Social Diary 11/24/03 - Citymeals-on-Wheels 17th annual Power Lunch for Women, American Museum of Natural History's The Museum Ball Celebrates Petra, Natasha Richardson, Katie Couric, Sandy Duncan, Amy Irving, Donna Hanover, Ivana Trump, Cindy Adams, Bobbi Brown, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Jane Pauley, Diana Taylor, Mary Higgins Clark, Judy Blume, Florence Fabricant, Patricia Hearst, Cathleen Black, Libby Pataki, Donald Lipski, Liza Minnelli, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Rivers, Diane von Furstenberg, Nicole Miller, Marianna Baker, Wendy Breck, Sean Driscoll, John and Kathryn Hemingway, Alan Rogers, Iva Spitzer, Robert Haas, Michael Lewis Nick Brandt, Clark Halstead, Diego Uchitel, Carlo Mari

A rundown of last week; A preview of this week

Under the Blue Whale in the Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History for The Museum Ball Celebrates Petra.

Last Thursday, a week before Thanksgiving which brings about the final big push in social New York that ends abruptly a day or two before Christmas, the social calendar was running on overload.

Lunch: Citymeals-on-Wheels 17th annual Power Lunch for Women. Hundreds of prominent New York women – mainly professional, that is – fill the Rainbow Room. You meet all kinds of interesting people. Last year I sat next to a woman who is a law professor at Columbia. She used to be at Yale. Naturally I asked her if she had either one of the Clintons. Hillary was one of her students. The woman’s husband also taught law at Yale. When he died, Mrs. Clinton was then in the White House. She came up to deliver the eulogy. She spoke for about twenty minutes about the man who was her professor. Without notes, she recounted several anecdotes about him as well as a reflection on his career.

At this lunch, 300 women and the men – one per table – who are invited to join (they must also pay $10,000 for the privilege). The indefatigable Liz Smith was emcee. Paula Zahn, Martha Nelson of People Magazine and ABC’s Roz Abrams were honorary co-chairs.

Attendees this year included: Natasha Richardson, Katie Couric, Sandy Duncan, Amy Irving, Donna Hanover, Ivana Trump, Cindy Adams, Bobbi Brown, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Jane Pauley, Diana Taylor, Mary Higgins Clark, Judy Blume, Florence Fabricant, Patricia Hearst, Cathleen Black and Libby Pataki.

Gael Greene, who was also present, founded the organization twenty-two years ago with the late James Beard. Their mission: to provide a continuous lifeline of nutritious food and human company to homebound elderly New Yorkers in need. Through a partnership with the New York City Department for the Aging, along with gifts designated for administrative expenses, City-Meals-on-Wheels is able to use 100% of all other donations entirely for the prep and delivery of the meals.

Through a hundred neighborhood based meals-on-wheels programs, Citymeals takes meals to 17,000 (!!) homebound elderly New Yorkers on weekends, holidays and in time of emergency when they might otherwise be alone and go unfed.

Donald Lipski on his One-of-a Kind Park Bench

This lunch was sponsored by The Grand Marnier Foundation, Michel Roux, MasterCard, Bobbi Brown, The Rainbow Room, Women & Co., Bloomingdale’s and Oppenheimer Funds. American Airlines is the official airline and FIJI Water is the official water.

That night was break-neck. Over at Christie’s Target Benchmarks Central Park, a public art project presented by Target Stores and the Central Park Conservancy held an auction of the fifty One-of-a Kind Park Benches designed by New York celebrities to benefit Central Park. The bench designers ran the celebrity gamut including Liza Minnelli, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Rivers, the cast of “Saturday Night Live,” fashion designers Diane von Furstenberg and Nicole Miller.

Over at the Adelson Galleries in the Mark Hotel on 77th Street between Madison and Fifth, there was the opening of “Sargent’s Women” including a special lecture by Deborah Davis. Ms. Davis is the author of Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madam X. The evening benefited the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Madam X, if you didn’t know, was a portrait that Sargent painted which caused a near public scandal with that strapless business.

Right around the corner on 78th and Madison, Marianna Baker, Wendy Breck, Sean Driscoll, John and Kathryn Hemingway, Alan Rogers and the Gallmann Memorial Foundation hosted a photography exhibition “Images of Africa by Iva Spitzer, Robert Haas, Michael Lewis Nick Brandt, Clark Halstead, Diego Uchitel, Carlo Mari. The was a benefit for the Gallman Memorial Foundation which is “dedicated to the coexistence of people and nature in Africa by promoting wildlife conservation, education, research into ethnobotany, and community.” All of which the world needs now more than ever. Home for the Gallman Foundation is a 100,000-acre Nature Reserve in the Laikipia Highlands of Kenya.

Fifteen blocks south Calvin Klein and Jeff Koons hosted a cocktail party benefiting ICMEC (International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children) at the Calvin Klein Madison Avenue store. Everyone is in a furor over the Michael Jackson case but Who Knows or Cares about the world out there of exploited and physically and mentally abused and even tortured children?

Meanwhile over at Swifty’s Nan Kempner, Robert Caravaggi and Stephen Attoeheld a champagne, caviar cocktail to introduce Swifty’s new caviar line.

And who were some of the caviar lovers who couldn’t resist a few big dollops of the stuff? Mario Buatta, Jill Roosevelt, Helen Lee Schifter, Mark Gilbertson, Ian and Ellen Graham, Chris and Grace Meigher, Chappy Morris, Boaz Mazor, Kenny Lane, Jim Mitchell and Somers and Jonathan Farkas and a few dozen others of that ilk and stripe.

I stopped by much later for my share. I know it’s not elegant to say, but some people just like to pig out on caviar. It’s the rich man’s Doritos. Their special is American Paddle Fish caviar which sells (for a 4 oz) for $49. Yes, yes, and yes! All of their prices are fab including the American Farm raised Osetra (4 oz) for $119. And there’s the Caspian Beluga and Osetra at good prices too. But the aforementioned American Paddle Fish is a steal.

Same night, four blocks east: The Lenox Hill Neighborhood House held its 16th Annual Holiday Bazaar which benefits the Children's Programs at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House with a Preview Party for 500, followed by two shopping days in their Boulevard of Luxury Shops, Flea Market. Honorary Co-Chairs were John Roselli, Nancy Wekselbaum, and Julia Wallace. They were honored because all three do so much to make this event work.

The Co-Chairs were Eva Dillon and Andrea Donahue, and the underwriting Chair was Nancy Baker. People paid well for the tickets: Super Stars: $500, Stars: $300, Friends: $125. Super Stars and Stars got to start their shopping at 4:30 PM with Shopping Guides. The work they do at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood house benefits the many children, adults and elderly who need care, education, shelter, food. It also benefits the neighborhood and the community

Dessert of chocolate "ruins": a standing chocolate column filled with bittersweet mousse, a chocolate façade of the Petra Treasury, and the crumbly remains of a white brownie column. Yummy.

And then, the piece de resistence of the very social night was the American Museum of Natural History’s Museum Ball. This year it was The Museum Ball Celebrates Petra. Chaired by Roger Altman and Jurate Kazickas, Tom and Meredith Brokaw, HRH Princess Firyal of Jordan, David and Julia Koch, and Lionel I. Pincus, this is the AMNH's largest annual benefit and it draws many of the heavy hitters in New York life.

It starts with cocktails in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda, and a special viewing of Petra: Lost City of Stone, and then dinner and dancing beneath the beloved blue whale in the Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life. Proceeds support the Museums educational programming.

The Petra exhibition is the first ever cultural collaboration of its kind between Jordan and the U.S. Petra, if you didn’t know, was an illustrious metropolis that flourished for four centuries between 2 AD and 6 AD when it was the crossroads of the world’s major trade routes. The Nabataeans who built Petra out of the desert sands were able to thrive and grow in the most inhospitable and harsh wilderness. Rich culture and extraordinary technological achievements; an ancient memory.

Meanwhile back at the party: a fancy crowd, many achievers and leaders and civic minded philanthropists who give and raise millions to support this museum which is where the children of New York (and whoever else can get over to the AMNH) are treated to the joy of learning about their world. And what a treat it is for one and all, including the adults. This impact is also reflected in this museum’s events, no matter how high-toned they may read. It’s the museum for all children, of all ages, encapsulating the wonders of life and the universe. So there’s an obvious bit of the fuzzy-wuzzy working in everybody’s favor, even at their black tie parties.

American Museum of Natural History's The Museum Ball Celebrates Petra

Frederick and Sharon Klingenstein

Anne and Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff

Roger Altman with Museum President Ellen Futter and Dick Beattie

Jessica and Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld and Daniel Brodsky

Nan Kempner and Anne Sidamon-Eristoff toasting David Koch for his winning bid

Sharon Klingenstein and friends

Jack Rudin and Dick Beattie

L. to r.: Shahara and Jaylaan Ahmad-Llewellyn; Princess Firyal and Lionel Pincus in front of the Origami Tree; Tom and Meredith Brokaw.

Michael Novacek with Valerie and Jeffrey Peltier

Jurate Kazickas and Roger Altman

Richard Gilder and his date

Stephen Spahn, Susan Wallach, Constance Spahn, and Ken Wallach

L. to r.: Lynn Sherr, Thomas Harvey, and Cathleen Black; Jack and Susan Rudin with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

L. to r.: HRH Princess Firyal and Lionel Pincus; Roberta and Steve Denning; David and Julia Koch.

The Lenox Hill Hospital Autumn Ball 2003, Fantastique, the Greatest Show On Earth, celebrating 146 years of care and concern. Medal of Distinction Award was presented to Al Roker and Deborah Roberts.