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 The things you hear
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| Looking east across 56th Street from 6th Avenue. 2:10 PM. Photo: JH. |
Thursday, January 19, 2012. Cold and sunny in New York, turning freezing cold at night.
The calendar’s been so quiet that I decided to get my people fix and go down to Michael’s for lunch with JH who, it turned out, had no heat or hot water in his building today.
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| The Hearst Tower on West 57th Street. |
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Michael’s was its ole Wednesday self. At Table One Barbara Walters was with Sir Norman Foster, Princess Firyal, Robert Silvers of the New York Review of Books (with the latest issue under his arm), and Gil Shiva. Sir Norman is the famous architect (or rather the architect of famous buildings). New Yorkers know his work: The Hearst Tower on West 57th Street.
At the table next door, Joe Armstrong, back after a working sojourn in Israel to work on the Paul Newman project for children, was hosting Katy Dobbs, Bourne Welsh and Fred Newman of Prairie Home Companion. Next to them Barry Diller was at his regular corner table; and next to him Herb Siegel was lunching with his pal, the Giants legend Frank Gifford.
Across the aisle from them (see how clubby it is), the not-always-serious Four, Five or is it Six: Dr. Gerry Imber, Jerry Della Femina, Jeff Greenfield, Andy Bergman (missing: Michael Kramer, the playwright).
Moving right along, Shari Rollins with Jennifer Keil of the NY Post. Marie Claire’s EIC, Joanna Coles; Cathie Black (who was the publisher of Hearst Magazines when the Norman Foster Building opened a few years ago); entertainment lawyer Allen Grubman (who with his wife Deborah recently acquired the late Sue Mengers Beverly Hills mansionette), lunching with Charlie Rose. Also: Tony Hoyt with Patrick Murphy; Jerry Inzerillo (with purple shades); Jeff Wilpon of the Mets; Joan Gelman and Sandy Pearl; Peter Price; another table, his wife Judy Price. |
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| Our lunch: Potato‐Leek Soup, Brussels Sprouts, Shiitake, Uni. $17. |
| Maplebrook Farm Burrata, Prosciutto di Parma, Arugula, Grilled Radicchio, Persimmon, Ice Wine Vinaigrette. $21. |
Behind me and Mr. Hirsch was Michael’s very own Brenda Starr Diane Clehane who covers this beat for MediaBistro.com. Diane was lunching with Ann Shoket, the EIC of Seventeen, and Hearst’s exec-director of PR, Alexandra Carlin.
Keepin’ on: Jon Klein and Maryam Banikarim, Lynne White and friends, Gina Sanders, CEO of Fairchild, Wenda Millard of MediaLink; Jay Kriegel, Steven Haft, Richard Bressler, managing director of Thomas H. Lee. |
| DPC, JH, and Diane Clehane. |
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The things you hear. Leaving Michael's I caught a cab on the corner of 56th and Sixth to ride through the Park and up to 72nd Street. My cabbie turned out to be a woman. Surprising only because you rarely see a woman driver in New York. Naturally that started the conversation. I asked her why there were so few women drivers. "Two percent," she answered. "Why so little?" "Because the taxi business in New York is owned by Middle Easterners and they don't have women drivers. If they can help it." So now I know.
The conversation continued as we moved quickly through the Park and onto the East Side, up Park Avenue and across the East 80s to East End. She knew the neighborhood because every morning she delivers a couple of girls from the West Side to one of the girls' schools across the street from me. Then, she told me, she picks up a couple of boys from the East Side and drives them to their schools on the West Side. Five days a week.
What are the kids like? I asked. "Well," she began, "they are ten- or eleven-year-olds. Last week one of them says to the other: 'My father is really stupid.'" "Why's that?" the other kid asks. 'Because he thinks one hundred dollars a week is enough for an allowance.'"
Geez, I respond. "Entitled," she replies, "all entitled." So then I ask her where she's from because even though she talks like a New Yorker, she doesn't have the accent." Turned out she was born in New York and grew up in Western Massachusetts. Just like her passenger. |
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| Through the windows at Michael's. 6:00 PM. |
Catching up: Tuesday night at the Rubin Museum of Art, Broadway and Hollywood legendary impresario, Marty Richards hosted an “Evening of Friends, Food and Dancing Celebrating the New Year and the Upcoming 80th Birthday…” of the man himself.
The evening benefited the Mary Lea Johnson Richards Research Institute. It was a scene straight out of a Marty Richards production – you know a lot of them “On the Twentieth Century,” the first Broadway musical he and his wife Mary Lea produced under their Producers Circle banner; also “Crimes of the Heart,” “March of the Falsettos;” the Obie Award-winning “Dylan” which starred Rue McLanahan; “La Cage Aux Folles" (six Tonys, count ‘em); Bob Fosse’s “Chicago,” (as well as the Oscar winning film), “The Will Rogers Follies,” “The Norman Conquests,” “Sweet Smell of Success,” the revival of “La Cage,” “Chita Rivera, A Dancer’s Life.” |
| Marty Richards, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Michael Douglas. |
All that lined up Awards for his stage productions: 36 Tonys, The Pulitzer Prize, 7 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 2 New York Drama Critics Awards. Plus the movies, such as “The Boys From Brazil, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” “Fort Apache, the Bronx,” and again, “Chicago.”
Well. Michael Douglas, a cousin of Marty’s late wife Mary Lea, and his wife Catherine Zeta Jones were honorary chairs of the evening which featured music by Lonnie Youngblood and his Band. The invitation called for “Festive Attire with a Splash of Red Requested.”
Plus the stars: Chita, Robert DeNiro and Grace Hightower, Lilias White (who sang), Lance Bass, Art Garfunkel, Star Jones, director Rob Marshall and John DeLuca, Marla Maples, Steve Gutenberg, Tony Danza, Clive Davis, Lesley Gore and tons of Marty’s longtime friends from all over. |
| Toasting Mr. Richards: Dr. Hillel Tobias. |
More than 500 attending (you ask why they needed a museum space?). The room shimmered in copper and peach, festooned with peonies and yellow and pink roses. Three buffet stations: Japanese, Chinese and Deli with chicken pot pies, burgers and fries with a Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake.
Event producers Dan Gallagher and Michael Milton staged the evening for The Man, and they raised over a half million dollars for the Mary Lea John Richards Research Institute. Happy Happy Birthday Marty! |
| Michele and Frank Rella. |
Jackie Weld Drake. |
| Tony Danza and Marty Richards. |
| Sharon Sondes and Geoffrey Thomas. |
| Monique Van Vooren and Geoffrey Bradfield. |
| Dianne Charkow and Frank Herrera. |
| Stewart Lane and Bonnie Comley. |
Peter Bacanovic and Simone Levitt. |
| Tony Lo Bianco, Donna Soloway, and Marty Richards. |
| Tony Ingrao and Marty Richards. |
| Tony Maltese and Dallas Rosendahl. |
| Roger Horchow, Marty RIchards, and Roger Berlind. |
| Ethel Watt and Patricia Watt. |
| Michele Herbert and Edgar Bastista. |
| Tamara Tunie and Gregory Generet. |
Marcy and Nick Licari. |
| Star Jones and Marty Richards. |
| Clive Davis and Marty Richards. |
| Maria Theresa and Chita Rivera. |
| Dr. Jennifer Mieres, Greg Schriefer, Clive Davis, and Beth Chase. |
| Bandleader Lonnie Youngblood. |
| Libby Kabler and Jill Brooke. |
| Chita Rivera and Larry Fuller. |
R. Couri Hay and Christopher Robbins. |
| Casey Childs, Jamie de Roy, Maria Copper Janis, Lynn Halliday, and BH Barry. |
| Marty Richards, Baroness von Langendorff, and Monique Van Vooren. |
| Baruch Shemtov and TIm Fischer. |
| Georgette Mosbacher and Marty Richards. |
| Jean Shafiroff and Francine LeFrak. |
Ann Dexter Jones. |
| Patty Raynes and JIll Brooke. |
On the Tuesday evening, a week before the stars and the boldfacers were out again when React To Film hosted a screening of Susanne Rostock’s new documentary film, Sing your Song about the life and times of Harry Belafonte.
Guests included Harry Belafonte, his wife Pamela Frank, Grammy nominee Marsha Ambrosius, Nina Garcia, Oscar winning director Zana Briski, Charles Rockefeller, Max Kennedy, RTF co-founder Coralie Charriol Paul, Cece Cord, CNN’s Felicia Taylor, Eddie and Kinga Lampert, bestselling author Janet Wallach, The Lambs Club owner David Rabin, MoMA artists Hank Willis Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems, interior designer Darren Henault, Richard Farley, Somers Farkas, Michelle Harper, Paige Hardy, filmmaker Josh Fox , and Laura Meiland. |
| Dennis Paul and Harry Belafonte. |
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At the end of the special evening Mr. Belafonte made an eloquent toast to React To Film’s ongoing efforts to inspire change through showcasing documentary films in schools to young people. Referring to the nonprofit as the “next harvest” of social activism, Belafonte expressed his deep gratitude to the non-profit for helping get this message to people who can help support social change.
Purview of the documentary: Sing Your Song: It’s a wonderfully archived film, and told with a remarkable sense of intimacy, visual style, and musical panache. Susanne Rostock’s inspiring biographical documentary surveys the life and times of singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte. From his rise to fame as a singer, inspired by Paul Robeson, from his experiences touring a segregated country in the Jim Crow era, to his provocative crossover into Hollywood, Harry Belafonte’s ground-breaking career personifies the American Civil Rights movement, and impacted many other social-justice movements.
Corralie Charriol Paul and Dennis Paul launched REACT TO FILM with the aim of exposing, engaging, and inspiring US, the audience to take action and influence friends to the same. RtF is a nonprofit that showcases the best documentary films to activate young people around critical social issues. The RtF High School Program integrates social issue docs into the curriculum at public high schools. The RtF College Action Network showcase a film each month simultaneously across the country to drive debate on social issues amongst collegiate youth. |
| L. to r.: Harry Belafonte and wife Pamela Frank; Coralie Charriol Paul and Dennis Paul. |
| L. to r.: Kinga Lampert; Janet Wallach; Lara Meiland Shaw and Rachel Wolkowitz.. |
| L. to r.: Stuart Sundlun, Coralie Charriol Paul, and Darren Henaullt; Charles Rockefeller. |
| L. to r.: Cece Cord; Tracey Stern; Nina Garcia. |
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