Two Wednesdays ago Tenley Black, Lisa Byther, Wendy Carduner, Kristina Clark, Eileen Cornacchia, Patty Crawford, Clo Cohen, Eileen Cornacchia, Lydia Fenet, Pamela Fiori, Ann Grimm, Lisa Guest, Mark Gilbertson, Ann Grimm, Julie Kammerer, Victoria Kempner, Polly Onet, Colleen Quinn, Beth Rudin-DeWoody, and Leila Strauss (just to name a few) gathered at the St. Regis Hotel for the “Old Bags” Luncheon, a silent auction of designer handbags and celeb handbags, with proceeds benefiting Madison Square Boys & Girls Club.

Celebrities including Susan Lucci and Natalie Portman donated their own bags for sale at the auction, including Ms. Portman’s red Hermes day bag. The afternoon included a speech by Lana Marks, CEO and designer of the Lana Marks brand of handbags and accessories.

Marks also unveiled her holiday collection for the first time ever through a special performance by Joffrey Ballet dancers. Lynda Lopez, WCBS-TV anchorwoman and reporter, served as mistress of ceremonies for the event.

Since 1884, the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club has been providing after school and summer programs for thousands of children in New York City’s most disadvantaged communities. By providing proven education, recreation and guidance programs in a safe and nurturing environment that many children consider a second home, they help their young participants lead happy, healthy and productive lives. A founding member of the Boys & Girls Club of America, Madison currently serves over 5,000 youth ages six to eighteen at seven clubhouses in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens and at Camp Madison in Kingston, New York. For more information, visit their website at www.madisonsquare.org.

Art world doyenne Posy Chisolm Feick welcomed her old friend Oscar winning director Norman Jewison to town with a party for his newly published autobiography.

Ms. Feick (she is director of The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice) who is in town for the launch of Paris-based artist Marc Ash’s Tous Ensemble collection, had only heard a week before that her longtime friend would be in New York for a brief visit to promote his book, This Terrible Business Has Been Good To Me.

Norman Jewison

In short order, she organized a party. Composer Sheldon Harnick with his wife Margery and legendary PR guru Lois Smith came early to get some private time with Norman who had directed the film version of Harnick’s Fiddler on the Roof.

Jewison inscribed books for Margaret Whiting, Jack Wrangler, Eileen and Donald Eckstract, Susan Hill, Beverly Camhe, Ula and Elliott Howard, Freddie and Carole Guest, Maria Cooper and Byron Janis, Annette Insdorf, Jeffrey Altshuler, Mary Belknap, Asher Remy Toledo and Roth, Marc Ash, Nina and Bill Judson and Inger Witter.

Thanks to the beautiful late summer weather, guests were able to stroll Posy’s terrace with its river-to-river views. Author Louis Begley (About Schmidt) and wife Anka Muelstein chatted with Ruth Appelhof, Executive Director of Guild Hall of East Hampton.

Mr. Jewison regaled the guests with his behind the scenes stories on the making of several of his memorable films such as In The Heat of The Night, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Russian are Coming! The Russians are Coming! and Moonstruck.

He also paid tribute to the late film critic, Jay Scott, who he felt elevated film criticism to a high art. It was Scott’s encouragement that prodded him to look back at his life. Quoting Socrates he said, “a life unexamined is a life not worth living”. With that, he laughingly told the assemblage, “All of you should write a book”.

Before heading off with the new lady in his life, Lynne St. David to the “21” for a late night supper, the director/memoirist noted how thrilled he was to be teaming up with former Moonstruck collaborator John Patrick Shanley, for another delightful romp entitled Bread & Tulips. Shanley, Broadway’s golden boy with a Tony and Pulitzer Prize for Doubt, penned the forward to Norman’s book.

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