adult. When she was old enough to consider going in to the business she decided that she wanted to pursue an interest in jewelry designed by artists.

The necklace she was wearing last night was by Man Ray, for example. She began dealing in the works of artists of the past, antique, or vintage, if you will. She was operating out of her husband’s gallery, and because he deals in contemporary art, it occurred to her that there were no contemporary artists designing jewelry. So, having the connection to meet many contemporary artists, she embarked on the business of getting them to do it. She is now working with a number of artists sculptors including Jeff Koons, Anish Kapoor, Sophia Varik – who is also the wife of Fernando Botero.

A Claude Lalanne purse.

An Anish Kapoor ring.

Louisa is selling only three artists work at the stall she has taken on the Second Floor at Sotheby’s during the month of sales. They are Claude Lalanne, Sophia Vari and Anish Kapoor. She’ll be there through May 27. It’s the perfect location for Louisa’s venture since many of the artists in her portfolio are represented in the upcoming sales, and many have collectors of their work. The jewelry is an addition which can play a different role for the collector. Her web site is www.louisaguinnessgallery.com

Raul Suarez and Muriel Brandolini.

Mark Gilbertson and Carol Mack.

Hilly and George Gurley.

Louisa Guinness and Roberta Amon.

Catching up. A week ago this past Monday, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation hosted its annual Hot Pink Party at the Waldorf Astoria. This year’s was an elegant Can Can-inspired affair which featured a performance by five-time Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles, who was invited by Sir Elton John to join him on stage. Elton John has been a longtime supporter of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. He was brought into he fold by its late great founder Evelyn Lauder, and he has given his time to this event for years now.

Leonard Lauder and Kinga Lampert were the evening’s co-hosts accompanied by Elizabeth Hurley, who like Sir Elton is a longtime supporter of BCRF, as emcee. Event co-chairs included Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Reed Krakoff, Aerin Lauder, William Lauder, and Vera Wang, among others.

The Can Can Girls.

Roz Goldstein.

Jamie Niven.

Since its founding by Evelyn Lauder in 1993, BCRF has raised more than $480 million to advance the world’s most promising breast cancer research. The Hot Pink Party alone has raised more than $60 million since its inception in 2001 with this year’s event raising more than $5.4 million.

“Evelyn Lauder was a philanthropic force to be reckoned with,” said Sir Elton John. "She was a dear friend, and I am proud to keep her extraordinary legacy alive by supporting BCRF and its mission to eradicate breast cancer through research.” John, who has performed at the Hot Pink Party for more than a decade, closed the 45-minute set with a moving duet of Bareilles’ “Gravity.”

Another highlight of the evening was the auction for a stay at the Lauder family’s Aspen home led by Sotheby’s Chairman Jamie Niven. Town & Country’s“Event Planner of the Year” Bryan Rafanelli, who the Clintons handpicked to plan Chelsea's wedding, produced the fundraiser with a generous donation from Winston Flowers.

Sara Bareilles and Sir Elton John.

The Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria.

Among the guests at the sold-out black tie evening: Tory Burch, Josh Groban, Paul Shaffer, Thom Browne, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and owner Bob Kraft, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Greta Rooney, New York Giants’ Victor Cruz, NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon, “30 Rock” alum Katrina Bowden, Academy-award nominee Hailee Steinfeld, Lisa Perry and Star Jones, while other notable co-chairs included Marjorie Reed Gordon, Jane Lauder, Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder, Ingrid Sischy and Sandra Brant, and Lizzie and Jon Tisch.

The event’s underwriters included ANN, INC.,Rob and Cindy Citrone, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Condé Nast, Firmenich, Roz and Les Goldstein, Hearst, Kinga Lampert and The Leonard & Evelyn Lauder Foundation.

Laura Slatkin, Leonard Lauder, and Myra Biblowit.

Rachel Lauder, Danielle Lauder, William Lauder, Laurie Tritsch, Samantha Tritsch, and Alex Tritsch.

Aerin Lauder, William Lauder, and Jane Lauder.

Lizzie and John Tisch.

Hailee Steinfeld.

Carly Hopkins.

Maria Jose.

Olivia and Adam Flatto.

Jon Lindsey and Alexandra Trower.

Mary Bryant McCourt.

Mary Callahan Erdoes, Patrick Callahan, and Patsy Callahan.

Christian Knaust, Carmen Marc Valvo, and Frank Pulice.

Maria and Larry Baum.

Susan and Maria Aroniadis.

Robert and Wendy Brooks.

Susan and Michael Levy.

Manuel Balvontin and Corina Balvontin.

Mahsa Noble and Ken Nicholson.

John Kelly and Rich Clinton.

Dr. John and Ingrid Connolly.

Linda Holliday and Bill Belichick.

Meghan Geraino, Cindy Dunaway, Snooky Bellomo, Tish Bellomo, Fran Fresquez, and Gyda Gash.

Jill Martin and Ian Ginsberg.

Carolyn Maloney and Margaret Hayes Adame.

Christina Guido and Paul Cacciato.

Lisa and David Klein.

Barbara Taylor Bradford, Robert Bradford, and Arlene Taub.

Priya Shukla.

Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Stephanie Ginsberg, and Dr. Stacie Kiratsous.

Roberta Amon and Marjorie Reed Gordon.

Nancy Mahon and Maureen Case.

Deborah Krulewitch, Larry Leeds, Jane Hudis, Cliff Hudis, and Nicole Vartanian.

Kelley Doyle and Alisha Daniels.

Micaela English and Michael Wooten.

Robert Isen, Tory Burch, Reed Krakoff, Lydia Forstmann, and Mike Giresi.

Gareth Evans and Blythe Masters.

Victor Cruz and Elaina Watley.

Chris Flivar, Stefanie LaRue, and Anna Mattera.

John Demsey and Alina Cho.

Anne Tack, Champagne Joy, and Ally Coulter.

Petra and Stephen Levin.

Anna and Walter Mattera.

Roberta Amon, Richard Ziegelasch, and Arlene Adler.

Allison Ruben, Steven Sachs, and Danielle Lauder.

Della Rounick.

Victoria and Paul Shaffer.

Sabrina Tharani and Dani Haskin.

Ingrid Sischy and Anita Antonini.

Bryan Rafanelli, Thom Filicia, Camilla Olsson, and Greg Calejo.

Dan Lufkin and Robert Kraft.

Nick Mancini, Nicole Mancini, Jane Pontarelli, and Joe Pontarelli.

Josh Groban and Laura Jansen.

Lily Orlin, Alex Tritsch, Josh Zelman, and Ali Immergut.

Cindy and Dennis Dunaway.

Julia Perkins and Scott Smith.

Robert and Jennifer Day.

Mercedes Castillo and Erin Brodie.

Paula Zahn, Steve Leber, and Bonnie Lautenberg.

Jane Hudis, Jeff Baker, Paul Friedberg, and Mary-Ann Freda.

Rachel Norton and Harry Slatkin.

Roy Salame, Paul Kelly, Gareth Evans, Blythe Masters, and Jeff Katz.

Jay and Iris Dankner.

Ally Coulter and Eric Vincent.

Contact DPC here.

The sea of hats at the 32nd annual Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon. 12:15 PM. Photo: JH.

Thursday, May 8, 2014. Yesterday was the perfect Spring day for the annual Hat Lunch at the Conservatory Garden in Central Park. The official name is the Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon, and it was its 32nd annual event, but it’s also the post-modern successor to the Easter Parade.

It was started in 1982 by a group of women who had also started the Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy: Jean Clark, Norma Dana, Marguerite Purnell, and Phyllis Cerf Wagner. Mrs. Wagner died several years ago but the Mmes. Dana, Purnell and Clark are still with us. I saw Norma Dana there yesterday. I don’t know about the other two founding members but it’s quite possible they were there too.

JH caught a glimpse of Norma Dana, too.

Seeing Norma Dana, I could only wonder what she thinks of what she and her co-founders have achieved and accomplished. The effect and influence of the work of that small group of women is now visible to any and everyone who even walks by Central Park or sees the photographs of it.

When I left the luncheon yesterday at about 2:15, I walked from 104th Street down Fifth, alongside the Park wall to 96th Street, just so I could look at the Park. It’s beauty is astounding. The Park right now is just glorious. It looks like a photograph of a perfect pastoral setting. I kept thinking I should be taking some photographs of it. Except. JH, the other (more circumspect) half of the NYSD and its primo photographer, had also been there to photograph the opening, and I knew he’d catch the Park in his reportage.

The Conservatory Garden in all its glory ...

Meanwhile, the FLO Awards lunch honored former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. When Mr. Bloomberg was introduced by the Women’s Committee president Anne Harrison, the entire crowd of more than a thousand guests let out a whoop as if the man had just won re-election. And there were not a few under the tent who were wishing that were so. He was clearly energized by the experience. Michael Bloomberg has been in on the Women’s Committee’s project for decades and was one of their biggest (if not the biggest) early supporters financially.

Women's Committee President Anne Harrison.

Anne Harrison presenting Michael Bloomberg with the Frederick Law Olmsted Award.

Mr. Bloomberg gets a standing ovation.

The award up close.

This year’s luncheon had the biggest group ever. Not sure of the number, but last year it was more than 1200. The first one back in ’82 had a couple of dozen or a comparably small number. This year they also raised the most money: $3.5 million. The money all goes for the maintenance and refurbishing of the Park. The luncheon itself was underwritten by several individuals and business organizations: Elizabeth H. Atwood, Suzanne L. Chute, Stephanie Coleman, Andrea Henderson Fahnestock, Amy Griffin, Anne S. Harrison, Mres. Craig A. Huff, J. Up Mortan, Amie James, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Kempner Jr., The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc., Alexia Leuschen, Jenny Paulson, Prestone Media Group, Scalamandre, Margaret Smith, Wathne, Ltd.

As desirable as the founders and the succeeding Women’s Committee Members have made the Park, they’ve also made this luncheon a hot ticket every year. Whereas it was once a women’s luncheon and basically still is, there are a lot of men attending now too. It is also one of the top social events of the Spring social season in New York. And that’s because it’s fun to be there, and good to look at. For a lot of people, including this writer, it’s fun because a great majority of the women really get into it. It’s about the pictures.

Catering staff at the ready ...

Jeff Hirsch made one of his rare public appearances at an event with his NYSD camera and he gets the story visually, so today’s Diary is really Jeff’s. I was there also, and I had my handy little battered Canon S100, but whereas Jeff gives you the whole story, I mainly took in the hats for your looking pleasure. You’ll see the results of my lens on the Party Pictures page today.

So I turn the day over to Jeff ...

Contact DPC here.

Sunset along the Hudson. 7:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Friday, May 9, 2014. Grey and rainy and coolish in the 50s, yesterday in New York.

Tomorrow is the 115th birth anniversary of Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska, who became known to the whole world and three generations as Fred Astaire. Astaire was so good at his craft that when you watch him you feel like you’re dancing too.


	Fred Astaire and his choreographic partner Hermes Pan making the jump, at RKO Radio Pictures, circa 1935.

Tomorrow is also the birthday of the very much living Barbara Taylor Bradford who told me this past Wednesday night that she is not into birthdays. However she is very much into her writing, having just published her 29th novel, “Cavendon Hall.” Her first “A Woman of Substance,” is one of the top ten best-selling novels of all time and is still racking up sales across the globe, so she’s still dancing. Her books have sold more than 92 million copies worldwide in more than 90 countries and 40 languages. Ten of them have been made into television mini-series and television movies, all produced by her husband Bob Bradford.

On the run. This past week’s calendar indicates we are in High Season for the social ones around town. Hardly half or a quarter of what was going on around town, this is where I went on just Wednesday night:

Started out at the new gallery of Gerald Bland in the Fine Arts Building at 232 East 59th Street where he was hosting a cocktail party for Eve Kaplan the ceramicist called “ROCAILLE REVISITED: New Ceramic Work by Eve Kaplan.” The show runs through May 22nd.

Christopher Flach and Dovanna Pagowski.

Kinsey Marable and Hamish Bowles.

The ceramacist Eve Kaplan next to some of her works at the Gerald Bland Gallery.

A ceramic Rocaille frame by Eve Kaplan.

From there I moved on to the Park Avenue apartment of Jill Spalding who was hosting a reception in honor of her friend Alice Ayecock whose sculptures are now beaming skyward on the Park Avenue island gardens from the East 50s through the East 60s. If you haven’t seen them from the avenue itself, you might have seen a couple of them on the NYSD. They’re very “cool.”

I asked the sculptor this past Wednesday night what her creations represented; what inspired them. Ms. Ayecock referred to the inspiration as “a wind up Park Avenue” -- the sculptor’s interpretation of what the different winds that blow look like as they rush up the avenue, bouncing off the buildings, dipping onto the street and upwards again, always changing, always re-ordering their energy.

I took a picture of the sculptor standing by the window in Jill’s apartment, gazing down on the one on the north island on 57th Street, and then, of course, of the lady herself.

Yue Sai Khan, Alice Ayecock, Ms. Pen Chiao, and Dame Jillian Sackler.

Jill Sackler and hostess Jill Spalding.

Sculptress Ayecock at the window of the Spalding apartment overlooking one of her works on 57th Street and Park Avenue.

The sculptress again.

The sculpture close up.

Another Alice Ayecock sculpture of the winds of Park Avenue on 56th and Park.

From Jill Spalding’s party for Alice Ayecock, I grabbed a cab and headed down to the Morgan Library where Judy Price was hosting a dinner to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of her National Jewelry Institute. The evening was chaired by HRH Princess Marie Chantal, who was in attendance with her husband HRH Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece.


	Prince Pavlos, Princess Marie-Chantal, and William Griswold.

I confess I’d never been to the Morgan before. However, I’d read Jean Strouse’s powerfully compelling biography of J. Pierpont Morgan, one of the most importantly memorable biographies I’ve ever read of an American figure.

So standing in his office, with its red damask walls took me back into the drama of the Panic of 1907 when Morgan gathered all the bankers in this same office, and informed them that no one was leaving the building until they forged and agreed upon a rescue of some banks and closed others. Pierpont Morgan was his own little Fed (which was not created until 1913, the year of his death) in those days.

Mrs. Price’s choice of holding her anniversary in the Morgan was not accidental. Morgan, the man, was not only a banker of gargantuan power, but also a collector of art, antiquities, furniture and ... precious stones and jewelry. In fact the cake, which was made especially by Sylvia Weinstock for the guests, came in the shape of an exact replica of Mr. Morgan’s personal catalogue of his jewels and stones.

The actual catalogue still sits in the man’s office, still intact with the furniture and art that occupied it on that day in 1907 when he called all the bankers together to save the US economic system.

Sylvia Weinstock's replica of J.P. Morgan's jewelry and precious stones catalogue. Except this one was a delicious four-layered chocolate cake, the evening's dessert.

The evening was also an opportunity to publicly announce the collaboration of the National Jewelry Institute and Parsons School of Design in developing a study program at Parsons both here and in Paris specifically for jewelry and jewelry design. Joel Towers, Executive Dean of Parson The New School, made the announcement just as the guests were seated at their tables.

But more on this event on Monday’s Diary.

Judy Price with Joel Towers of Parsons New School, which is partnering with Price's National Jewelry Institute on courses in jewelry and jewelry design.


	The artist Marina Karella before some of her Recent Works last night at the Chinese Porcelain Company.

Last night Pierre Durand, Conor Mahony and Corinne Plumhoff at the Chinese Porcelain Company on Park Avenue and 58th Street hosted an opening reception for artist Marina Karella of her Recent Works.

The paintings of the artist, who is also known to the world as Marina, Princess Michael of Greece are executed with graphite, colored pencils, and oil paints on transparent paper that is subtly framed and quietly superimposed on top of three walls covered with a pale illusory and imagined landscape.

On the invitation to the opening, these words by W. H. Auden were printed underneath that landscape:

Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Last night's reception.

The collage on which the portraits were hung las night.

Karella's portraits on graphite, colored pencils on transparent paper ...

Also last night, Art enthusiasts queued up outside the Lexington Avenue Armory eagerly awaiting the opening of the Inaugural Downtown Fair which opened yesterday afternoon. Presented by Art Miami, the fair opening was a tremendous success drawing top collectors, museum curators, art advisors and artists to its High-Tea VIP Preview.

The Downtown Fair, is the first fair to offer a versatile array of fresh primary and important secondary contemporary and modern blue chip works along with works by noteworthy emerging artists, during Frieze Week in New York City. The elegant VIP Preview served as the first opportunity for astute collectors to acquire desirable works of investment quality art along with important works by mid-career and younger artists.


	The crowd last night for the opening of the Inaugural Downtown Fair.

The historic Lexington Avenue Armory, was transformed into a luminous and intimate setting, allowing each gallery to elegantly spotlight its artists' works. Distinguished guests at the VIP Preview discovered sculptures, paintings, photographs and mixed-media works of over 600 artists from more than 35 countries, as they browsed through the booths, sipping champagne and enjoying passed hors d'oeuvres served by The Southampton Social Club.

Among the exhibiting galleries are: Yossi Milo Gallery, Danese/Corey, ARCHEUS/POST-MODERN, BOSI Contemporary, Coagula Curatorial, William Shearburn Gallery, HackelBury Fine Art, Nancy Hoffman Gallery, Nicholas Metivier, David Lusk Gallery, Armand Bartos Fine Art, Cynthia-Reeves, Arcature Fine Art, David Klein Gallery, Chowaiki & Co, Durham Press, Richard Levy Gallery, Mixografia, Modernism Inc., Peter Blake Gallery, Robert Mann Gallery, Wasserman Projects, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Catherine Edelman, Jerald Melberg Gallery, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Galerie von Braunbehrens, Galerie Andreas Binder, amongst others.

The Downtown Fair has partnered with several important philanthropic arts groups including Creative Capital, which supports innovative and adventurous artists across the US; No Longer Empty, a NYC based organization which promotes public engagement with contemporary art; and Children's Art Initiative, a groundbreaking arts organization that brings art to some of the most at-risk public school children in New York City.

The entrance to the fair.

Inside the fair.

Some of the guests included Sara Herbert Galloway, Carmen and John Thain, Joe Cohen, Jill Spalding, Eleanor Kennedy, Anna Safir, Spencer Tomkins, Randall Stempler, and Barry Kieselstein Cord.

Among the notable artists in attendance were Bernie Taupin, Victor Matthews Dana Louise Kirkpatrick, Domingo Zapata, Alexander Yulish all exhibiting at KM Fine Arts; Isca Greenfield-Sanders at Scott White Contemporary Art; and Anne Spalter at Cynthia-Reeves.

The Downtown Fair is open through Sunday, May 11th. Frieze ticket holders are given complimentary admission to the Downtown Fair. Additionally there is a complimentary shuttle service from the Downtown Fair to the Frieze ferry dock at 35th street and the East River.

Director of Parrish Art Museum Terrie Sultan and Martha McLanaham.

Eleanora Kennedy and Anna Safir.

Dawne Marie Grannum and Sara Herbert Galloway.

Joe Cohen and Jill Spalding.

Tom Kivisto, Anna Hollinger, Bernie Taupin, Nick Korniloff, and Pamela Cohen.

Dana Louise Kirkpatrick.

Carmen and John Thain.

Joe Penturo and Eric Dever.

Michael Hill and Ronald Brick.

Spencer Tompkin and William Shearburn.

Meanwhile, congratulations are in order for Paige Peterson and Christopher Cerf who were celebrating a spanking new edition of their best-selling children’s book “Blackie, The Horse Who Stood Still,” (from Lena Tabori’s Welcome Books), the somewhat true story that Cerf and Peterson created about a famous – if not exactly rambunctious – horse who lived in Tiburon, California, the new edition of which was in the bookstores this past Tuesday.

The book, which is in its 12th printing, is a special edition in that the original was big (in size) and they have gone with what they call “the baby” Blackie. A little book for little people with little fingers, and all about peacefulness, patience, tenacity – all qualities that this very real horse had.

Artist Paige Peterson and writer Christopher Cerf in front of a sculpture of the original "Blackie" in Tiburon, California.

It’s a classic in the realm of “Ferdinand” and “Dr. Seuss,” full of heart, talent, fun and laughter.

A word about it from Joan Ganz Cooney, co-founder of Sesame Workshop and originator of “Sesame Street”:

"Blackie is a beautiful and touching story, told in rhyme by Chris Cerf and Paige Peterson. Unforgettable as the tale is, the artwork by Ms. Peterson is even more so. Long after you've read the book, you will remember the stunning pictures, illustrating the events of Blackie's life. This book will be admired and enjoyed by adults and cherished by children. An instant classic!"

The collaborators. with the original and the new size of "Blackie, The Horse Who Stood Still." Click to order.

Photographs by Annie Watt (Downtown Fair).

Contact DPC here.

A rooftop view from the High Line looking northeast. 7:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Monday, May 12, 2014. Perfect weather over the weekend in New York. Temperatures in the high 70s in the day, mid-60s at night. With a few moments of rain, some hours of grey clouds above, and everything green getting greener.

Late Friday afternoon, temperatures in the high 60s, we had several hours of spritzes and storm clouds threatening. Finally about 5 p.m., we had a steady, heavy (but not torrential) rain for about twenty minutes. Washes the streets. You can see what this avenue in late Friday afternoon looks like traffic-wise. Hardly any. And so it remains for the weekend.

My “favorite” tree in the neighborhood is this beauty at the corner of East End and 82nd Street in front of Number 60 EEA. I took the first photo three weeks ago when it was just beginning to proceed into season, Then two weeks ago when it was suggesting the brushes of the Impressionists, and yesterday when it is now its elegant and complex and majestic self.

Beauty unfolds on East End Avenue.

I’m in the fresh flowers mode. On Saturday, right after the mid-afternoon’s soft but brief rain, I drove down to the flower district on 28th Street between 6th and 7th to pick up some fresh plants that I can nurture in the warmer on the terrace and then move indoors. This is not always a successful operation in terms of lastingness but I’m always game with some light and some MiracleGro. Anything outside/inside growing is my idea of true living luxury. When you live in the canyons of Manhattan, to achieve a bit of it is great luxury.

On Saturday I went over to Carl Schurz Park to get some shots of the tulips now on the latter part of their precious reign. They still remain spectacular even as they are about to drop petal and bid us farewell until next year. Then there is the flowering tree which is beginning to cover its main branches with a band of blossoms.

Saturday night some friends took me to dinner at Bar Italia on 66th Street and Madison Avenue. The Madison Avenue restaurants have a different feel from the Lexington and Third (and Second and First) Avenue restaurants. It’s the crowd. The strip along the 60s up through the 80s is obviously sophisticated, and so are much of its clienteles. Bar Italia is one of those cafes that caters to the afternoon lingering crowd as well as the shoppers and the professionals in the area who like Italian and chic. One of its owners is Hassan Elgarrahy, whom I first knew when he was maître d’ at Harry Cipriani in the Sherry-Netherland, and who now divides his time between BI and Orsay on 75th and Lex. Same crowd, yet different. As they get closer to the Park the demographic gets more international.

After dinner, about 9:30, I decided to walk a ways up the Avenue and get some shots of the windows for all you people out there who love to window shop. I’m not one of them but when I give myself this little self-assigned assignment, I’m fascinated.

Oscar de la Renta.

Michael Kors.

Kate Spade.

Anya Hindmarch.

Tory Burch.

Frette.

La Perla.

Bonpoint.

Lanvin.

Donne Karan New York.

Valentino.

Dennis Basso.

Dolce and Gabbana

Pratesi.

Reed Krakoff.

Anne Fontaine.

Prada.

Tom Ford.

Bottega Veneta.

Emilia Pucci.

70th between Lex and Park. Saturday, 9:45 p.m.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day in America. The restaurants were jammed between 6 and 8, and then the fair weather brought out the later crowd.

Mother’s Day has been an American “holiday” all my life although it really took hold in the 1960s. How did that happen? I always thought it was the result of the marketing genius Joyce C. Hall, the man who created Hallmark Cards and became a tycoon.

However, according to Wikipedia the first “Mother’s Day” was celebrated in 1908 when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis. Miss Jarvis began the campaign three years in 1905. Her mission was to honor her mother for work Mrs. Jarvis had begun, and to continue the work she started as a peace activist caring for wounded soldiers on both sides of the Civil War. Mrs. Jarvis was part of a movement of independent thinking women, far ahead of their time. Originally the idea was started as a protest to the carnage of that war by women who had lost their sons and husbands. Mrs. Jarvis was part of that original movement. Mr. Hall of Hallmark was on the (new) case very soon after.


	Anna Jarvis.

	Julia Ward Howe.

The original Mother’s Day proclamation was written by Julia Ward Howe, author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” in 1870. My friend Eleanora Kennedy sent me the text:

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided byirrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reekingwith carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not betaken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teachthem of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of anothercountry to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. Fromthe bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balanceof justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to themeans whereby the great human family can live in peace, eachbearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may beappointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and atthe earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote thealliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
of international questions, the great and general interests ofpeace.

Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870

Contact DPC here.

Family picnic in the park. 2:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014. Very Warm For May. That was a Broadway show written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II which opened in November 1939 at the Alvin Theater which is now the Neil Simon Theater on West 52nd Street.

(Details: the theater’s original name came from two producers ALvin Aarons and VINton Freedley. Fred and Adele Astaire opened it in 1927 with “Funny Face” by George and Ira Gershwin. Ethel Merman made her Broadway debut and became a star overnight three years later in the Gershwins’ “Girl Crazy.” Now you know.)

Anyway, New York theatre history aside, I woke up yesterday morning thinking of that title because I’d read the night before that warm was in the forecast, and I was wondering if May were warm or cold back in the day (1939). Well yesterday the temp was 81 and the “real feel” was 91. Humidity. The stark reality. The Farmer’s Almanac is predicting another scorcher this summer and another hurricane in New York. I don’t read the Farmer’s Almanac but my friend Pax does. Drama everywhere. And heat. Yesterday was too warm in my book of favorite temps. However.

On my way to lunch over on Madison Avenue and 82nd Street yesterday, I passed this spiffy townhouse where the hydrangeas had just been delivered. When I was returning from the lunch, they been signed and sealed too. And beautiful.


	Helen and her little brother DPC on Easter Sunday of her 17th year.

Today is the birthday of both of my sisters who were born on this day six years apart. My eldest sister, Helen, who is celebrating her 87th today, has been looking after her little brother, like a second mother, all of his life. She moved out of the house to get married before I was of school age, and she had her first child (a son) when I was six.

But because our mother worked, much of Helen’s new family married life time was shared with me. My sister Jane, though older than I, is still at the age where she’d prefer to keep the number to herself. There comes a time when most of us feel that way. Either way, I was lucky to have them as sisters.

Yesterday I went to lunch with an old friend from Los Angeles whom I hadn’t seen in more than twenty years. She was in town briefly and I met her for lunch on Madison Avenue near the Met.

The flowers we’ve been photographing for the past couple of weeks are now getting to their end. Yesterday’s heat probably helped. I got a shot of some hydrangeas being added to someone’s front stoop in the East 80s. At the same time, JH was in Central Park working his magic lens recording the last of the first Spring blooming.

Vanitas by JH ...

Yesterday afternoon Betty Sherrill died. I don’t know the details except that I know she was in her 90s. Although up until recently she was still going into the office which came as a surprise to no one who knew her.

I’d known Betty for almost 25 years. Betty was a force. I met her when I first came back to New York and started writing these social columns. She was president of McMillen, the decorating firm. Sometime back then, the firm was celebrating its 75th Anniversary, and she invited me over to their offices to see all the photographs of their (rich and) famously prestigious clientele over those years.

Betty with husband Virgil.

She was Old School– a term that has outlived its meaning in the land of No School. There were rules; a code of behavior. They was followed. She was a Southern girl from New Orleans or thereabouts. She came to New York like a lot of us to make her way in life. And yes she did. She still had some of that Southern drawl in her sentences all those years later, and with it she could say the most trenchant things in an offhand, almost lazy/daisy way, and you got the message.


	Three generations of Sherrills: Betty with daughter Anne Pyne and grandaughter Elizabeth Pyne.

She always spoke her mind (or said nothing – which I’ll bet was always hard for her). She had decided opinions, and expressed them. But she was a lady, which meant she was respectful and kind in her methods. Mrs. Brown who had owned McMillen took her on even though Betty admitted she “knew nothing” about interior decorating. What Mrs. Brown probably saw was what anyone who ever met Betty saw: she’d find a way.

She and her husband Virgil (who was an investment banker) lived here in New York at One Sutton Place South (when I knew her) and a lovely house in Southampton which Stanford White designed for Elihu Root, a New York lawyer, who was in Secretary of War under McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, and later Senator from New York (he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912). There in their younger years they entertained the smart young social crowd of Southampton summers mid-20th century including Anne and Henry Ford II and Gary and Rocky Cooper.

She had two children, a son and a daughter, both of whom she was very proud (her daughter Anne Sherrill Pyne joined the firm about a decade ago, as has Betty’s granddaughter Elizabeth). She was a career mother long before it was fashionable for society women to work. She was a child of tradition obviously, and although I never asked her, I’d guess she was a “conservative” politically. But there was a side of her that was in touch with the times (coupled with a side of her that was uninterested in what other people thought).

One of our earliest HOUSE interviews was done with Betty (with a subsequent interview with her daughter Anne) about ten years ago. I re-read it last night and decided that Betty can tell you best about herself in this interview, so we’re running it again in tribute to the plucky lady who knew what she wanted and achieved it. Betty, as you will soon see, didn’t need anybody to explain her.

Last night in New York, the American Ballet Theatre’s opened its 2014 Spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House opens with the annual Spring Gala benefit. Sponsored by LANVIN, the evening featured ABT’s renowned Principal Dancers in preview performances from the eight-week season.

Michelle Obama served as Honorary Chair. I’m not sure if Mrs. Obama was there; I didn’t see her and heard no one referring to her. The Gala co-chairs were Emily Blavatnik, Nina Rennert Davidson, Nancy McCormick, Kalliope Karella Rena, Mary Elizabeth Snow and Monica G-S Wambold.

The principal dancers of the second half of last night's performance in the Metropolitan Opera House of the American Ballet Theatre's annual Spring Gala. The evening on stage was a Wowser.

Vice Chairs for the evening included Cecile Andrau-Martel, Valentino Carlotti, Donna and Richard Esteves, Susan Feinstein, Victoria Phillips, Martin and Toni Sosnoff and b. Junior Co-Chairs for the evening were Sarah Arison, Julia Spillman-Gover and Mark Tashkovich.

A portion of the proceeds from the Spring Gala will support ABT’s education and community outreach programs. These are very important because they give children the opportunity to find about something that can enhance their lives, a rare element in these harried times. Also a rare antidote for angst that seems to envelop the world these days. What you see on stage, undeniably, is the beauty of the work of artists, dancers, composers, musicians, set and costume designers and the brilliant musicians. And it’s reality; that’s the awesome part.

The Met Opera House letting out after the performance of the American Ballet Theatre, last night about 9:30 p.m.

I was never a fan of the ballet. Not because I knew it and had rejected it, but because I had no idea what it really required to accomplish, and how extraordinary the performers are in achieving their goals. I’ve learned this over the years on this beat beginning with the ABT, the New York City Ballet and the extraordinary School of American Ballet and the Jacqueline Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre.

If you love music, and if you love dancing, you see what these dedicated dancers (many of whom start at age four and five) are able to achieve. From the schools, you are able to see what the rigors of learning to dance provide to everyone who participates: dedication, commitment, focus, and discipline. All of the students of ballet develop these qualities early in life, giving them a head start with any education, and capability with any pursuit.

The view looking east from the Met Opera House, with Avery Fisher Hall on the left, and the David Koch Theater on the right.

The evening began with a cocktail reception at 5:30. I couldn’t make that early hour. It was a black tie evening for those hundreds attending the dinner after the performances. The performances featured selections from the 2014 season’s full-length ballets including Don Quixote, Cinderella, Coppélia, La Bayadère, The Dream, Giselle and Manon; Kylián’s Nuages and excerpts from Gaîté Parisienne.

Last night’s performances kept the audience in their thrall. The evening opened with a performance by students from The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at ABT. They call it the JKO School. The program lasted for about two hours with one intermission, as well as a few minute pause after each performance. Afterwards, the gala guests moved to the tent set up in Damrosch Park next to the Metropolitan Opera House for dinner.

Contact DPC here.

3:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014. The perfect Spring day yesterday in New York with the temp around 71 degrees, a bright sunny day and a soft cool breeze coming off the river, and temperatures dropping to the mid-fifties by mid-evening.

Not an eventful day for this writer in the city, but a pleasant one. The news wherever you look is bad, and yes there are many of us who prefer to look away, but it’s there anyway. However, for those of us who are powerless to change the course of human events even in our own personal lives, the next best thing to ignoring it is to (try to) enjoy and be constructive in your day. Or something like that.

JH was Looking up ...

And down ...

I had a business appointment late morning in midtown. Then I went over to the Container Store in the Bloomberg Tower on 58th aned Lex, and bought some simple transparent plastic boxes to house papers and journals which have been sitting in sagging cardboard boxes since they were sent here from California 22 years ago. This is fascinating stuff, no?

If you’ve never been to a Container store, it is sort of fascinating. Because the merchandise is basically telling you to straighten up and fly right. In other words, get your life in order for the sake of ... having some order in your life. I left the Container store and went around the corner (same building) to Home Depot on 59th and Third Avenue, another fascinating shop which I never enter. I needed some small planting pots. Which I found three floors below the avenue in Home Depots warehouse-like basement. I admit that this is one store where I could become an almost compulsive shopper. I don’t because I’m too practical about “shopping.” But it’s a super-hardware store and they have everything and lots of it for anything you do around the house (I know you already know this – but I don’t). So I was tempted. And so it was.

Another versoin of getting your life in order (also via JH) ...

My lunch had been canceled, which is always a kind of relief. Although I have the residual “guilt,” if you want to call it that, of feeling like I’m not doing my job. I think it’s part of the New York energy where you feel you should be doing something all the time. Later in the afternoon I gave a video interview to a filmmaker doing a project on a prominent New York woman who is no longer with us.


	At Carvaggio sitting by a Stella, last night at 9 p.m. (Photo by J. Regan).

I can’t reveal the name now only because the man with the project hadn’t granted me permission. I hadn’t asked either; but it’s a great story and I’ll get it out there when the time comes (and everybody else is getting it out there too).

Speaking of New York women, we got a lot of mail about the HOUSE piece with Betty Sherrill which we first published in 2003. One reader also sent along an interview Betty gave to (the late) great journalist Charles Gandee, 22 years ago in 1992 for the (also late, and great) HG (originally House & Garden).

What I found most interesting about it -- after being entertained reading Betty’s comments about various subjects and people – was how she was the ultimate New York pro when it came to business, or rather, her business. This always to-the-manner-born perfect lady (and she was) had a real knack for out-and-out good ole marketing.

Gandee’s piece is full of her comments about people, places and things, and she didn’t disappoint by throwing in some barbs and sallies other people, places and things. She had a way of doing in in which you might thing she didn’t realize what she was saying at the time. Ah, but she did.

Doing the math, this interview was given when the lady was hitting the age of 80 and still very much in the game. “I turned down Mrs. (Leona) Helmsley for the house in Greenwich she was sentenced to jail for,” she told Gandee, adding ... “She also dragged me up to her apartment at the Park Lane and said, ‘Look at my antiques.’ And I said, ‘You have no antiques.’”

Earlier in the interview Betty was promoting “FFF” (Fine French Furniture), adding that “not everybody” could afford good 18th century nowadays but McMillen & Company was doing their collection of antique re-pros for Baker furniture.”


Betty Sherrill with her daughter Anne Pyne and granddaughter Elizabeth Pyne, in Architectural Digest, 2006.

Everything about the interview was a stroke of strong marketing. There was the snob-appeal, the expertise, the certainty of a decorator’s purpose, as well as the personal provenance – the where-she-came-from and the who-she-knew client list (“Queen Noor, Doris Duke, Henry Ford, Marjorie Merriweather Post”) and the chic dismissals “Palm Beach has changed. It has gotten to be kind of Eurotrash. Don’t you think it’s sad?”

I laughed out loud reading Charles Gandee’s because I could hear her saying it all, sounding so innocent and unaware. I don’t doubt Gandee was as amused. I learned about that device of hers when it came to personal conversation.

I knew she knew the score, all the while seeming properly naive. But this time, after the fact, after it was all over, I could also see that Betty was a just a brilliant businesswoman with a natural instinct for marketing and image-making. She had the goods, the materials, and the instincts to make a successful business (she was that person in reality). She was her brand, selling it as the well-bred girl from New Orleans only doing what was right for her clientele who simply wanted the best. She may have been one of those girls who pooh-poohed Women’s Lib in its day, but she always did exactly what she wanted to do, Lib or no Lib. At the top of her game.

Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto on Madison Avenue between 72nd and 73rd, last night at 9:35 p.m. I took a picture of those tomatoes because they looked so perfect I wasn't sure if they were real. The shape and intense color was brilliant.

Last Wednesday night, readers might remember, I went to an anniversary dinner at the Morgan Library given by Judy Price, who founded the National Jewelry Institute ten years ago. Mrs. Price is nothing if not productive. In its first ten years, this “institute” which began as a concept and an idea about the preservation and cultural and economic aspect of jewelry, had staged 14 exhibitions in world capitals, and published four books.


	Judy Price, William Griswold, and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece.

We learned that night that Mrs. Price had decided to host this dinner, a fundraiser for the NJI, at the Morgan because Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan himself was the premiere collector in the world of precious gems and jewelry in the late 19th and early 20th century. He would have understood exactly what Judy Price was planning to do. And why.

Attending the dinner were all the high jewelry brands who have supported the NJI for the past 10 years. At the dinner, Joel Towers, Executive Director of Parsons at the New School, announced the new partnership that had been forged between the National Jewelry Institute and Parsons to create intensive a one week course “in the fine art of high jewelry.” The designers for the jewelry brands supporting the NJI will serve as adjunct professors on the Parsons faculty.

The honorary chair of the evening was HRH Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, who was joined by her husband HRH Prince Pavlos. William Griswold, director of the Morgan, also spoke enthusiastically about the NJI and the plans with Parsons.

Mrs. Price also announced that a jury from Parsons and the NJI will recognize the best single piece in all new high jewelry and timepiece collections at a dinner in the Louvre on July 6, 2015 on the first night of haute couture week in Paris.

Judy Price and Joel Towers.

Marta Nowakowski, Alice Tepper Marlin, and Elizabeth Kanser.

Christiane Fischer.

Avi Gelboim, Meri Horn, and Brian McGrath.

Wilbur Ross and Hilary Geary Ross.

Anja Vacca and Zachary Izzi.

Paul Vartanian, Christabel Vartanian, Andrew Jeffries, and Annabel Vartanian Jeffries.

Dr. Natalie Hahn and Dr. Martin Fox.

Anna Di Stasi and Maria Leininger.

Richard Corbo, Winnie Ma, Peter Kramer, Erica Kasel, Keith Scott, and Angela Dotson.

Dr Gale Allen and Linda Dango Hailey.

Elizabeth Kabler and Diane Finnerty.

Barbara Cirkva Schumacher, John Schumacher, and Mickey Ateyeh.

Arnold Bamberger, Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, Carla Bamberger, and Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece.

Amale and Elias Daniel.

Martha Kramer and Dale Brown.

NJ Goldston and Daniel Paltridge.

NJ Goldston and Nicole Weiss.

Alice Harris and Stanley Harris.

Claudia Mata, David Chu, and Shannon Adducci.

Meeling Wong and Sally Morrison.

Skip Stein and Anne Gains.

Meghan Po, Stephen Bianchi, Christina Falcon, Patrick Carroll, and Egle Petraityte.

Leslie Hall, Michael David, and Celine Assimon.

Dhruv Kapoor.

Philip Donaldson, Nicolas Ricroque, and Michelle Faul.

Catanna Berger and Richy Petrina.

Heather Norton.

Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, and Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia.

Alexandra Leighton and Ricardo Golibart.

Somers Farkas and Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece.

Jean Shafiroff, Christopher Meigher, and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece.

Jaquine Arnold and Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia.

Victoria Wyman, Bob Bradford, and Martha Kramer.

Ruth la Ferla and John Loring.

Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, and William Griswold.

Chris Malstead and William Griswold.

Lawrence Lewis.

Robert Tanis-Evon, Inger Ginsberg, and William Ginsberg.

Roz Jacobs.

Cindy Lewis and Jim Mullaney.

Tim Chang, Patty Tang, and David Chu.

Diane Finnerty.

Ashton Hawkins and Charlotte Cowles.

Vanessa Friedman, David Friedman, Rickie de Sole, and David Chu.

Rickie de Sole, David Chu, Sally Morrison, and Robert Wolf.

Stellene Volandes.

Stephanie Foster and Christabel Vartanian.

Robert Wol and Kathleen Beckett.

John Loring, Doris Valle, Linda Buckley, Henri Barguirdjian, and Marianne Lafiteau.

Joel Towers, Jean Tatge, and Peter Price.

David Rosenberg and Marsha Dubrow.

Marcus Teo.

Jennifer Fayed, James Fayed, Cher Block, Liam Fayed, Anastassia Khozissova, and Sam Fayed.

Nishan and Michelle Vartanian.

Ralph Destino, Geoffrey Bradfield, and Peter Price.

Emma and Neil Clifford.

Charlotte and Nigel Blow.

Tracy and Ali Al-Fayed.

Francesco Paolillo and Benito Tabatabai.

Contact DPC here.

Riverside Park. 4:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Thursday, May 15, 2014. Mainly grey day yesterday in New York, with temps in the 60s, with a light fog and very light drizzle in the early evening.

I went down to lunch at Michael's with Blair Sabol, our No Holds Barred columnist who is in town on her bi-annual visit from way out in the Southwest. JH joined us after the meal.

Michael’s was its Wednesday self: jammed and happening. On one side of us was documentarian Perri Peltz with Susan Mercandetti, Vice President of Business Development and Partnership for ABC News. Next to them: Diane Clehane with Carlos Falchi and his daughter Kate Falchi and luxury retail guru Mickey Ateyeh. On the other side of us was Nikki Haskell with Judy Price and Saundra Whitney.


	JH couldn't help but capture Blair Sabol in all her green glory.

	Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner and his life long friend and occasional guest, Princess Margaret, the late sister of Queen Elizabeth.

Next to them in the bay at table one was Glenn Horowitz, Rare book seller and archivist/dealer in 19th and 20th century manuscripts, correspondence. He was with artists Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, who are represented by the Marlborough Chelsea Gallery. Mr. Lowe is the brother of the famous actor with the same last name.

Moving along: Real estate broker Eva Mohr was hosting a table with Diana Feldman. In the corner were actress Vanessa Williams with agent Sam Haskell. Next to them, Herb Siegel (Blair’s uncle) and Frank Gifford, and next to them: international architect Norman, Lord Fosterand Lady Foster and architectural historian Paul Goldberger; next door to mega-literary agent Esther Newberg and former Senator Chris Dodd; and next to them, Pat (Mrs. Gerald) Schoenfeld and two friends.

More: Star Jones was lunching with EJ Johnson (son of Magic); investor Steve Ratner; Peter Price; Andrew Stein; PR consultant Jim Mitchell; Susan Duffy of Stewart Weitzman; Nick Verbitsky of United Stations; Judy Twersky celebrating Victoria Shafer’s birthday; Tom Schumacher, the Disney Executive Vice President in charge of the highly success theatrical group (“Lion King,” “Aladdin,” etc.; PR guru Susan Magrino with Roger Myers, proprietor of Sugar Beach in St. Lucia, who is developing the Glenconner Estates on Glenconner Beach that belonged for years to the late Colin Tennant, the 3rd Baron Glenconner.

For years his property on Mustique was a favorite tropical getaway for the British royals including Princess Margaret and her husband Antony Armstrong-Jones, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and others just like ‘em. When Lord Glenconner died three years ago, he left $48 million to his valet and carer of 30 years, Kent Adonai, cutting out his wife of 55 years and family.

Meanwhile, back at the Michael's lunch: Warner Brothers’ VP Dave Dyer; Gigi Haber; Shelly Palmer; Candia Fisher with Arielle Madover; WSJ’s David Sanford and Lewis Stein; author Pamela Keogh with producer Liz Aiello; Lisa Linden with Chris Cleary; Showtime’s Matt Blank with Steve Mosko; Henry Schlieff, of Discovery ID with Daily News’Linda Stasi, Colin Myler and Jessica Nicola.

The flowers behind DPC's table at Michael's.

After lunch I took Blair over to Verdura to introduce her to Ward Landrigan, its CEO who this year is celebrating his 40th anniversary as owner of the firm (his son Nico is now President). Blair is a big big fan of Verdura. This year they are also celebrating Ward’s 50th year in the business and the 75th anniversary of the founding of the firm by Fulco di Verdura (with major backing from Cole and Linda Porter). I can never resist getting a shot of the view from Verdura’s offices of the corner of 59th Street/Central Park South and Fifth Avenue with its General Sherman statue and the vista of the amazing Central Park, Central Park West and north to Harlem.

The view from the windows of Verdura of the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. Wednesday, 4 p.m.

I began the evening down at Doubles, the private club in the Sherry-Netherland where Toni and Jim Goodale were holding a cocktail reception to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. The Goodales have family, grandchildren and loads of good friends and acquaintances. Jim Goodale, a lawyer, was chief counsel for, and represented the New York Times in the “Pentagon Papers” case, among many other matters for the newspaper. He and Toni are major supporters of many literary causes and ventures including PEN/America and The Paris Review.

Jim has a CV that could lead you to believe he’s four people because he’s involved in so many organizations, projects, as well as published writer himself. His “Fighting For the Press; the Inside Story of the Pentagon Papers and Other Battles,” published last year is an eye-opening report on how far we stray from the intentions of our Founding Fathers. That is putting it mildly. “Fighting for the Press” is not an expose but a treatise on how we fool ourselves over and over. And a lesson for all of us, although God knows there are a lot of lousy students among us.

Arriving at the Goodales' 50th anniversary reception at Doubles last night at 7 p.m.

Toni Goodale, besides bringing up a family and participating actively in a number of cultural, charitable and literary matters, also for years ran a prosperous consulting business for foundations and philanthropy. Both man and wife have long been active political supporters on a local, state and national level, and over the years have established themselves as leaders – mainly unrecognized – in the community that is New York.

There were about 250 guests to fete this great couple and very successful marriage, with lots of familiar faces from media and what could generally be described as the so-called Liberal Establishment in New York.

Everyone was having a good time. The hors d’oeuvres were Doubles excellent and there was conversation everywhere. On many people’s minds was the announcement hours before that Jill Abramson, the Executive Editor of the New York Times, was let go. Or resigned, depending on who was repeating the news. The Times’ Arthur Sulzberger Jr. was also at the party.

Ms. Abramson was a controversial figure for a lot of journalists who worked for the paper. This was public knowledge the way matters of fact are often reported first as hearsay from those involved. Ken Auletta, who was at the party last night, writing for the New Yorker, reported that Abramson discovered she was earning considerably less pay and pension benefits than her predecessor Bill Keller. Evidently the matter irked her, which is not surprising. But surrounding that “explanation” of what is referred to as her “dismissal” was the back story about her work relationships generally with many who were under her. Last summer, it was reported in Newsweek that she was “high-handed, impatient ... and obstinate” by nature. In other words, not easy to work for.

The bridal couple in 1964 here in New York, and in 2014 last night at Doubles. They're quite a pair and great to know.

So there is a story within a story. I’ve never met Ms. Abramson so I have no take on what has been reported other than the not infrequent remarks about her behavior toward her associates at the paper. It always sounded to me like a woman who took herself and her position at the New York Times very seriously without sharing its distinction and prestige with her co-workers.


	Jill Abramson via Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire.

She definitely left an impression of being “unfriendly.” Which leads me to wonder if this was a case of a person in a prominent position misreading the requirements of that position. Power does that to many (most, maybe) people and we all have experienced its ramifications at some point. Then there is the very real matter of the business of the Times as a business. Executive changes reflect that more than the personality of an individual.

The thing is, the New York Times is a bit of a fable, in a way, for a lot of those who have worked for it or wished to work for it. Kind of a legend in its own mind. The reason for this is because for many decades, it was the paper of record here in New York and across the world. However, the paper, like the rest of us has been subjected to the cultural and technological changes of the past five decades in this country and the world, and they have altered that former reality radically.

The paper of record is now often perceived as the official voice of the Establishment, and not always reliable. The WMD business that was reported in the Times at the beginning of the Iraqi War, was the last straw for a lot of people. The internet did the rest – not only for the Times but for all print and broadcast journalism. Credibility is under threat everywhere in media and public life, and for good reason. Whatever the personal, or business issues surrounding the departure of Jill Abramson at the Times, it is most likely she is also casualty of the transforming culture.

Just as I was leaving Doubles, in comes these chic New York girls (and longtime friends) in basic black and very bright white, Katherine Mezzacappa and Carolyne Roehm.

After a very pleasant and interesting time with the Goodales and their many friends, I left party to get up to Sette Mezzo where I was meeting (again) Blair Sabol, Joy Ingham and Joe Pugliese for dinner. Getting around was very difficult in New York in midtown and the Upper East Side especially in areas near Fifth, Madison and Park, because the Obamas were in town.

It is unfortunate that a Presidential visit to this great city has now become a matter of closing off streets and avenues especially during business and rush hours. I know the “reasons” why (security, security and more security) but there’s a terrible irony about it all, and it is extremely inconvenient, as well, for the citizens going about their day in this very rushed city. It shouldn’t be that way, and the President, any President, visiting the city should be a reflection of the honor of it all.

Whatever, I made it to dinner about ten minutes late – not bad. The restaurant was jammed and I don’t know what everyone was talking about. We didn’t talk about Jill Abramson and the Times, but there was a lot of laughter about the ordinary things of our day.

Joy Ingham and Blair Sabol last night outside of Sette Mezzo showing the camera their shoes (part of the dinner conversation), without the flash and with the flash. The two friends of mine met for the first time at this dinner. As you can see they got along swimmingly. I wasn't surprised. P for Personality abounding.

Catching up: This past Monday night there was a New York kick-off reception for the upcoming 5th edition of Masterpiece London which took place at new apartment of interior designer. Joining Drake to welcome the Masterpiece London’s Nazy Vassegh, Thomas Woodham-Smith, Philip Hewat-Jaboor - were his American Patrons Committee co-chairs Geoffrey Bradfield, EllieCullman, Audrey Gruss, and Scott Snyder.

Thomas Woodham Smith, Geoffrey Bradfield, Audrey Gruss, Tamarie Dobias, Nazy Vassegh, Philip Hewat-Jaboor, Margaret Russell, Scott Snyder, Ellie Cullman, and Jamie Drake.

Also in the crowd were Margaret Russell, Tamarie Dobias, Natalie Leverack, Kevin Fairs, Juan Pablo Molyneux, Mario Buatta, Vicente Wolf, Matthew Yee, Bruce Bierman, William Secord, Rod Keenan, Juan Montoya, Urban Karlsson, Penny Drue Baird, Cub Barrett, Sam Cochran, Alison Levasseur, Jacqueline Terrebone, Stephen Wallis, Chas Miller, Birch Coffey, Brian McCarthy, Danny Sager, Greg Kan, Alex Papachristidis, Scott Nelson, Madeline Stuart, Michele Beiney Hawkins, Maureen Footer, Joan and Jayne Michaels, Meg Wendy, DeBare Saunders, Ronald Mayne, Christopher Mason, Charlie Scheips, Carolle Thibaut Pomerantz, Shelly Farmer, Elizabeth Held, Ronald Bricke, Vyna St. Phard, Louise Nicholson, Frank De Biasi, Tom Scherer, Sheila Camera Kotur, Josh Burcham, Marcy Masterson, Dennis Rolland, Philip Mezzatesta, Henry Neville, Judith Dobrynszki, Wendy Moonan, David Masello, Miguel Flores Vianna, Brook Mason, Jennifer Watty, Peter Trippi, Lloyd Princeton, Paolo Pantelone, Daisy Hill Sanders, Eileen and Fred Hill, Elle Shushan, Franck Laverdin, Harry Heissmann, Charles Pavarini, Bennett Weinstock, William Wyer, Peter Krause, Daniela Laube, James Andrew, Scott McBee, Daniel Hamparsumyan and Sandra Nunnerley.

Scott McBee, James Andrew, Bennett Weinstock, and Jamie Drake.

This year, 17 prominent American galleries head to London to join the ranks of the other 130 international exhibitors who are offering a massive array of fine and decorative arts and other high-octane trinkets from Monets to Maseratis -- all under one roof for the uber-sophisticated connoisseur. The fair opens with their preview on June 25th through July 2rd at the South Grounds of The Royal Hospital Chelsea. This year's principal sponsor is RBC Wealth Management.

William Wyer, Daniela Laube, and Peter Kraus.

Eileen and Fred Hill, Thomas Woodham Smith, and Daisy Sanders.

Ronald Mayne, DeBare Saunders, Bruce Bierman, and William Secord.

Elizabeth Pachoda, Liz Feld, and Shelly Farmer.

Jennifer Watty and Meg Wendy.

Elle Shushan Michele Beiny, Liz Feld, and Shelley Farmer.

Vicente Wolf and Matthew Yee.

Alex Papachristidis and Charlie Scheips.

Urban Karlsson, Juan Montoya, and Henry Neville.

Cub Barrett and Joshua Burcham.

Margaret Russell and Mario Buatta.

Jane Michael, Joan Michael, Charles Pavarini III, and Randall Tarasuk.

Jayne Michaels, Madeline Stuart, and Joan Michaels.

Juan Pablo Molyneux, Audrey Gruss, and Scott Snyder.

Maureen Footer and Susan Zises Green.

Ellie Cullman and James Andrew.

Nazy Vassegh, Margaret Russell, and Philip Hewat-Jaboor.

Edgar Cullman, Jr. and Ellie Cullman.

Alison Levasseur, Maureen Footer, and Sam Cochran.

Lee Siegelson, Margaret Russell, Jamie Drake, and Louise Nicholson.

Christopher Boshears, Stewart Cohen, and David Masello.

Franck Laverdin and Juan Montoya.

DSC_0862-Chas Miller, Philip Hewat-Jaboor, Birch Coffey, and DeBare Saunders.

Jacqueline Terrebonne, Steven Wallace, and Christopher Mason.

Marilyn White nad Audrey Gruss.

Rod Keenan and Christopher Mason.

Tamarie Dobias and Kevin Fairs.

Urban Karlsson, Brian McCarthy, Joan Michaels, Sandra Nunnerly, Jayne Michaels, Madeline Stuart, and Juan Montoya.

Photos by Annie Watt (Masterpiece London)

Contact DPC here.

Canopy of trees on 74th Street between CPW and Columbus Avenue. 12:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Monday, May 19, 2014. Weekend started with rain; forecast as “very heavy at times.” But that part of the storm missed at least the Upper East Side. We got rain, sometimes light, and sometimes steady. It was different downtown or over on the West Side or up in the Bronx or out in Brooklyn. The weather has shown us that we New Yorkers live in micro-environments. We got off easily over in our zone. Other places had flooding. Then Saturday the Sun came out. And then Sunday again. Sunday was an especially beautiful day in New York. On the cool side with the temps 60 and just south.

Sunday in Carl Schurz Park there was some kind of fair/event going on. I stopped to look and get a shot of Clifford the Big Red Dog (I think Clifford was posing), and to watch the little one looking at the dog. It was very sweet.

The lace cap hydrangea where the flower which sits in clusters like Scarlett O'Hara on the front veranda of Tara.

The aftereffect of Friday night's deluge in Riverside Park. Saturday, 9 AM.

Sunday Street fair on Amsterdam Avenue. 1:30 PM.

AIDS Walk New York on 85th Street. 1:45 PM.

This was a quiet weekend for me. Rarely strayed far after the Zabar's run on Friday before the rain. I am finally reading Victoria Wilson’s“A Life of Barbara Stanwyck; Steel-True 1907 – 1941.” I’d put it off because of its size – it’s 868 pages of prose, not including the appendix, the acknowledgements, the index, etc.

It’s a handsome book to begin with. Ms. Wilson’s prose is also encyclopedic when it comes to Stanwyck’s life and world – from birth – the environments, the neighborhoods – she was born in Brooklyn – the theatre world, and New York in the first third of the 20th century. If you like the atmosphere of that kind of American history (and I do), you’ll love this book. The story is full of flavor with details that create a kind of chiaroscuro painted deftly with a soft brush, of our life at that time.


	Click to order“A Life of Barbara Stanwyck; Steel-True 1907 – 1941."

Stanwyck’s hardscrabble early years is the story of many a family in the metropolis (and elsewhere) in our history that is now known as American culture. It was being created by refugees of the great European emigration in the latter part of the 19th century. The arts came from across the sea and defined it all for us now.

Survival was the story for millions. Stanwyck’s mother died at 41 after getting kicked in her pregnant belly by a drunk getting off a trolley. She lost the child and died. The bereft and troubled husband left. Went to Central America. And the four-year-old girl Ruby Stevens (later Barbara) lost everything and lived. She became an orphan (not technically – she had older siblings), but realistically. Her life was shaped then and there.

I’m drawn to this book naturally because I have had a lifelong interest in the profession, the art, the characters and the centers – New York and Hollywood/Los Angeles – its same roots are part of my heritage also. There are the classic notes of Horatio Alger woven throughout. This was America. This was the dream; and not coincidentally Stanwyck became famous for working in the Dream Factory.

Daunted by the size of the tome, I soon learned that Wilson’s style is simply expressed and reads fast. The facts ma’am. And it also reads smoothly, like viewing a great map of a life. Once you’re in, she’s got you. Barbara Stanwyck was an archetype for many a woman at that time. Her essence, however, would later emerge for all women only after the 1960s. She also worked all her life. Worked hard. That sensibility was ingrained in early childhood. It would be her path.

The medium of popular film is now old enough to produce what can be recognized as scholarly works. This book is an excellent example of that. Plus it’s a fascinating life and a powerful personality in a richly detailed business. If you ever saw “Double Indemnity,” this is the story of what it took to make that character that you’d never forget.

So, there has been that. Then yesterday afternoon a friend invited me to go with her to see “Act One” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. I’d been curious to see it. I have never read the memoir by Moss Hart the great Broadway playwright/ director (and screenwriter) who created several famous shows and films and died at the young age of 57 in 1961.

People living today know him, if they do, as the husband of Kitty Carlisle Hart. In reality, it was the other way around. It’s stuck in my memory since youth of a quote of his to his wife when they’d moved to Palm Springs: “You’ve been with me through thick and thick ...”

The play, which opened a couple of weeks ago, got pretty good reviews although not all raves. I have a friend who loved the book as one of his most favorite memoirs and was disappointed in the play. I loved it. I loved it. Perhaps because my expectations had been somewhat lowered by my friend’s review, I had none other than curiosity.

I loved it. You heard me say that before, right? The performances of all the actors are fabulous. Several parts are played by actors playing more than one or even two different roles.

You only know this if you read it because each character they play is nothing like the others, Tony Shalhoub who was nominated for a Tony for his roles, plays the narrator, middle-aged Moss Hart, as well as George S. Kaufman– who was Hart’s collaborator on his first (and it was a hit) Broadway show, “Once in a Lifetime” and Moss Hart’s father. Santino Fontana who plays the young man Moss, plays opposite Shalhoub in those three completely different characterizations. All were powerfully and memorably – and at times very amusingly – expressed.


"Act One" at the Vivian Beaumont Theater

It may be that the power of this play is in the ripeness of the multi-characterizations that these actors produce, because you are with them every moment – and it’s a two and a half hour show. Santino Fontana carries the energy of the venture, the break-neck pace of the story – all about Moss Hart's extraordinary beginning. He was a boy with a dream of being in the theatre ... somehow. Then he suddenly and serendipitously gets his first Broadway show – collaborating with George S. Kaufman, who was already a giant, a famously regarded playwright and director, who would direct and star in the play.

What first looked like buying the lottery ticket turned into the classic drama of Broadway theatre: a hit or a flop (closing out of town). Anyone who knows any theatre history (or was in the drama group in high school or college), knows the outcome, because they’ve performed in it, seen it, or read. It’s now a classic, and this version is full of life and triumph.

Crossing the plaza to the Vivian Beaumont, a view of the cafe under the ...

... urban park where people were relaxing taking in the day (and the passing parade for excellent New York people watching.)

It’s in the telling that makes “Act One” such a great show, almost an autobiography, actually an autobiography (with some flourishes of this artist’s license). But: The play’s the thing ...”

What a great thing! This is something you could only see on a stage. This is why theater will never die, no matter the technology, because it’s there before your eyes, in the flesh, with the eternal promise of the thrill. “Act One” and its fabulous cast over at the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center did that for me yesterday afternoon.

Contact DPC here.

Riverside Park. 4:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Fair, mostly sunny weather yesterday in New York. Big clouds, blue skies and the inevitable forecast of some rain (none).

I went down to Michael’s to lunch with Linda Fairstein who is publishing her sixteenth (!!!) Alex Cooper detective novel, “Terminal City.” Alex being Alexandra, if you’ve never read one of them.

Linda is a New Yorker. She grew up in Mount Vernon just north of the city. Her father was a doctor. He was very verbal about his work, so the girl growing up was being unconsciously tutored in the ways of life and the human condition. She was a big reader as a kid and she dreamed of being a writer. When it came time to think about taking care of herself as a grownup, her father suggested she get herself a profession first so she could be sure of supporting herself.


	Linda Fairstein with a copy of Terminal City.Click to order.

I don’t know if he suggested it although it sounds as though he was a strong influence in her thinking early on. She decided to study law. After Vassar, she went to the University of Virginia Law School. And after that is was back in New York and in the early 70s and DA Frank Hogan’s office, she got a start on something new. There were 7 women attorneys in his office when she was first there. Now, she told me yesterday, half the office is women.

But I’m telling you all this to lead up to Linda’s “today’s story” which is partly that her sixteenth novel is being published on 17 June. But three and a half years ago, Linda lost her husband Justin Feldman. He was 92 when he died. Mr. Feldman also had a great career in law and in politics – he helped manage Robert Kennedy’s 1964 Senate run in New York – and was not only Linda’s husband but her mentor and editor/adviser. They had been married 25 years and it was a great loss for her.

Cut to the chase. In the last year or so, Linda has been seeing an old friend whom she first knew as a student at UVA Law. Michael Goldberg. Mr. Goldberg and Linda were good friends back then, and the friendship continued over the years, as he too became a practicing New York lawyer and was also a friend and admirer of Justin Feldman. Mr. Goldberg had been married but was divorced a few years ago. And since Linda was now a single woman, and he was a single man, and they had always been good friends, they began to spend more time in each other’s company. They share many interests, many friends and are approximately the same age – late sixties. Familiarity breeds content (in this case).

DPC and Linda Fairstein at Michael's. Steve Millington, Michael's GM, the man with the camera, is making with the corny jokes while taking the picture.

These stories always amaze me personally. They sound like they were made up. At least in my experience. But fate and good fortune often prevails (now and then, if it does). What’s interesting about this story is that the mates are old friends. It sounds so sensible. How fortunate for them. Oh, and Linda has a house on the Vineyard that she had with Mr. Feldman. And Mr. Goldberg has a yacht and a ranch in the Northwest. The question arises: will Alex Cooper become an international detective? I’m sure she could get used to the yacht in the Mediterranean in summertime.

Conversation was about that and books and writers and stories at our table. There were other writers in the room. Amanda Foreman who wrote the fascinating biography of “Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire” and “A World on Fire” about the British aristocracy’s support of the Confederacy in the Civil War. She is now writing a book about the history of women. Something like that. It’s about women.

Amanda (whose to her friends, family and husband as “Bill”) is the daughter of screenwriter and producer Carl Foreman. Interestingly, she catches the “flash” in her work not unlike a camera catches the moment to grab your interest. She grew up in England but went to Sarah Lawrence. Her parents were American. Her father had moved to England in the 1950s to get away from the McCarthy “blacklist” politics that was enveloping Hollywood.


	Ronda Carman with a copy of Designers Home; Personal Reflections on Stylish Living. Click to order.

I don’t know her very well but she’s one of those women who is seriously bright, possibly intellectual yet very accessible. She’s gentle-spoken (not soft-spoken) and she has five children. And nice. Really nice. A highly desirable combination of qualities. She was lunching with Catie Marron, former head of the Board of the New York Public Library. This is New York.

Also stopping by the table was Ronda Carman. I hadn’t seen Ronda since we had lunch at that table at Michael’s a couple of years ago maybe more. Ronda, an American girl, was living in Scotland with her husband and son. But she’s moved back to Texas, and was in New York.

We’d met because I’d read her blog All The Best and was interested in her work. Yesterday she brought me a copy of her book published last year by Rizzoli, “Designers Home; Personal Reflections on Stylish Living.” Martha Stewart wrote the Foreward. It’s a beautiful compendium of designers Ronda has come to know, and their work in their home environments. Fifty of them. If you open the book, you’re caught.

Last night Yanna Avis hosted a "Taurus" dinner party for her friend from Los Angeles, Kelly Day. Yanna's apartment on Fifth Avenue overlooks the Park and Central Park West. It was a beautiful sunset when I arrived about 8 o'clock. Unfortunately shooting through the window darkened the tree tops of the Park as well as the facades across the way. The twin towers with the pinnacles is the San Remo. Farther south (to the left) are the twin towers of the Century.

I took this shot at dinner of Marina Pellecchi and Adrienne Vittadini. Both women of fashion (Adrienne was a successful women's fashion designer), they were discussing the current Charles James show at the Met and other aspects of changing times and fashion. It reminded me of that quote of YSL's ... Fashions fade, but style is eternal.

Last night, the 92Y held its annual Spring Gala, celebrating 140 years of culture & community, featuring a performance by COUNTING CROWS. Gala Co-Chairs included Susan and Stuart Ellman, Elena and Scott Shleifer, and Brett and Daniel Sundheim.

For 140 years, 92nd Street Y has been serving its communities and the larger world by bringing people together and providing exceptional programs in the performing and visual arts; literature and culture; adult and children's education; talks on a huge range of topics; health and fitness; and Jewish life. As a nonprofit community and cultural center, 92nd Street Y seeks to create, provide and disseminate programs of distinction that foster the physical and mental health of human beings throughout their lives, their educational and spiritual growth and their enjoyment.

The Counting Crows at 92Y's annual Spring Gala ...

Also last night, Ralph Lauren presented the Fall 2014 Ralph Lauren Children’s Runway Show at the New York Public Library. Uma Thurman hosted. The show included next season’s best back-to-school styles and featured a live performance by the cast members of Broadway’s Tony Award-winning “Matilda the Musical,” based on the Roald Dahl children's novel.

Ralph Lauren’s brand is creating a special T- shirt which was showcased in the runway show that benefits charitable literacy programs around the world. The T-shirt, part of a new limited-edition capsule collection featuring a new Polo Pony designed to promote childhood literacy. It will be on sale at Ralph Lauren stores and RalphLauren.com beginning August 5. A percentage of sales from the capsule collection, as well as from the looks in the Fall 2014 Children’s Fashion Show, will benefit Reach Out and Read in the United States, as well as a number of other charities globally.

David Lauren and Uma Thurman.

Edie Falco and daughter Macy.

Uma Thurman and Alicia Keys.

An exclusive performance by the cast of Matilda the Musical helped Ralph Lauren kick off a literacy program committed to boosting literacy for children in need by providing access to books.

Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based nonprofit organization of doctors and nurses who promote early literacy and school readiness in pediatric exam rooms nationwide by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud. Now in its 25th year, Reach Out and Read serves 4 million children and families annually via 5,000 health centers, hospitals, and pediatric clinics in all 50 states, with a focus on serving children in low-income communities.

Lauren Bush, David Lauren, Uma Thurman, Alicia Keys, and Edie Falco front row at the Ralph Lauren Fall 14 Children's Fashion Show in support of Literacy at New York Public Library.

The finale.

Reach Out and Read was founded in 1989 at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) in Boston, Massachusetts, and was based on the premise to "encourage parents to read regularly to their children and give them the tools (the books) to do so.” As a result of the early literacy intervention, Reach Out and Read families read together more often, and their children enter kindergarten better prepared to succeed, with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills. To learn more, please visit www.reachoutandread.org.

Alicia Keys and Ralph Lauren with children wearing Ralph Lauren Children. (Photos by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Ralph Lauren).

Contact DPC here.

Delivering down Fifth Avenue. 7:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014. Beautiful, sunny day, yesterday in New York.

And as usual, a busy one on the calendar. For example, last night at the Edison Ballroom, Joyce Carol Oates was honored at the Author’s Guild black tie dinner. While over at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park, Urban Stages held a benefit dinner and honored veteran agent Lionel Larner for 30 years devotion to the organization. His longtime friend and client Dame Diana Rigg presented the award.

Because it was in Central Park, on a beautiful night, and at the Boathouse, the evening included dinner and cocktails of course, and entertainment and dancing, and boat rides! Meanwhile down at Capitale on the Bowery, the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter hosted a benefit evening with singer Nellie McKay. And dinner of course.

My day started like this. (Horrible traffic in the midtown cross streets, not because of too many cars but because of too much building construction which takes up lanes and often the entire street with construction equipment like plows and bulldozers and cranes).

It took three quarters of an hour to cross from the FDR Drive at 63rd Street to Fifth Avenue and 59th Street and the Plaza where at noontime in the Grand Ballroom, the National Audubon Society’s Women in Conservation were hosting their annual 2014 Rachel Carson Awards luncheon.

They honored Ellen Futter, the brilliant President of the American Museum of Natural History; Actress and director Kaiulani Lee, and Nell Newman, daughter of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

Over the past 21 years Ellen Futter has raised more than $1.3 billion for the AMNH. During the past two decades the museum’s Center for Biodiversity and conservation has advanced a global mission of environmental science as well as education and outreach about conservation. Eight years ago, with the establishment of the Richard Gilder Graduate School, the museum became the first in the United States authorized to grant the PhD. Degrees. Three years ago the AMNH was the first freed-standing museum-based Master of Arts program in teaching, focused on Earth science.

For the past 22 years, Kaiulani Lee has been performing her one woman play, “A Sense of Wonder” to remind the audience of the monumental stature and influence of Rachel Carson, of how precious our natural world is, and just how dramatic and difficult the challenges can be for those who stand to protect the truth. Ms. Lee’s play promotes environmental education and activism.

Ellen Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History, with Allison Rockefeller, President of the Audubon Society's Women in Conservation, yesterday at the Plaza Hotel.

Nell Newman, who grew up in the Connecticut countryside where she had an early introduction to natural foods thanks to her father and mother. After college she worked at the Environmental Defense Fund, served as Executive Director of the Ventana Wilderness Sanctuary, working to reestablish the Bald Eagle in central California, and as Development Director for the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, the non-profit responsible for captive breeding and restoration of the Peregrine Falcon in California.

It was her commitment to organic foods and sustainable agriculture that led her to convince her father to establish an organic division of Newman’s Own. She did this by creating a completely organic Thanksgiving dinner and then suggesting organic food products for the new Newman’s Own Organics line. Twenty years later Newman’s Own Organics produces more than 100 organic products.

Nell Newman of Newman's Own.

Kaiulani Lee, actress and promoter of the legacy of Rachel Carson with her one-woman play, "A Sense of Wonder," based on Carson's life and work.

Allison Rockefeller who is president of Audubon’s Women in Conservation told me yesterday that the organization is committed to promoting and providing opportunities for young women interested in science and environmental careers. She said that amazing as it sounds there are still few women working in the field, which has traditionally always been thought of as a man’s field. Which is surprising just considering the honorees at yesterday’s event. Women in Conservation are working to change that.

This was a very successful luncheon with more than 500 men and women attending; very serious and committed and naturally visionary.

The Grand Ballroom of the Plaza yesterday at the Women in Conservation luncheon.

I started out the evening at the Knickerbocker Club where Frank Wisner, Frank Richardson, Tom Pulling, and Jeff Peek were hosting a book party for their friend James Zirin and his new book “The Mother Court; Tales of Cases that Mattered in America’s Greatest Trial Court” with Foreward by Robert M. Morgenthau.

NYSD readers may be familiar with Jim Zirin as he and his wife Marlene Hess are active participants in many philanthropic causes in the city.

Last night’s gathering of more than 100 of some of the city’s more prominent men and women affirmed their popularity and activity. Jim, a longtime litigator who has appeared in federal and state courts around the country, is also a former Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and served in the Criminal Division of that office under Mr. Morgenthau, a legend in his field.


	Jim Zirin with “The Mother Court; Tales of Cases that Mattered in America’s Greatest Trial Court."Click to order.

He has also written more than 200 op-ed pieces for Forbes, Barron’s, the LA Times as well as The Times of London. Currently is also co-host of the popular weekly prime time cable television program “Conversations in the Digital Age.”

Although there was a lot of camaraderie and affection around the room in speeches about the author last night, one couldn’t help thinking that this new book of his, despite its alluring title of “Cases of Tales That Mattered” might be a little on the dry side for those of us who have little or no legal background.

However, when I got in last night from my travels and was thinking about what I might write about the new book, I randomly opened my copy to page 256 to a trial of one Leon Friedland, “a corrupt accountant who helped a conniving businesswoman named Edith Kendall prepare fraudulent financial statements, covered by fake accountants’ certificates which she gave to banks in support of loan applications,” which were so convincing that Mrs. Kendall was about to secure millions of dollars from the banks.

Mrs. Kendall was described in the courtroom as“quite charming,” “spoke with a European accent that projected glamour and urbanity,” and possessing a “generously endowed bosom” which she “displayed en decolletage with great effect on the gullible bankers…”

Mr. Friedland, aka Lee Armand, was also an SEC accountant by day, working for Mrs. Kendall in the evenings. His defense was that he’d been seduced by Mrs. K and really went to her offices at night ...

In the cross of Mr. Friedland about his hoped-she-would-be client inamorata:

Q. Did you tell her sweet things?
A. Yes.
Q. That you liked her hair?
A. Yes.
Q. Her clothes?
A. Yes.
Q. You lost your head with Mrs. Kendall, didn’t you?
A. Yes.
Q. She seduced you?
A. Yes. I succumbed.
Q. Was it mutual?
A. It was mutual.

Whereupon in the courtroom Mr. Friedland’s long-suffering wife burst into tears and had to be led from the courtroom.

Ah, the nitty gritty emerges and takes over. You can tell this book is a great read of all kinds of cases for all of us who love detective stories, courtroom shows and much much more.

Jim Zirin’s “Mother Court” provides a ringside seat at some of the most famous cases that went down in the US District Court for the Southern District including the trials of Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs, The “Pizza Connection” case – longest criminal trial in America history and Government obscenity suits against James Joyce’s“Ulysses” and the film “Deep Throat.”

Cover detail.

Meanwhile back at last night’s beat. I left the Knickerbocker at 7:15 and walked the two blocks down the avenue to the Metropolitan Club where the Lighthouse Guild was hosting its annual A POSH Affair benefit honoring Lifestyle Visionary: Potter, Designer, and Author Jonathan Adler; Fashion Visionary designer Thom Browne; and Artistic VisionarySheila Nevins, President of HBO Documentary Films.

POSH dinner hosts were Hamish Bowles, Amy Fine Collins, Alex Hitz and Lorry Newhouse. Honorary Chair was Arlene Dahl, who with her husband Marc Rosen, all assisted by a long and distinguished list of Vice Chairs as well as Committee members. Benjamin Doller, Vice Chairman and Senior Auctioneer of Sotheby’s Americas, conducted a brief auction, raising more funds for the Lighthouse Guild’s work.

The centerpiece at last night's POSH Lighthouse Guild dinner at the Metropolitan Club.

I happened to be seated next to one of the honorees, Sheila Nevins, who is famous in her business but not as well known publicly as Messrs. Adler and Browne. However, since assuming her position at HBO Documentary Films ten years ago, she has in her capacity as an executive producer or producer, received 26 Primetime Emmy Awards, 31 News and Documentary Emmys and 37 George Foster Peabody Awards. During her tenure at HBO, their critically acclaimed documentaries have won 23 Academy Awards and she has personally supervised the production of more than 1000 documentary programs! This is New York!!

Mark Ackermann, Executive VP and COO of Lighthouse, presenting the award to Jonathan Adler.

Mark Ackermann presenting Thom Browne with his award.

Sheila Nevins of HBO Documentaries accepting her award.

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A somewhat quiet place

Almost a traffic jam

Intimate conversations

A chill in the air

Almost there

Sweet April showers do spring May flowers

It’s not winter and it’s not summer and not even fall

Now is the peak

Public profile

If you’re a reader or a writer

Sunny and Bright

The 32nd annual Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon

On the Run

Everything green getting greener

Very Warm For May

Downtime

Caught in a moment

Seeing Green

Terminal City

Busy one on the calendar