Social Diary 10/31/03 - A special night benefiting the G & P Foundation for Cancer Research

A special night benefiting the G & P Foundation for Cancer Research

Denise Rich lost her mother, her sister and her daughter to cancer. She revealed this to an audience of eight hundred or more at The Angel Ball last Monday night at the Marriott Marquis over on Broadway and 45th Street. She was standing there before us in an emerald green gown and a necklace of diamonds and emeralds the size of golf balls. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but they were LARGE and abundant, and the earrings of diamonds and emeralds were large too. Someone told me she got them from Graff. I mention this because the talk she was talking wasn’t diamonds and emeralds but painfully and deadly serious. Her mother, her sister, her daughter.

Shirley Bassey and Denise Rich

It was because of that and most notably the death a few years ago of her then twenty-seven-year-old daughter Gabrielle Rich Aouad of AML Leukemia that we were all there. The last time she staged this gala which raises funds for the G & P Foundation for Cancer Research, the guests of honor were Bill and Hillary Clinton, the former President and the present Senator from New York. Michael Jackson was there too. There was a lot of the excitement in the room that night (same ballroom – one of the biggest, if not the biggest in New York).

There was a lot of excitement last Monday night too. And very glitzy glamorous since Mrs. Rich draws a show biz crowd among the social types who populate her guest lists. Barbara Walters opened the evening. Star Jones who was in a diamond and sapphire necklace mood, spoke.

Marc Anthony performed. Shirley Bassey who’d flown in from London that afternoon sang “Goldfinger.” Patti LaBelle sang. Stevie Wonder was there. And Ms. Joan Collins with her husband Percy Gibson. Ms. Collins looked great, and to watch her or sit in her presence is almost as good as seeing her on the screen, for where there’s an audience, her world’s a stage.

Joan Collins and Percy Gibson

They honored Clive Davis, Bonnie Fuller, Sol Kerzner and Marty Richards with Angel Awards. Mr. Kerzner who hails from South Africa where he was the force behind many resorts, hotels and Sun City, and now owns the splendid Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Speaking over video was Nelson Mandela, who profusely praised his fellow South African.

Donald Trump, to whom he is often compared, presented him with his award. To Mr. Davis went the “Angel of Light” Award. To Ms. Fuller, American’s most celebrated magazine and tabloid editor went the “Angel of Hope” Award, and to Mr. Richards who won an Academy Award last year for the film musical “Chicago,” a picture that took years of dogged dedication on his part to finally get off the ground, received the “Angel of Inspiration” Award.

A beautiful young flame-haired woman named Erin Zammet, a public relations executive for Glamour magazine told us that she’d been diagnosed with leukemia just a few years ago when she was only twenty-three. Thanks to a miracle drug developed through the kind of research that G&P Foundation funds, her disease is not only in remission but her most recent tests showed no sign of cancer. The drug has a 95% success rate.

Ms. Zammet’s presence, like our hostess for the evening was a bright and lively contrast to the grim subject being confronted. In fact she was wear diamonds too, earring dripping (also from Chopard, I was told).

Marty Richards and Clive Davis

The Gala Chairs for the evening were Charles Goldstruck, President and COO of the RCA Music Group, Jerry Inzerillo, Executive Vice President of Kerzner International, David Pecker, Chairman, President and CEO of American Media and Harvey Weinstein co-chairman of Miramax. In other words, the Chiefs, Cooks and Bottle Washers. Because they’re the guys who got out there and sold those tickets to raise the millions for Denise’s G&P Foundation that night. Dinner chairs were L. Marilyn Crawford, Michele Herbert, Laura Hunt, Heather Kerzner, Michele Rella, Denise Rich, Rena Sindi and Andrea Stark. Those girls got out there and sold tickets (or tables) too. Journal Chairs were Brook Gassner and Nurit Kahane-Haase. Also very important because those girls sell the ads for the “Journal” of the evening. Lots of ads, thick book, more for the cause. It was a thick book this year.

There was an auction and dinner and dancing and people watching – my god, the people watching! The party ran till eleven when the place began to clear and a few hundred of Denise’s pals went downstairs to party and dance to the music of Society’s (great) DJ, Tom Finn.

Howl At The Moon at The Halloween Ball “Mystery & Masquerade” to Benefit the Central Park Conservancy

Winners of Best Couple: Good Spam and Bad Spam, Nancy Bass and P. Hirshberg

Sigourney Weaver

On Wednesday night in the Rumsey Playfield, the Central Park Conservancy held a hauntingly magical evening of cocktails, dinner and dancing. Restaurant Associates fed the ghoulish appetites under the glorious “Sorcerer’s Tent” decorated by Ron Wendt Floral & Event Design. Bulgari awarded prizes to Best Couple, Best Female and Best Male while Calvin Klein awarded the Best Costumed Table. guests included John Leguizamo, Kathleen Turner, Hillary Swank, Chad Lowe and Star Jones among many others.

Decor by Ron Wendt

The Central Park Conservancy Mystics (Co-Chairmen) included Judy and John M. Angelo, Monica and Stefano Corsi, Jeanne and Carlisle Jones, Sally and Michael Gordon, John Stossel, Anita and Stuart Subotnick, Monica Gerard-Sharp and Ali E. Wambold, Sigourney Weaver and Jim Simpson. Olivia Chantecaille and Susan Shin served as the Merry Makers (Junior Chairs).