Party Pictures 10/25/05 - A chilly rain fell over New York last night but that did not deter New Yorkers from their evening plans around town

A chilly rain fell over New York last night but that did not deter New Yorkers from their evening plans around town

Over at Cipriani 42nd Street, Katie Couric beat the drum for A.L.S. hosting a benefit for Project A.L.S’s 8th annual “Tomorrow Is Tonight” benefit. One of the highlights of the evening was a museum quality presentation of the Research and Therapies they’ve developed to fight this dread affliction most famously known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” ALS and neuro degenerative diseases are said to be the next epidemic. They need research into genetics, stem cells and cellular therapies, drug discovery and identification of disease pathways.

Meanwhile over at City Center, Liza with a “Z,” Miss Minnelli was emceeing a big glorious all music/all dancing benefit sponsored by ROLEX called “That’s Entertainment” to celebrate the 20th Anniversary Jubilee of Career Transition for Dancers. CTD is the organization that helps dancers who’ve spent their entire youth rehearsing and working as dancers identify new careers for themselves when it’s time to hang up those dancing shoes. This is not easy. The benefit performance featured Polly Bergen, Marge Champion, Sandy Duncan, Bill Irwin, Jane Powell, Noah Racey, Donald Saddler, Ben Vereen, Karen Ziemba and artists from the ABT, the Big Apple Circus, Cirque du Soleil, Dance Times Square, the Joffrey, the Martha Graham Dance Company, and the World Cup Shooting Stars All Star Cheerleading.

At up at the Rainbow Room the YMCA of Greater New York held its annual Arts & Letters Auction and Reception with Marcia Gay Harden, Renee Fleming, Paula Zahn, and Charles Osgood as Honorary Chairpersons, and a performance by Michael Cavanaugh and a book signing by Bob Mankoff the cartoonist from the New Yorker.

While at the Chelsea Piers Bill Zabel and Tom Bernstein co-chaired the Human Rights First 20th Annual Awards dinner honoring Ludmilla Alexeeva who has been a force for human rights in Russia and the Soviet Union since the 1960s, and Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, who has been a key monitor of human rights abuses in Darfur. Tom Brokaw was emcee.

And down at the grand ballroom of the Pierre the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children held their Gala Dinner dance to support meantal health, legal and education programs serving the children and families of New York City. They honored Marlo Thomas and Neil Friedman, president of Fisher-Price.

While at the new Cedar Lake over on 547 West 26th Street, there was An Evening of Three Choreographers, a collaborative piece which featured the work of guest choreographers Edward Liang (of the NYC Ballet), Jodie Gates (of the Joffrey) as well as the new Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer.

So. Now you know why New Yorkers say:

“it’s always something ….”

And here we have the last of the images I was able to get of Dominick Dunne’s Old Fashioned Cocktail Birthday Party on Sunday night at the Union Club. Taking pictures is actually a great way to go to a big party like this because it gives you something to do in terms of interacting with everyone else and also a subtle way of avoiding small talk if you think you’re not very good at it (as do I). Not that you don’t have a lot of small talk, but the objective keeps everything moving. You can always say, “I’ve got to go take some more pictures.”

Looking them over now, many of them were taken as quickly as I encountered someone and I moved on right away. Just for your information, the lady with Shakira Caine, (who is married to Michael Caine), is Toni Howard, who is Michael Caine’s agent at ICM and one of the biggest and most powerful agents in Hollywood. She is also the sister of Wendy Goldberg who is the wife of Leonard Goldberg, the film and television producer (“Charlie’s Angels” for starters). I also took a picture of Michael Caine but I took it so fast that I cut off most of his head and was too embarrassed to ask him if I could do it over. Movie stars are not crazy about having their picture taken. Not kidding.

Freddie Eberstadt who is photographed with Joan Didion (who is Dominick’s sister-in-law and widow of his brother John Gregory Dunne) is one of Dominick’s oldest friends. I don’t know how long, but longer than a lot of you have been on the planet. Freddie is from an old New York financial family. His wife, the beautiful Isabel Eberstadt, is the daughter of the poet, humorist and lyricist Ogden Nash (who wrote lines like “Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker”). Freddie himself is a practicing psychotherapist. Joan Didion is currently on a book tour across the country with her new book The Year of Magical Thinking, a memoir about grieving for her husband who died suddenly at the table, at the end of a meal. The couple had a very close relationship. They wrote separately and together, did everything else together and were each other’s most trusted friends and critics. The memoir is a very powerful portrait of that unique relationship.

Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman, Terry Allen Kramer, and Dr. Frank Petito

Jean Harvey Vanderbilt was the third wife of the late legendary sportsman Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt whose daughter Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman was also there. The foursome in the picture next to Jean – Jill Isles, Colette and Peter Harron, and Cynthia McFadden, as well as the handsome gentleman in the single photo, Len Morgan – are all neighbors of Dominick in the country – up around Essex, Connecticut. Cynthia, as you know, is a reporter for ABC-TV and was recently assigned to be one of the anchors on “Nightline.” She was also executrix of the Katharine Hepburn estate and Colette Harron, who is a real estate broker in Essex, was the agent on the sale of the Hepburn house in Old Saybrook to Manhattan builder/developer Frank Sciame. Small world, no? Even smaller is the world that inhabited that room Sunday night. Annette Tapert’s current husband (Joe Allen) and her former husband (Jesse Kornbluth) were also present. Joe Allen’s first wife, Barbara Allen de Kwiatkowski was also there.

Ahmet Ertegun photographed with his wife, the famous interior decorator Mica Ertegun, is the founder, with his late brother of Atlantic Records, and one of the greatest music impresarios of the 20th century. During his speech, Dominick pointed out that he once told Ahmet that he’d always wanted to meet Mick Jagger (who recorded for Atlantic), and finally one day Ahmet introduced them, only Ahmet introduced Dominick to Mick as “the brother-in-law of Joan Didion.” Everyone in the room got a big laugh out of that one since fame is the name of the game for so many who were present.

Mica and Ahmet Ertegun

The ubiquitous Terry Allen Kramer – pictured here with Nikki Haskell (the StarCaps creator) and in another picture with Duane Hampton and Grace Meigher – is a major Broadway producer – including last season’s revival of “La Cage Aux Folles,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and the now long running “Movin’ On.” Also Gale Hayman, pictured here with her new best friend, Dr. Richard Bockman is the co-creator with her former husband of “Giorgio,” one of the biggest selling fragrances of the 20th century.

There was lots of show business, or show business connections in this crowd besides the aforementioned. Maria Cooper Janis is the daughter of the late great screen legend Gary Cooper. Gil Shiva, pictured here with Nina Griscom, is the widower of Susan Stein, daughter of Jules Stein, founder of MCA-Universal, and uncle of Katrina vanden Heuval, the owner of The Nation. Denise Hale was the second wife of famous musical director Vincent Minnelli, and forever the stepmother of Liza.

Hannah Pakula’s late husband was the famous film director Alan Pakula. Cary Lowell is married to Richard Gere and has a daughter by her first husband, Dominick’s son Griffin Dunne. Caroline Whitman was for a long time the wife of actor Stuart Whitman, and she is photographed with Wendy Stark, daughter of the late mega-producer Ray Stark who produced the famous musical about her grandmother Fannie Brice, the show that made a star out of Barbara Streisand.

Cynthia Boardman

Hannah Pakula

Duane Hampton, Grace Meigher, and Terry Allen Kramer

Terry Allen Kramer and Nikki Haskell

Byron Janis and Maria Cooper

Casey Ribicoff

Freddie Eberstadt and Joan Didion

Dr. Richard Bockman and Gale Hayman

Judy and Elizabeth Peabody

Ivana Lowell and Nick Simunek

Christina Girard

Shakira Caine and Toni Howard

Nancy Biddle

Joe Allen, Georgia Tapert, and Annette Tapert

Susan Gutfreund and Katherine Bryan

L. to r.: Jean Harvey Vanderbilt; Alexandra Isles, Colette and Peter Harron, and Cynthia McFadden; Len Morgan.

Barbara Walters

John Somerset and Taki

Denise Hale and Pepe Fanjul

Caroline Whitman and Wendy Stark

Carolina Herrera and Amy Fine Collins

Gil Shiva and Nina Griscom

Leonel Piraino

Dixon and Arriana Boardman

Mrs. Taki with The Count and Countess Jean-Charles de Ravenel

Pat Patterson

Carey Lowell

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John K. and Marianne Castle

Richard Kearns and Kathleen McGovern

Galas: Last month, the United Hospital Fund honored three outstanding leaders for their efforts in improving healthcare in New York City – John K. Castle, chairman of Castle Harlan, Inc., Rocco F. Andriola, managing director of Lehman Brothers, and the Most Reverend Joseph M. Sullivan, Auxiliary Bishop, Diocese of Brooklyn.

The black tie event, which was held at the Waldorf-Astoria marked the Fund’s 127th fundraising campaign on behalf of New York City’s non-profit hospitals and the Fund’s work to shape positive change in health care in New York.

The benefit chairman was J. Barclay Collins II, Executive Vice President of Amerada Hess Corporation, and a member of the United Hospital Fund Board of Directors.

The United Hospital Fund is a health services research and philanthropic organization whose mission is to shape positive change in health care for the people of New York.

Dr. John Connolly, John K. and Marianne Castle, and John S. Castle

Rocco Andriola with James Tallon, Jr. and Norma Tallon

Dr. Neil Calman, NYS Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, and Marlene Calman

Susan and Rocco Andriola

John Connorton, Gail Engelberg, and James Tallon, Jr.

Dr. Robert Newman and Seiko Newman with a friend

Lorraine Sheridan, Patricia LaRosa, and Michele Puliafico

Sheila Abrams and Robert Osborne

Paula Wilson and Jim Lytle

Dr. Lewis Teperman, Rocco Andriola, and Elaine Berg

Sheila Abrams, Bill Evarts, and Helen Evarts

Joan Leiman, Leonard Leiman, and Dr. Herbert Pardes

Rosanna Zimbaro and John S. Castle, and Marianne Castle

Denise Boyle, Richard Boyle, Howard Smith, and Elsie Smith

The Skin Cancer Foundation held its annual awards gala two weeks ago at the Pierre.

Jean Godfrey June, Jadzia Zielinski-Tirsch, Heidi Manheimer, Leslie Stevens, and Marianne Diorio

They honored Heidi Manheimer, President of U.S. Operations of Shiseido Cosmetics Ltd and John Sampson, Vice President, and Richard Miller, PhD, Senior Corporate Scientist of 3M Pharmaceuticals – three individuals and their companies who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the area of sun protection.