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The
holidays are upon us and holiday cards (they
used to be called Christmas cards — or X-mas cards) are
arriving in mailboxes daily. In the past few years, the personalized
card — with pictures of the family or the children, or
the dogs, or the cats, or everyone combined — has become de
rigueur in certain social circles.
However, the annual holiday card of Mary Lou Whitney,
the former Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and
now Mrs. John Hendrickson, is without peer. Mrs.
Whitney, as she is still known by her thousands of friends and fans,
always aims to invoke the holiday spirit with a smile or a laugh,
or at least give people something to talk about.
This year’s card which measures 7” x 10” and is
four pages is an authentic hoot. In fact, it even features a hooters
bar on the cover. As you can see for yourself. |
On
Wednesday night, Alice Mason held her annual Christmas
dinner for sixty guests. Mrs. Mason who
once upon a time gave one of her legendary dinners once
a month (with respite in summer) for some of New York
and the world’s most prominent and/or famous, and/or
powerful, rarely entertains these days. Her last big
party was around this time last year for Bill
Clinton.
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Alice
Mason and her daughter Dominique
Richard
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Black
tie, of course, among the guests was Woody Allen
and Soon-Yi. Mr. Allen is one of those actors whose
off-screen presence does not appear to be much different
from the on-screen. And seeing him at a private dinner in
black tie is therefore fascinating, simply because he has
such a strong individual identity which includes his casual
manner
of dress.
Mrs. Mason, as I’ve written here many times before, has
a style of entertaining that is intimate and very organized.
The woman seated on my right, a friend of mine, told me after
dinner that the man on her right – someone she’d
never heard of or met before – told me afterwards that
she and he had many people in common. She wondered about the
great coincidence. I didn’t wonder; I was certain that
our hostess had already figured it out. For Alice Mason, who
is one of the most successful Manhattan private residential
real estate brokers of the past almost half century, figures
it out.
So it was a stimulating evening for all, with lots of talk,
lots of information being passed, lots of insights, and lots
of fun. |
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Peter
Duchin at his booksigning on Wednesday night
at The Strand.
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Also,
on Wednesday night, The Strand Bookstore had a booksigning
for Peter Duchin and his new mystery Good
Morning Heartache, written with award-winning mystery
writer John Morgan Wilson.
This is the second in a series of the genre about a society
band leader named Philip Damon (P.D. — like another P.D.),
the first being “Blue Moon.”
Click on the bookcover to order Good
Morning Heartache. |
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Alice
Mason dinner guest list
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• Soon-Yi
and Woody Allen
• Paul Beirne
• Patricia and Michael Bral
• David and Helen Gurley Brown
• Mario Buatta
• Carmen
• Claudia Cohen
• Mona Ackerman and Richard Cohen
• David Coiro
• DPC
• Elizabeth and Joe Conason
• Betsy and Walter Cronkite
• Alex Donner
• Dominick Dunne
• Gaetana Enders
• Anthony Haden-Guest
• Roz Jacobs
• Connie and Randy Jones
• Jennet Conant and Steve Kroft
• Jacques Leviant
• David Margolick
• Boaz Mazor
• Aileen Mehle
• Diahn and Tom McGrath
• Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi
• Diana Quasha and Francois Khawam
• Ann Rapp
• Bridget Restivo
• Dominique Richard
• Joy Rosenthal
• Courtney Ross
• Herbert Sambol
• Charlie Scheips
• Drew and Karenna Gore Schiff
• Victor Shafferman
• Kathy Sloane
• Maurice Sonnenberg
• Serena Stewart
• Nan and Gay Talese
• Rica Tarnoff
• Marica and Jan Vilcek
• Laura and Will Zeckendorf |
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L.
to r.: Michelle Oka Doner; Noel and Harriette Levine;
Peter Pringle, Eleanor Randolph, and Phillip Howard.
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L.
to r.: Ms. Bass with Jim Wildman and Duane Hampton;
Alexandra Howard; Nancy Bass and Elliot Kastner.
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Noah
Racey as Lucky Garnett and Nancy Lemenager as Penny Carroll
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Based
on the Astaire/Rogers film “Swing Time,” the
new Broadway musical which opened last week at the Broadhurst
Theater, is the story of a handsome hoofer who vows to give
up dance for the woman he loves. That premise, along with Rogers
and Astaire were enough for millons and millions throughout
the 1930s. The score for the film was by Jerome Kern and Oscar
Harbach and includes such stunning standards as “The
Way You Look Tonight,” “A Fine Romance,” “Never
Gonna Dance,” and “Pick Yourself Up,” plus
the producers of the show added several other standards.
The show was directed by Michael Greif who directed “Rent,” choreographed
by Jerry Mitchell who did “Hairspray,” costumes
by William Ivey Long who has so many shows running
on Broadway now, you need to Google him, and of course a score composed
by the now immortal Kern.
I haven’t seen the show but Liz Smith wrote
in her column in the Post this past week:
So what have we here? Why, another big and beautiful
audience show. And the dancing is unbelievable, glorious
and glamorous and oh, wow, how in the world can they
ever keep doing this night after night?! |
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Deidre
Goodwin as Velma and Eugene Fleming as Spud
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Karen
Ziemba as Mabel Pritt, Nancy Lemenager as Penny Carroll,
Noah Racey as Lucky Garnett, and Peter Gerety as Alfred
J. Morganthal
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Karen
Ziemba, Noah Racey, Nancy Lemenager and the Never Gonna Dance Company. Photos ©2003
Joan Marcus.
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MERRY
CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!
Every day the United States Post Office receives hundreds of
letters to Santa.
These letters are often from very poor and homeless children
and their families.
Through "Operation Santa Claus" the Post Office makes
these letters available to the public. This year you
can visit the James A. Farley Building at 33rd Street & 8th
Avenue from now until the 24th of December. The
hours are weekdays from 8 AM to 4:30 PM (Thursday until 7 PM)
and Saturdays from 9 AM to 4 PM. Tel. 212-330-3002.
Read the letters and take away as many as your kind hearts
and generous pocketbooks will permit.
Once again, as an added feature, the Post Office will accept
phone requests at this special number only 877-840-0459. Letters
will be sent to those who cannot make it to the main lobby.
This will now permit anyone in the United States and beyond
to participate in this wonderful crusade!
You can be a "Secret Santa" by sending: gift
certificates of any kind- A & P, The Gap, McDonalds, Toys
R' Us, etc.; clothing; or toys to these needy children. Take
only as many letters as you can answer... this may be the child's
only chance
Give with your heart. A little bit will mean so much
to these children.
THANK YOU SO MUCH - and have a wonderful holiday! |
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