Party Pictures 11/16/05 - Started off the evening at the American Museum of Natural History ...

Started off the evening at the American Museum of Natural History ...

Chappy Morris and Melissa Stanley

Elizabeth de Cuevas

Richard Parsons and David Rockefeller

Last night was a full moon after a grey day of mild weather threatening rain that fell just long enough in the late afternoon to slap the fallen autumn leaves along the sidewalks and the roadways.

Over at the American Museum of Natural History they held a preview of their Darwin Exhibition that opens today. In another part of the museum, beginning in the hall below the planetarium, the Audubon Society was celebrating its centennial and honoring the entire Rockefeller family for its centenary of contribution and participation in the Audubon.

Caroline Firestone, Constantine Eristoff, and Ellen Futter

I went over there with the big idea of getting pictures of as many Rockefellers as possible without thinking that I have no idea what most of them look like, never having either seen or met most of them. So I had a chat with Judith Moyers, and I got a couple of shots of people as I was entering – such as Chappy Morris and Melissa Stanley, who are regular subjects on the NYSD. And a photograph of Mrs. Caroline Firestone with Constantine Eristoff and Ellen Futter.

Mrs. Futter is the head of the museum. She and Mr. Eristoff’s wife, Anne Sidoman-Eristoff are largely credited with turning the AMNH into the hustle-bustling, popular museum it is today. Mrs. Sidoman-Eristoff was head of the museum’s board for years (she’s retired) and is credited with persuading Mrs. Futter to leave her post as president of Barnard College to head up the AMNH.

Mrs. Firestone is equally as dynamic. She is the first lady trustee of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, chaired the New York Boy’s Club annual ball, served on the board of the YWCA camping service of New York and also became part of Kairos Outside, which involves working and living with women who have either been in prison or who have chldren or grandchild in prison. Her most recent work has been in Afghanistan involving in non-governmental organizations helping the people as well as those who have served in that country. You can learn more about it by visiting her website: http://cfirestone.com/

As the group moved on from the cocktail reception to dinner, I departed and moved down the boulevard of Central Park West to the apartment of Patsy and Jeff Tarr who were holding a reception for the Costume Institute committee of the Metropolitan Museum.

Patsy Tarr with her collection of vintage Beene

You’ve read about Patsy Tarr in these pages before. She is a prominent dance philanthropist here in New York as well as the publisher of the bi-annual 2wice, an “umbrella” magazine of dance, fashion and the performing arts. The latest issue of 2wice is devoted to the fashions of the late Geoffrey Beene who had a clientele almost religiously devoted to his creations.

There were about forty people at the Tarrs’ when I arrived. Their apartment is high above the town with views of the park and the city to the north, the east and the south. And on a beautiful, clear night of the full moon, the city looked like a box of jewels laid out on a wide and deep black velvet carpet.

The waitstaff was passing around plates of the most delicious, tiny blintzes along with a raspberry sauce dip, all of which melted in your mouth and left you hankering for more. The other item being passed were pigs-in-a-blanket artfully wrapped in a ribbon of crisp, delicate pastry that also melted in your mouth.

Gawd they were good. I cudda eaten a bushel of both (talk about being over-nourished). The morsels were provided by Patsy Tarr’s sister who has her own private catering business called The Dancing Gourmet. The dancing reference has to do with her sister’s love of ballroom dancing. Versus Patsy’s love of modern dance and ballet.

Patsy with Jeff and Jennifer

Choo Choo Tarr

The party, I was told, was one of a series that the Costume Institute holds where its members and guests visit the house of someone to see their private collections. Patsy Tarr’s collection is of the Geoffrey Beene creations that she’s acquired over the years (and still wears frequently).

The Tarrs are a modern New York family. Jeff Tarr was born Jefferson Davis Tarr, a great-great-grandson of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy. His mother was a Southern belle and his father was a Yankee from Maine, where Jeff grew up. After Harvard he came to New York and met and married Patsy, a nice Jewish girl from Manhattan who actually grew up in the same building (and the same apartment) that they live in today, the same building where they brought up their two children.

Coming out of the Tarrs’ building, I couldn’t find a taxi going north, so I hoofed it. Central Park West in the 70s seems like a broader boulevard than its sister Fifth Avenue on the other side of the Park. Perhaps it’s all the open land surrounding the Museum of Natural History and the wide streets (77th and 81st) that run along either side of it. The night air was damp and crisp with the smell of decaying foliage everywhere, and very exhilarating.

On the park side of the street, many of the metal bleachers for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade were already erected, and visions of Turkey had begun dancing through my brain as well as the thought of all the thousands of children of all ages who would be there to view and thrill to the parade along with the millions of others across the land. At 81st Street, at the entrance to the 79th Street Park transverse, I hailed a cab and headed east to home.

Been's Tutu dress and its many layers

A Beene jacket

A Beene jacket

Another Beene

Geoffrey Beene's model

Patsy and Audrey Gruss

Beene creations ...

...

The Guggenheim Museum held their annual fundraising event — the "Guggenheim International Gala" this year at the Seagram Building Plaza. The gala raised $2.41 million including the auction items. The night honored Matthew Barney, Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha and The International Directors Council. Co-Chairs of the evening included Lauren Hutton, Louise T. Blouin MacBain, and Jennifer Blei Stockman.

Allison and Howard Lutnick

Paula Zahn and Richard Cohen

Aby Rosen and Samantha Boardman

Marina Abramovic, Nancy Spector, and Matthew Barney

Jeff Koons and Robert Rauschenberg

Olga Clemente and Lauren Hutton

Lisa Dennison, Thomas Krens, and Jennifer Stockman

Jill and Sandy Heller with Art and Pam Sanders

Lauren Hutton and Chuck Close

Barney’s on Madison Avenue was the place to be as the Environmental Defense rallied more than two hundred conservationists for a benefit to raise $50,000 for the restoration and protection of North Carolina and the Southeast’s coastline and waterways.

The Host Committee included Somers Farkas, Ann Colley, Frederick Anderson, Zack Bacon, Peggy and Paul Bitler, Heather Henriksen, Corinne and Jeff Buckalew, Kim and John Church, Munroe and Becky Cobey, Campbell Gibson, Bill and Betsy Goodell, Katherine and Jim Hill, Elizabeth and Parker Johnson, Fran and Ashton Poole, Edwin Rasberry, Jose and Julian Robertson, Frances Schultz, Landon Slane, William M. Smith, Parker Gentry Thorne, Charlotte and John Wickham, and Caroline and Robert Williamson.

The junior committee included Charles Anderson, Oliver Carter, Ted Crawford, Jon Dixon, Penn Holderness, Claiborne Hancock, Kendall Scully, Robbie Shaw, and Elizabeth Wicker. Many that hailed from North Carolina came to support the cause including Bill Bateman, David Snider, Parker Bell, Will Henderson, Parker and Elizabeth Johnson, Brad Hyler, Bobby Holmes, John Holmes, Kasey Gore, Georgia Hanford, Jennifer Marsico, and Penn Holderness. Others in attendance included President Fred Krupp and Major Gifts Officer Beth Sturkey.

The dinner was held for sponsors and supporters at Fred’s, the store’s famous restaurant on the top floor, followed by cocktails and dancing to the hot sounds of Saint James Syndrome, the 12-piece band that belted out top 40 hits, while many kicked up their heels late into the fabulous evening.

Jane Preyer, the ED’s Director welcomed everyone. “North Carolina is the most important fishery in the country,” she said. Their waters are the nursery habitat for all the fish we love to eat including Flounder, Grouper and Snapper. There is a real threat. Seventy-five percent of the fish on the East Coast have to live in North Carolina to survive. The organization is working to establish a network of no-fishing areas in the sea to protect key habitats and improve fishery productivity.

Environmental Defense is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including the right to clean air, clean water, healthy food and flourishing ecosystems. They work to create practical solutions that win lasting political, economic and social support because they are nonpartisan, cost-effective and fair. Since 1988, the ED has dedicated itself to meeting the environmental challenges of North Carolina and the Southeast.

Mark Pruzanski, Heather Henriksen, and Karl Keirstead

Shelton Smith and Julie Montgomery

St. James Syndrome

L. to r.: Kassandra Nye, Ashland Gorse, and Kristina Bowden; Jimmy Mack, Lauren Chu, Ann Colley, and Melissa DeMouche.

Ann Colley and Fred Krupp

Bill Bateman and Merritt Choate

B. Matthews and K. Hearst

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Last Tuesday, CosmoGIRL! magazine held it's 6th annual “Born to Lead” Awards luncheon at the Altman Building in Chelsea.

This year's event honored 15 young people — from celebrities such as Hilary Duff, Jojo, Tyler Hilton, and Ciara, to CosmoGIRL! readers who've accomplished great feats in 2005, such as Katie Brownell, a 12-year-old from upstate New York who pitched a perfect game earlier this year and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and CosmoGIRL! of the Year/Maybelline Scholarship winner Brittany Heck, who created Minority Marrow for Tomorrow to increase the number of Native Alaskan blood and bone marrow donors.

150 guests packed the black-and-magenta decorated room for the event, which was themed "People Who Rock," in reference not only to the
celeb singers who were honored, but also the fact that the "real people" winners aren't afraid to "rock" the status quo and change their communities and the world.

Highlights of the day included an acoustic performance by Tyler Hilton, who plays the role of Elvis in the soon-to-be-released film Walk the Line, an emotional acceptance speech from 14-year-old singer Jojo, who acknowleged how honored she was to be among so many young people with such amazing accomplishments, and the presentation of the $10,000 scholarship check to CosmoGIRL! of the Year Brittany Heck by Karen Fondue, President of Maybelline New York/Garnier.

Other notable guests in attendance were Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines and Helen Gurley Brown, world-renowned editor who created to modern Cosmo which she edited for more than three decades, and is now editor of Cosmopolitan, International Editions.