Those summertime heavy grey skies, hot, humid, threatened and followed by thunderstorms, heavy rains, cooling breezes coming off the river. There always a certain thrill of torrential summer rains washing the streets and leaves, cleansing us all.

Last Saturday’s party at the Watermill Center, I am told is everything I thought it would be and more. Even Nina Griscom, the Glorious Glamorous, long not oft-seen in these parts since she’s taken up with a new inamorata, was present and alluded to. And the place was fulla celebrities, Manhattan-style: Sarah Jessica Parker, Isabella Rossellini, Harvey Keitel, Russell and Kimora Simmons, Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook, Miranda Richardson, Marisa Berenson, Laura Elena Haring, Annie Leibowitz, Susan Sontag, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Vivienne Tam, Bianca Jagger, Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller, Kate and Andy Spade, Lars Nielson, Edward Albee, Richard Meier, Kim Heirston, Bob Colacello, Ingrid Sischy and Sandra Brant, Rufus Wainwright, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Lisa de Koonig.

Not to mention the social set of which the aforementioned are certified cross-overs: Anh Duong, Samantha Boardman, Eleanor Lembo, Marjorie Gubelmann Raien, and Vanessa von Bismarck, and all of whom were dressed in Louis Vuitton (the clothes of course). Also, also, more, more, Todd Meister, Tiffany and Louis Dubin, Tim and Helen Lee Schifter, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Carol Mack, Prince Dmitri (of the former Yugoslavia).

There was a live auction, as there often is at these big galas nowadays. But this one was spectacular. Simon de Pury, the international auctioneer extraordinaire had the crowd going nuts bidding their bulging purses. Someone paid $75,000 for a portrait by Anh Duong. There was original artwork by Tom Sachs, Roy Lichtenstein, Chuck Close and Ross Bleckner, to name only a few. There was a one-of-a-kind Robert Wilson-designed Louis Vuitton case containing fifteen limited edition lithographs by Robert Wilson. Sixteen thousand bucks later, it went to the highest bidder. There was also a silent auction featuring the artwork donated by Vanessa Beecroft, Annie Leibowitz and Cindy Sherman.

Louis Vuitton was the underwriter/sponsor of the gala, in case you haven’t figured that out yet.

They raised $550,000 for the Watermill Center which was founded in 1992 by Robert Wilson. Since its inception, young artists have joined Mr. Wilson in develop projects in theater, opera, film, architecture, design and visual arts. Mr. Wilson is a one-of-a-kind himself. Artist, writer, creator/guru, he serves as the piped piper to many aspiring artists and a bevy of very well fixed patrons who live and breathe his every word and wish, and, as I’ve said before, have the checkbooks to do it. I kid you not. And, his annual benefits are also fabulous parties where everybody gets to partake of the Wilson touch, the likes of which most of us don’t see much, if ever; the kind of which will be remembered at a later time, as an articulate part of an era.