Party Pictures 10/31/05 - Good times, good works, from A to X

Good times, good works, from A to X

L. to r.: Drawing outside the box at the American Museum of Natural History's 12th annual Family Party; Joely Fisher and Katie Couric at Project A.L.S. eighth annual New York City fundraiser Tomorrow is Tonight.

Parties and parties and parties; all kinds of parties. Last Monday night over at Cipriani 42nd Street, ALS held its Project A.L.S. eighth annual New York City fundraiser Tomorrow is Tonight, hosted by Katie Couric. The evening featured a museum-quality exhibition The Future Is Now highlighting the research milestones achieved by Project A.L.S. over the last year.

Katie Couric and Edie Falco

The Future is Now is a modular, museum-quality presentation, designed to educate visitors and inspire their thoughts, questions, and ideas.

Combining 3-D images, sculpture, and animation, the exhibition conveys the seriousness of the problem at hand, which is that ALS and neurodegenerative diseases are the next epidemic of our century. The exhibition leads the visitor through the various strategies for meeting this problem head-on. Particular attention are paid to Project A.L.S. avenues of discovery: genetics, stem cells and cellular therapies, drug discovery, and identification of disease pathways.

Project A.L.S. was founded in 1998, by Jenifer Estess and her sisters and friends to raise awareness and significant funds toward effective treatments and a cure for ALS, a fatal brain disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Experts say that ALS and the related Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases are the next epidemic of the 21st Century. Project A.L.S. has raised over $23 million to date, promoting a rational, aggressive approach to scientific research.

Cari and Matthew Modine

Christine Taylor and Ben Stiller

Valerie Estess and Meredith Estess

Ed Oster and Donna Hanover

Frank and Rita Cascagna

Joely Fisher and Katie Couric

Mario Vasquez

Mary Park

Robert Kaplan

Valerie Estess, Katie Couric, and Meredith Estess

Edie Falco, Katie Couric, and Meredith Estess

The following night – Tuesday and Wednesday, John Block and Alexander Guest invited their clients, family and friends for cocktails in their new private salon in Rockefeller Center overlooking the skating rink, Prometheus and the spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. There was champagne and lobster and caviar being served in celebration of the success of the new undertaking.

Elizabeth and Alexander Guest

Sean Driscoll of Glorious Foods took care of the menu and included a basket full of delicious cookies with the Block-Guest logo in festive fall colors. While the guests snacked on the delicacies, they also indulged in getting a good look at the double-digit carats of diamonds – many in rare colors – that are the signature of this new private gem and jewelry salon.

Block and Guest specialize in fancy colored diamonds ranging from yellow to pink to red to green to blue. These are the most beautiful, rarest and most sought-after gemstones in the world. Both John Block who is formerly of Sotheby’s and Phillips, and Alexander Guest, formerly of Marina B and Chaumet, have a depth of knowledge and experience in the world of fabulous gems and jewelry. Many of the world’s greatest fancy colored and white diamonds have passed through their hands, and their experience in the art and gems worlds position them as perfect advisers for any individual family or institution seeking expert guidance. Block and Guest buy and sell estate jewelry collections and antique jewels in the US, Europe and Asia.

Alexander Guest and Frederick Guest

Carol Belladora and Hunter Cushing

Elizabeth Guest and Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia

Hilary Block, Peggy Race, Robin Bell, and Carol Belladora

John Block, Hoda Esphahani, and Hormoz Sabet

Martha and John Glass

Mary Van Pelt, Hilary Block, and Peggy Race

David and Nancy McAlpin with John Block

Jessica and Peter Teherepnine with Dan Slott

Henry Heller and Elizabeth Guest

Erin Bladergroen and Laird Roach

Heather Leeds and Evelyn Tompkins

Leigh Bladergroen and Laird Roach

Lilly Shedlin and Samantha Berkowitz

Peggy Race and Rick Laphan

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On another night over at the American Museum of Natural History they held a 12th annual Family Party on with more than 1300 children and parents participating. It was an evening of adventure throughout the Museum featuring Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries — a landmark exhibition that has dramatically changed the public’s perception of these astonishing prehistoric creatures, and The Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter. This is an annual favorite at the Museum, featuring up to 500 live, free-flying tropical butterflies from Central, South, and North America, Africa, and Asia.

Families were also invited to dig for dinosaurs, to get up close with live animals and reptiles, as well as explore space, dine under the big blue whale and take in performances by The Z Brothers and Deedle Deedle Deess. Kids had the chance to attend the Scholastic Bookfactory (a build your own book activity). There were opportunities to learn to walk on the moon, as well as take in cool arts and crafts, and microscope mania. Proceeds from the evening support the Museum’s educational public programming.

Catherine and Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff with sons George and Andrew

BJ Blum with children Alexandra and Isabel and Claire Bernard

Girl spinning plate with Big Apple Circus performer

Kabir and Meera Gandhi

Serena and Gillian Miniter

Kate Hurst (right of stilt walker) and friends

Clockwise from above: Welcoming attendees; Detective work; Coloring outside the box.

Alison Mignone and daughters Isabel and Catherine

Fossil dig

Z Brothers performing in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life

The night before the museum event Candice Bergen hosted the 11th Annual ARTWALK NY, one of the city’s most anticipated annual art benefit auctions, at Sotheby’s. The live and silent auctions featured works by artists Brice Marden, Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer, Michael Joo, Terry Winters, William Wegman, and Tracey Moffatt, among others. The event benefited the Coalition for the Homeless.

Kaycee Freed Jennings and Mary Brosnahan Sullivan

“Tonight there are over 34,000 homeless people sleeping in our city’s shelter system, including 13,000 children,” said Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, Executive Director of the Coalition for the Homeless. "ARTWALK NY brings together artists and art lovers for a festive event to aid these thousands of homeless New Yorkers. We are grateful to our many loyal supporters who are committed to this cause, but especially to Peter Jennings whose dedication to helping New York’s homeless population was inspirational.”

This year’s event also honored the late Peter Jennings, who was a longtime supporter of the Coalition and dedicated volunteer, devoting tremendous time and energy to the cause. He regularly volunteered with the Grand Central Food Program, delivering meals to homeless men, women, and children on the streets of the city. He also played a hands-on role in shaping ARTWALK – he was both its founder and its chair over the past decade. For him, he often said, ARTWALK NY brought together his two greatest loves: art and the Coalition.

The Coalition paid tribute to artist Brice Marden for his extraordinary achievement in the arts. Mardon is one of the most recognized minimalist painters in contemporary American art, influenced by the works of Jasper Johns and Alberto Giacometti, amongst others, and once an assistant to Robert Rauschenberg. His first solo show was held in New York at the Bykert Gallery in 1966 and since then he has shown regularly all over the world. He continues to live and work in New York and is a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and The Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Coalition for the Homeless is the nation’s oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping homeless men, women and children. The Coalition is dedicated to the principle that affordable housing, sufficient food and the chance to work for a living wage are fundamental rights in a civilized society. Since 1981, the Coalition for the Homeless has fought for lasting solutions to the crisis of mass homelessness through litigation, lobbying, grassroots organizing, public education and front-line services. Each day they provide help to more than 3,500 men, women and children through mobile feeding, crisis intervention, children’s programs, job training and permanent housing. All proceeds from ARTWALK NY directly support these programs.

For sponsorship opportunities, donations or general information about ARTWALK NY, call Shani Powell at (212) 776-2056.

Kaycee Freed Jennings, Candice Bergen, and Mary Brosnahan Sullivan

Donald Marron, Candice Bergen, and Brice Marden

L. to r: Marshall Rose, Jamie Niven, Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, Donald Marron, Candice Bergen, and Brice Marden; Beth Rudin DeWoody.

Donald Marron and Candice Bergen

Tracey Moffatt and Shelly Fremont

Brice Marden

Matthew Modine

L. to r.: Jamie Niven auctioneering; Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg.

The same night as the ARTWALK NY event last week, the American Cancer Society, New York held its annual Fall Theatre Benefit. This year they took in the revival of Neal Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” starring the 21st century Broadway’s answer to Lunt and Fontanne, Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane.

Pam and James Naughton

The evening started out with dinner at “21.” Anna Moffo Sarnoff and Heather Randall served as Benefit Chairs and it was a sell-out – this was the Society’s most successful theatre benefit ever, raising $375,000.

Among the guests at the dinner party were Jane Alexander, Gigi Benson, Sue Bloomberg, Arlene Dahl and Marc Rosen, Charlotte and Anne Ford, Diana and Richard Felman, Sally Ann Howes, Anita Jaffe, Ann Jones, Isabelle Leeds, Harriette and Noel Levine, Susan Lloyd, Sandra McConnell, Mary McFadden, Dina Merrill and Ted Hartley, James Naughton and his wife Pam, Rex Reed, Joy Rosenthal, Leba and Neil Sedaka, and Broadway producers Fran and Barry Weissler.

The crowd packed the upstairs and the downstairs barroom of the restaurant. Everyone raved about the dinner and the great “21” service that got the crowd out in time to catch the performance at the Brooks Atkinson.

Diana and Richard Feldman with Ellie Trowbridge

Joy Rosenthal and Judson Rothschild

Heather Randall and Anna Moffo Sarnoff

Cheryl Lefkovits, Heather Randall, and Lisa Sippel

Sally Ann Howed, Doug Rae, and Suzanne Mados

Mary McFadden, Elaine Sargent, and Jane Alexander

Marilena Greig and Dr. Mack Lee Sullivan

Carol Mehler and Charlotte Ford

L. to r.: Jean Grimaldi, Jared Aswegan, Sue Bloomberg, and Neal Slavin; Carol and Bill Boggs.

Leba and Neil Sedaka

Nicky Grant, Adaline Frelinghuysen, Lindsey Pryor, and Corinne Kerz

While out in Chicago, that toddlin’ town, the Windy City’s favorite arbiter of taste and good times, Bunky Cushing staged his fourth annual benefit luncheon and handbag raffle held at the Palmer House Hilton, Handbags & Halos, to benefit the Howard Brown Health Center. This year Lynn Wyatt, the internationally renowned Texas gal/hostess and philanthropist was the featured speaker.

The handbag lineup

There were 210 attending. They brought with them 180 “gently-used” and new handbags which they donated for sale benefiting Howard Brown Health Center at Brown Elephant Resale Store on North Halsted Street.

They also raised $25,000 through ticket and raffle sales. Several Chicago stores donated handbags from the raffle this year: Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic, Barney’s New York, Burberry’s Escada, Kate Spade, Yves St. Laurent/Rive Gauche, Bulgari, Marshall Field’s Water Tower Place/Marc Jacobs handbag, and Bloomingdale’s/Fendi handbag.