Social Diary 10/26/05 - Busy night in Manhattan between the raindrops

A little something for everyone last night in the little big city

Looking across the street at Restaurant Daniel. 8:30 PM. Photo: JH.

Rainy days in New York. Tuesday at Michael’s the beautiful-can-be-funny Candice Bergen was lunching with super-agent Toni Howard. Authoress Doris Kearns was there with her husband Richard Goodwin; Peter Brown with Eden Collingsworth. Around the room: real estate magnate and philanthropist Elihu Rose; the new Time editorial director John Huey, literary agent Binky Urban, Atoosa Rubenstein, Lisa Birnbach, Steve Mosko, Jack Meyers, Meredith Brokaw; Angela Mariani with shoe-guru Candy Pratts Price and Eva Cavalli; former Marlboro man Chuck Pfeifer, film director Fred Schepisi; Clinton fund-raiser, investor Alan Patricof, Robin Melanie Leacock; Grace Meigher with Hilary Geary Ross, and Jamee Gregory, et al.

Mike Wallace, Between You and Me.
Click to order.

Beverley Jackson and Glenn Horowitz.
Click to order.

Busy night in Manhattan between the raindrops: we went over to the Plaza Athenee where there was a book party for indefatigable and timeless Mike Wallace and his new book, Between You and Me. After meeting the author in the hotel lobby where he was chatting with lawyer David Boies, we took his picture and learned that the party wasn’t slated to start for another half hour. So we went across the street to Glenn Horowitz’ bookstore for another book party that Mr. Horowitz was holding for his mother-in-law, Beverley Jackson called Shanghai Girl All Dressed Up. At first we couldn’t find the place in the dark but there was a lady under and umbrella standing out front. She said something to us like “don’t you look nice” (I was in black tie) and it turned out to be Evelyn Lauder who’d just come from the book party. Then Mrs. Lauder’s driver came along with the car and we went inside to meet Mrs. Jackson.

Beverley Jackson has written a social column for the Santa Barbara, California paper for years. She’s also a photojournalist, philanthropist, lecturer, and world-traveler. She’s also been fascinated by China all her life and has written about it copiously. This new book is about Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s when Shanghai became an international city for glamour, gambling, chic women, gangsters, and warlords. This was the time, according to Mrs. Jackson, when the centuries-old way of dressing and way of living changed forever. The ancient robes of antiquity were abandoned for the daring dresses called the cheongsam or qi pao, when Shanghai fell under the spell of Hollywood movies and their stars, a proclamation of freedom.

Richard Mauro

Inside Glenn Horowitz’ bookstore

After our chat with Mrs. Jackson, we went back across 64th Street to the Plaza-Athenee where the crowd was beginning to congregate for Mr. Wallace’s party. JH took some pictures of the guests and we left to go around the corner to the Valentino boutique where Venetian Heritage was holding a cocktail party before its big dinner scheduled for 8:30 at Restaurant Daniel.

Mike Wallace and Les Moonves

Mary Wallace

Agnes Gund

Marilyn and Don Hewitt with Hannah Pakula

James Goodale, Shirley Lord, and Toni Goodale

Gigi and Harry Benson

Gabe Pressman and Chuck Scarborough

Bill Rollnick

Nancy Ellison

Tom Brokaw

David Boies (left)

I noticed that the crowd at Valentino, including Mr. Valentino and his business partner Giancarlo Giammetti were looking impeccable in dark business suits and not black tie. So I decided to leave the party and go home and change. JH thought I was nuts. So did a couple of other people. But I didn’t want to be the only one in black tie. I feel more comfortable in a regular business suit anyway.

Outside and inside the Valentino boutique

In less than a half hour I was at the restaurant on 65th and Park. There were already people there. JH was still at the Valentino boutique so I got out my Digital and started shooting. I soon learned that the people there were from a cocktail party that Food Allergy Initiative had held as a kick-off for their upcoming benefit.

The scene pre Daniel at the Valentino boutique

Charlene de Ganay, Valentino, and Pamela Fiori

Sharon Handler and Carl Adams

Andre Leon Talley and Giancarlo Giammetti

Anna Rose and Steven Victor

Charlene de Ganay and Ellen Niven

Eleanora and George Kennedy

Margo Langenberg and Edgar Batista

Henri Barguirdjian

Noel and Harriette Levine

Michele Herbert

Andrew Roosevelt

Mimi Stafford

Lisa Arliss, Leslie Stevens, and Mark Gilbertson

Larry Lovett and Reinaldo Herrera

John and Tara Milne

Cunningham on the prowl

Darcie Leeds, John Punnett, and Frances Hayward

Maggie Scherer and John Mashek

Trevor Traina, Alexis Swanson, and Wilbur and Hilary Ross

I took a picture of Daniel Boulud with his daughter Alix. Then he told me to come with him to the kitchen. I’d never been in the Daniel kitchen which is vast and state-of-the-art serious. He led me to a steep, ladder-like staircase in the middle of it all.

Sharyn Mann, René Remeau, and Mary Richardson Kennedy

I followed him up the steps into a small office like room surrounded by windows looking out at the kitchen. It is Daniel’s private office and dining room. And at the table, already set and clearly in use were Robert Kennedy Jr., Donna Dixon and her husband Dan Aykroyd. They were Daniel’s private guests, feasting on the menu he’d prepared for the Venetian Heritage dinner that I was there to attend.

When we arrived Dan Aykroyd complimented the chef on his Partridge Consomme. Then I took a picture of Daniel with the two men and then a picture of the table with Kennedy, Aykroyd and Dixon.

Alix and Daniel Boulud

Donna Dixon Aykroyd, Robert Kennedy, Jr., and Dan Aykroyd

Dan Aykroyd, Daniel Boulud, and Robert Kennedy, Jr.

Back downstairs for the Food Allergy Initiative kickoff: Jeanne Lawrence with Judy and Peter Price

Lady and Ambassador Sir Emyr Jones-Parry

Todd Slotkin and Sharyn Mann

Doda Voridis

Back in the entrance gallery to the restaurant, the guests were arriving en masse. And none in black tie. Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti arrived with their small entourage. The dinner was being given in his honor on the occasion of his receiving the Fashion Group International Superstar Award. And a superstar is what he is. The great designer looks like his photographs but like many of us, the camera portrays a stiff serious side that no doubt exists but that also belies his pleasant and charming personality. Of course he is impeccably turned out, with the air of a perfectionist. Every hair on his head seems in place. The suit, the tie perfectly fitted, perfectly placed. In conversation the Roman face is kind and easy to smile.

Valentino at Daniel

I told him I’d read the profile of him that was in the New Yorker about three weeks ago. I asked him if he liked it. So-so, was his response. It’s difficult to like another’s view of you, especially when it’s set in print. It’s never quite right and Valentino has such a definite style and manner that no doubt the writer couldn’t resist capitalizing on them.

Valentino and Giammetti live in a family-like atmosphere with what others would call an entourage. They go everywhere together. They celebrate the holidays and each other’s birthday’s together. There are several residences – Rome, Paris, New York, a chateau outside Paris, the yacht often cruising the Mediterranean; everyone, and his dogs (pugs).

Among the crowd: Anne Bass, Edgar Batista, Deeda Blair, Ariane Dandois, Jackie Weld and Rod Drake, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Goulandris, Pierre Durand, Larry Gagosian, Valerie and Graziano de Boni, Mario Buatta, Susan Fales-Hill, Alex Hitz, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Clark, Jamee and Peter Gregory, Doda Voridis, Eleanora and Michael Kennedy, Pauline Pitt, Tom Quick, Diana Quasha, Paul Wallace, Carolyne Roehm, Marie and Henri Barguirdjian, George Gould and Darcie Leeds, John Punnett, Sharon Handler, John and Susan Gutfreund, Charles Ryskamp, Mai Hallingby Harrison, Jeanne Lawrence, Margo Langenberg, Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, Harriette and Noel Levine, Larry Lovett, Donald and Muffy Miller, Tara and John Milne, Ellen Niven, Candy and Bill Hamm, Alexis Gregory, Jay Frederick Krehbiel, Jocelyn Kress, Annabelle and Alberto Mariaca, John Mashek, Judy Peabody, Wilbur and Hilary Ross, Enrique and Audrey del Rosario, Jim Reginato, Frances Schultz, Lee Thaw, Trevor Traina, Matt Tyrnauer, Mimi Stafford, Matilda Stream, Paul and Daisy Soros, Frank and Victoria Wyman.

The dinner was superior. And most of the time I had no idea what I was eating, nor did I recognize what I was eating, nor would I have ordered any of it had I seen it on a menu. And yet, there was nothing left on any of my plates, which goes to show how little I know.

The menu: consomme of Partridge, Raviolini of Foie Gras and White Truffle Dumpling served with Vie di Romans 2003; Duo of Risotto Milanaise with Red Mullet Bottarga Verde with Black Truffle, Watercress and Porcini; Branzini “a la Plancha” with Fennel Glazed Fig in Balsamic and Scalogno Fritto served with Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico 2000, and for dessert, a Chestnut Sundae with Soft Caramel and Chocolate Biscotti, served with Laurent Perrier Champagne Brut 1996, accompanied by a small basket of freshly baked (and still warm) Madeleines.

Valentino arrives

Pierre Durand and Violetta Caprotti

Muffy Miller

L. to r.: Ariane Dandois; Anne Bass; Maggie Scherer and Howard Clark.

Mai Hallingby

Jeanne Lawrence

Tom Quick and Pauline Pitt

Edgar Batista and Brad Comisar

Enriquillo and Audrey del Rosario

Hilary and Wilbur Ross

Valentino and Susan Gutfreund

Darcie Leeds and John Punnett

Tara Milne

Frances Hayward

Sharon Handler and Carl Adams

Mario Buatta

Giancarlo Giammetti and Judy Peabody

Diana Quasha

Caroline Roehm and Mai Harrison

Charlene de Ganay

Charlene de Ganay and Prince Dimitri

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Last Wednesday, Safe Horizon, the leading provider of services for victims of domestic violence and abuse in New York, along with USI Holdings, a leading insurance and financial products distributor, held a breakfast for corporate leaders to launch SafeWork, an innovative program for businesses to participate in combatting domestic violence.

David Eslick, Stephanie March, and Gordon Campbell

There were more than 100 CEOs who gathered at Bobby Flay’s newest restaurant Bar American on West 52nd. There they saw a live, dramatic role-lay commissioned especially to demonstrate domestic violence’s affect on a female executive and her workplace.

Guests included Bobby Flay and his wife, actress Stephanie March, Linda Fairstein, Gordon J. Campbell (CEO of Safe Horizon), David Eslick, Chairman and President of Safe Horizon, Paul Charron, Chairman and CEO of Liz Claiborne as well as executives from Aetna, Bloomberg, Verizon, Giuliani Capital Advisors, Avon Foundation, Lehman Brothers and Oxygen Media.

After watching the performance by the acting group Plays for Living, Linda Fairstein took the podium and explained that victims of abuse don’t say anything because they are afraid, embarrassed, and humiliated. She said that the workplace is the most dangerous place for victims because it is a known place that they will be. Then Gordon Campbell thanked everyone that helped put this great event together. He said, “It’s time for America to take a stance on domestic violence. They need to establish an office environment where victims are not afraid, or embarrassed, to come forward with the truth. Recognizing signs of domestic violence, developing policies that protect the bottom line and implementing programs will help keep their employees safe.”

For more information on SafeWork or Safe Horizon, please visit: www.safehorizon.org.


L. to r.: Jane Randel and Paul Charron; Stephanie March and Bobby Flay; A performance by Plays for Living.

Brooke McMurray, Stacey Dugan, and Kimberly Wells

Linda Fairstein, Jose Perez, and Brooke McMurray

Also last Wednesday, Akris and Vogue hosted a cocktail reception at the Akris Boutique to benefit New Yorkers for Children. Akris donated 10% of all proceeds from sales made in their boutique for the entire week up to today.

Attending the reception, hosted by Albert Kreimler, co-owner and designer of Akris were the NYFC committee including Donatella Arpaia, Debbie Bancroft, Daniel Benedict, Marisa Brown, Clo Cohen, Jennifer Creel, Ulrica Lanaro, Andrew Saffir, along with Alexis Bryan, Olivia Chantecaille, Zani Gugelmann, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Alexandra Lind Rose, Tinsley Mortimer, Bettina Zilkha, Susan Shin, Robert Burke, and Roopal Patel.