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Last
night in the Grand Ballroom of The Waldorf-Astoria for the Animal
Medical Center Top Dog Gala 2003. 8:15 PM. Photo: JH.
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F.
Scott Fitzgerald was born on this day one hundred seven years
ago in St. Paul, Minnesota. He died forty-four
years later on December 21, 1940 from a heart attack in an
apartment on Hayworth Avenue in West Hollywood, California.
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F.
Scott Fitzgerald
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Last
night the friends of the Animal Medical Center held
their annual fundraiser, the Top Dog Gala 2003, at the Waldorf.
And very fancy friends the AMC has, it should be noted. They honored Alan “Ace” and
Kathy Greenberg and Barbara Walters was
the Mistress of Ceremonies. Benefit co-chairs were Nancy
Kissinger and Mrs. Kenneth Langone. Junior
co-chairs were Page Hershey and Emilia
Fanjul Pfeifler. Journal co-chairs were Karen
Clark and Peggy Mejia.
The gang, fancy or no, gets all fuzzy-wuzzy when it comes to the
dogs (or the cats, let’s not forget the cats). But mainly the
dogs. Barbara Walters told us she had a dog for seventeen years and
when the pooch finally died of old age she swore she’d never
get another dog because the loss was so painful. This is a very commonly
told story. Kathy Rayner, who was my hostess for
the evening, and next to whom I was sitting, whispered after hearing
that that she’d get another right away. And always has. I agreed.
Immediately. The Rayners now have four. A yellow lab, two shih-tzus
and most recently an adopted Peke. Barbara Walters then confided,
however, that a couple of years later she did get another dog and
couldn’t be happier.
The
Greenbergs have dogs that can dance. I haven’t seen it but
everyone was talking about the dogs’ performance at the ARF
benefit at Sandra McConnell’s Southampton
estate last month. Mr. Greenberg is the CEO of Bear Stearns – where
he started fifty years ago as a clerk – and is also an aficionado
of magic. I don’t know if he employed some of those skills
to get the dogs to dance, but it sounds right.
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Ace
and Kathy Greenberg
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Brooke
Astor loves the AMC so much she once said that if she
ever got sick she wanted them to take her to the AMC. They raised
$975,000 for the organization last night. Barbara Walters in reporting
it added that if someone in the room (of about six hundred guests)
could add another twenty-five grand they could even things out.
That may very well have happened in this gilt-edged crowd.
Black tie, fancy dress, it was a pretty stellar
crowd for an animal hospital fundraiser. I
saw the Kissingers, Louise and Henry Grunwald,
Lauren Bush, Jamee and Peter Gregory, Reinaldo Herrera,
Wendy Carduner, Brad Geist, Virginia Coleman, Emilia
and Fred Krimendahl, Suzanne and Dick McDonough, Ashley
McDermott, Jackie and Rod Drake, Jamie Niven with Leighton
Chandler, Raul Suarez and Harriette Levine, Pepe and
Emilia Fanjul, Mai and Ridgely Harrison who
are leaving in a few days for a month in India; Cynthia
Phipps, who is chairman of the board of trustees
of the AMC; Karen and Howard Clark, Candy Hamm,
Sam Reid, Pauline Pitt, Ron Grimaldi, Grace and Chris
Meigher, Topsy Taylor, Hilary Geary and Wilbur Ross,
Boaz Mazor, Wendy Vanderbilt, Rosalie Brinton, Rick and
Kathy Hilton, whose famous daughters taped an Oprah show
that afternoon; Jane Seymour, Bill and Tina Flaherty,
Carl and Sabrina Forsythe, Jo and Paul Hallingby, Carroll
Petrie, Pat and John Rosenwald, Marjorie and Reza Raein,
Alexia Ryan Hamm, Kristi Witker and Dick Coons, and Cece
and Lee Black. For starters. Not to mention
those who’ve slipped this sieve of a mind.
A good time was had by all dancing to the music of the ubiquitous DJ
Tom Finn. Outside the streets and avenues surrounding The
Waldorf were cordoned off or barricaded, with lots and lots of cops
everywhere, for the President was staying at the hotel last night
(although I was told he was up at the Metropolitan Museum while we
were at the AMC party). The United States delegation keeps an apartment
in the Towers and it was there that the President’s father,
the former President, used to stay back in the days that he was US
Ambassador to the UN during the Nixon Administration. |
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Mrs.
Kenneth Langone and Nancy Kissinger
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Lauren
Bush and Henry Kissinger
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The
Top Dog Dr. and Mai Harrison
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Peter
Gregory and Cece Black
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Emilia
Fanjul and Reinaldo Herrera
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Henry
and Louise Grunwald
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This
is a big week for the UN and New York is under siege, so
to speak, by the armies of security that are here watching
over, looking after the armies of ambassadors and sundry diplomats
attending the meetings.
I got stuck on the FDR Drive this afternoon because unknown to me
(and, most specifically, to my cab driver), they closed the southbound
lanes at 63rd Street. We got on the Drive sixteen blocks north and
into gridlock. Forty-five minutes later we’d reached the exit
less than a mile away.
My cab driver told me that there were 400,000 cars coming over the
bridges into Manhattan every weekday in 1970. Last year the number
was more than 1.2 million a day. That doesn’t include the trucks
and tractor-trailers. Or the millions who come by boat or train.
There are too many cars in Manhattan. And many of them are too big,
taking up too much space. Then, when you see a little bit of a woman
barely able to peer over the steering wheel, which she’s controlling
the wheel with one hand, a cell in the other, driving a $60,000 truck
taking a corner on 55th and Park, you know we’ve gone mad.
Besides the inconvenience to all citizens, it is an omen. Something
must be done, something must be figured out by some clever imaginative
dreamer who has yet to be employed by the automobile manufacturers
of the world and certainly not by the municipal administration. This
current one has made matters worse with their re-directing midtown
traffic during rush hour. It is a disaster just waiting too happen
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Outside
The Waldorf-Astoria. 8:25 PM. Photo: JH.
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Bill
Dugan with his model Teresa
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Last
Thursday, Fashion Week over, we went over to visit our friends Nancy
North and Bill Dugan at his Studio. Bill, who got his
start working for Halston, designs some of the most beautiful clothes
in New York for his Studio’s private clients. They come from
Greenwich, Boston, Forth Worth, from Beverly Hills, from San Francisco
and Seattle for their Bill Dugans. JH took some photos of this season’s
line, so you can see why they come from far and wide. Drop dead chic,
without a shrug or a passing sigh; just glamour.
The cashmere pieces are limited editions and the only pieces made
for retail. Everything else is custom- made and takes between two
and six weeks.
Interested parties can email them at wsduganstudio@aol.com.
Or visit them at 21 West 58th Street, NYC 10019. Or call 212-980-6738,
by appointment only. |
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Teresa
reflected in the mirror in Bill Dugan's Studio
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L.
to r.: Deep purple silk chiffon long evening dress, $6,200;
Red/Chinese Mandarin-collared cashmere long dress with slits
$2,800; Long red cashmere coat, $6,200.
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L.
to r.: Beige kimono cashmere 3/4 coat, white mock
sleeveless turtleneck sweater, beige cashmere skirt, $1,850;
Sage/green silk denim pantsuit with white silk/satin embroidered
bustier. Ensemble, $7,800; Fushia/gold lame shirt, fushia organza
pant, red cashmere ribbed tanktop, $4,800; Fushia/black silk
satin reversible shirt , $3,800, black sequin pant, $1,200;
Royal Blue silk/satin reversible coat, $4,200 with feathered
pant, $3,800.
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L.
to r.: Royal/black silk satin bustier, $3,200; Fushia
chiffon 2-piece long evening dress, $6,400 (from the front
and back); White silk matte jersey goddess long evening
dress, $6,400.
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