Rain, rain, went away; coming back another day. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. But enough of a break so that New Yorkers could go out last night without an umbrella. And go out they did. 

We started out a Restaurant Daniel where Patricia Burnham was holding her annual cocktail party. Ms. Burnham, a very prominent private residential real estate broker here in New York, gives this party about this time every year – when things are winding down and the People Who Go Out have time for a leisurely cocktail. They were serving Mojitos by the tray as guests arrived. I got there about seven-thirty. There must have been 60 or 70. Between JH and myself with our digitals, we covered the waterfront. But more on that on Monday.

From Restaurant Daniel, we moved down to The New York Public Library where they were holding its Annual Young Lions Fiction Award Gala. The theme, "The Beautiful and Damned: The Lost Generation" pays tribute to the cultural and literary florescence of 1920s Paris and its American expatriate community (and a nod, of course, to F. Scott Fitzgerald) with the sounds of le hot jazz and a cabaret décor. The party is organized by the Young Lions membership group, dedicated Library supporters in their 20s and 30s. The party's co-chairs are Stacey Bendet, Meredith Melling Burke, Melissa Gellman, Punch Hutton, and Roopal Patel. This year's Young Lions Fiction Award finalists Uzodinma Iweala, Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Kelly Link, Ander Monson, and Eric Puchner were honored at dinner. The girls, especially, looked sensational. But much more on that early next week.

This past Monday night The School of American Ballet presented its annual Workshop Performance Benefit in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Lincoln Center. This year’s Workshop will featured two ballets by George Balanchine - Square Dance and Bourrée Fantasque, and Christopher Wheeldon’sScènes de Ballet. After the performance there was dinner and dancing in the School’s studios on the 5th floor of the Rose Building.

The Benefit was co-chaired by Robert Couturier, Karen T. Hughes, Ulla Parker and Laura Zeckendorf. Corporate Chairmen were Fernanda Kellogg and Diana Lyne, Tiffany & Co., and Junior Chairmen were Chele Chiavacci, Genevieve Labean, and Lesley Thompson. The Workshop Performance benefit was sponsored by Elsa Peretti and Tiffany and Co.

There was a big crowd of fans of Dennis Basso who turned out for his 2006 Fall and Winter Fashion Show in the New York Public Library’s Astor Hall on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street.  Dennis’s show are always great people-watching as well as fascination with his latest creations.

In the stellar crowd: Liza Minnelli, Star Jones-Reynolds, Lorraine Bracco, Janice Combs, Carson Kressley, Denise Rich, Bettina Zilkha, Cece Cord, Douglas Hannant, Marjorie Gubelmann Raein, Somers Farkas, Susan Fales-Hill, Andrew Saffir, Becca Cason Thrash, Audrey Gruss, Patty Raynes, Joanne de Guardiola, Debbie Bancroft, Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley, Pamela Fiori to name only a handful.

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