French Women Don't Get Fat
Staying thin at Faconnable
There was another one of those “French Women Don’t Get Fat” parties, with the author, Mireille Guiliano on hand to read from her little self-help (“help yourself”) book on how to feed yourself with pleasure, eat anything you want and not end up like a fat slob.

This one took place at the Faconnable store on Fifth Avenue at Rockefeller Center. It was a Champagne Veuve Clicquot reception, and the Veuve was flowing as if she owned the company. Well, she doesn’t actually ... but, she is the President and CEO of Veuve Cliquot (US) where the company has increased its market share from 1% to 15% in ten years. So there are a lot of people besides book-buyers who are listening to Mme. Guiliano. And, can you blame them? She says you can eat anything you want, drink anything you want (well, not anything – get serious!) and not get fat. And look at her: she does! (And doesn’t.)
Melissa Berkelhammer
This being an entirely commercial world, the book party was not just to sell books and promote Veuve Clicquot but also to interest the book-buyers in Faconnable’s Spring 2005 Collection. So there were models strutting around, to and fro, on the first and second floors of the store, dressed in the 2005 sportswear collection in what was billed as an “informal fashion show.” Among the favorites, so saeith the flack from Faconnable were the fitted cotton voile tops with satin stripes and the cashmere and bamboo-fiber sweaters. I don’t know; you had to be there.

Meanwhile among the crowd was Joanna Mastrioanni, Melissa Berkelhammer, Jill Markiewicz, Erik McBride, Tony Delorenzo and his wife Dawn. Mr. Delorenzo is known as an Infidelity Expert which could mean a million things including does he know from experience? Also Sal Strazullo, Deena Greenberg of Vogue, Timothy O’Connor, Erin Bladergroen and Connie Ann Phillips.

However, the best part of the evening (if you don’t drink champagne) was Mme. Guiliano’s wit and wisdom. For she is amusing and cautious. Just cut back, kids. Don’t eat a “heaping plate” of anything. Eat chocolate and drink champagne. Only in moderation, however. Pigging out can lead to your looking like a ... well, oink-oink. Which is why everyone who reads her book loves it, even the nutritionists (and you know how picky they can be). Sarah Jessica Parker; she loves the book. Francis Ford Coppola (and you can tell by looking at him he likes to eat) ... he loves the book. And Nicole Miller, that little bit of a thing. And Colin Cowie, the last word in party-making. They all love the book.

Which is why everyone loves Mireille these days. She’s the how-to book publisher’s dream come true. The diet-book publisher’s dream come true. The champagne makers dream come true. Even the chocolatiers! And the other night she was Faconnables dream come true. Eat, drink and be merry. But buy the book first. Then go eat your chocolate.
Connie Ann Phillips

Dawn and Tony DeLorenzo
Models (French we presume)
Joanna Mastriaonni and Giddeon Lewin
Ann Vincent and Deb Lee
Sal Strazullo and friend
Mireille Guiliano



NYCO’s Stephen Sondheim Award dinner
Roger Berlind, Barbara Cook, and Stephen Sondheim
Mary Rodgers Guettel and Barbara Cook
 
Edmeé and Nicholas Firth
Two Wednesday nights ago, over at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, they held the NYCO’s Stephen Sondheim Award dinner. The Award was established in 2003 to recognize an individual’s outstanding contribution to the American lyric theatre. The first award was presented to Mr. Sondheim himself, for his invaluable ahievements and inspiring legacy – not to mention the immeasurable pleasure he’s given millions and millions of people with his work.

In over four decades of writing for the American musical theater, Stephen Sondheim has set the standard in musical and dramatic excellence. With unforgettable lyrics, haunting melodies, and razor sharp characterizations, Sondheim’s work has redefined the art form and established him as one of the greatest composers and lyricists.

This year’s award went to another great artist, this time a performer – Barbara Cook – for her performance in “Candide.”
Barbara Cook and Schuyler Chapin
Estelle Parsons and Mike Wallace

Photographs by Daniel D'Errico



The opening of Jonas Mekas: Fragments of Paradise at Maya Stendhal Gallery
Harry Stendhal and Jonas Mekas
Maya Stendhal, Mehnaz Maqsudi, and Faye Hakimi
More than 600 film enthusiasts and art collectors mobbed the exhibition space at Maya Stendhal Gallery at 527 West 20th Street to celebrate the opening of Jonas Mekas: Fragments of Paradise, a landmark solo exhibition by the godfather of The New American Cinema, which on view until April 30.

 Maya Stendhal’s curation of the exhibition fused the pristine austerity of Chelsea minimalism with cinephile extravagance. It was the perfect environment for taking Mekas’s rhapsodic and witty film oeuvre.

Jonas Mekas
Mekas has been at the center of the New York avant-garde for four decades, and his range of friendships, from Jacqueline Kennedy and John Lennon and Yoko Ono, to Fluxus founder George Maciunas and video pioneer Nam June Paik, all figure prominently in his work.

The front of the Main Gallery showed Mekas’s world premiere video Letters from Greenpoint and a video tribute to Mekas by video artist Nisi Jacobs and Re-Voir founder Pip Chodorov called Nothing/Moving, along with two series of frozen film frames, and filmstrip stills spanning Mekas’s vast cinematic output.

The rear of the Main Gallery space was a multi-channel extravaganza of all things Mekas, with twelve LCD screens and a full-scale projector looping films by the master from the 1950’s to the present.

The Project Room housed Mekas’s twelve-monitor installation Dedication to Fernand Leger, and the Private Viewing Room was transformed into a memorabilia installation, with walls covered in Mekas’s handwritten poetry and sketches, a display of his private notebooks and celluloid cuttings, and a slide projector looping fragments of footage from throughout his career.

Mr. Mekas is, not only a master filmmaker and the founder of Anthology Film Archive, but a major poet in his native Lithuanian. He also had a writing career in New York, with his Movie Journal column in the Village Voice in the late 1950s.

Among the guests at the reception were Peter Beard, Peter Tunney, John and David Tunney, Ian Schrager, Susan Shin, Ed Leffingwell, Harold Snyder, Tamara Hirschl, Ken and Flo Jacobs, Bill Morrison, Douglas Kelley, Jeff Scher, Danny Federici. Rocky Aioki, Doug Band, and James Fuentes.
L. to r.: Rocky Aoki; Peter Beard and Peter Tunney; Susan Shin and Maya Stendhal.

Peter Tunney and friend
Danny Federici and Maya Stendhal

Photographs by Chance Yeh/PMc



Marianne and John Castle gave a dinner for Governor and Mrs. George Pataki and their daughter Emily

L. to r.: Mary Wilson and Robert Shapiro; Timothy Rooney and Governor George Pataki; Jeffrey Meilman with Eva and Robert Forsyth.
Marianne and John Castle gave a dinner for Governor and Mrs. George Pataki and their daughter Emily at their ocean front mansion, "Castillo del Mar" in Palm Beach. The house was formerly the home of Joseph P. Kennedy and the winter White House for President John F. Kennedy.

There were 40 guests at the Castle’s and they dined on lobster salad, rack of lamb and souffle. The guests included: Governor and Mrs. George Pataki, Emily Pataki, John K. and Marianne Castle, John S. Castle, Carol and Philip Mehler, Adrianne and William Silver, Beverly and Eugene Gralla, Shirley and Milton Gralla, Eva and Bob Forsyth, Jeffery Lapides, Marc Korn, Theresa Casale, Anthony Casale, Sr., Anthony Casale, Jr., Christopher Ruddy, George Janis, Robert Shapiro, June and Tim Rooney, Robert Cole, Christopher Ruddy, Robert Davis, Charles Gargano, Robert Simmons, Dr. Jeffery Meilman, Brian Rusk and Ester and Jerry Ansel.
Philip Mehler, William Silver, and Governor George Pataki
Carol Mehler, Marianne Castle, and Adrianne Silver
John S. Castle with Libby and Governor George Pataki
John and Marianne Castle, Gov. George Pataki, Libby Pataki, and Emily Pataki


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© 2006 David Patrick Columbia & Jeffrey Hirsch/NewYorkSocialDiary.com