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Traffic
jam on Fifth Avenue. 5:30 PM. Photo: JH.
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There
were thousands of parties in New York Halloween night, the
night a friend of mine calls “the new New Year’s
Eve.” There
was the parade in the Village, a tradition begun 32 years ago
by a bunch of guys and girls (largely gay) where people let
it all
hang out. Its become an institution now and has all kinds
of charitable, not to mention social, exponents. And it ties
up the downtown so that the cabbies often refuse to go below
17th
Street for fear they’ll be caught in traffic and lose their
potential night’s wages.
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Bette
Midler
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Then, over at the Waldorf, they were holding the annual Bette
Midler Hulaween Party marking the 10th anniversary
of the Divine Miss
M’s New York Restoration project. It was also a celebration
of her 60th birthday, which is a month away (December 1st).
Ironically Miss M got her start with that same now downtown
gay audience, performing her bawdy and melodically witty act
in a
place (long gone) in the Ansonia Hotel on 73rd and Broadway
called the
Continental Baths. It was just she and the guys (who attended
wearing only towels wrapped around themselves at the waist)
and Midler’s
accompanest, a very talented but somewhat reticent guy named Barry
Manilow.
But that was close to forty years ago. Since then the gay population
moved downtown to Chelsea and elsewhere, Barry Manilow became a
recording star himself, and the Divine Miss M went Hollywood, married,
now a mother of a college girl, moved back to New York (and uptown)
and joined forces with the philanthropies to make New York a better
looking place and more liveable.
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Trudie
Styler and Sting
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She packed ‘em
in Monday night at the Waldorf, right to the rafters (the second
balcony) and her New York Restoration
Project
raised more than $2 million before the live auction. Besides
Herself, Sir Elton John appeared to perform
a forty-five minute concert.
Sting and Trudie Styler were there, and Martha
Stewart, as well
as Glenn Close and David Shaw, Grace
and Robert DeNiro, the Chevy Chases, Eartha Kitt, Ellen and
Dr. Dick Levine,
Ahmet and Mica Ertegun, Liz Smith, Martin Short, who
as his alter ego Jiminy Glick conducted
the auction.
The
biggest auction item of the night turned out
to be the tiniest creature in the room – a ten-week-old
Jack Russell terrier who’d come up from San Antonio,
Texas, in the hands of his breeder Brooke Negley (daughter
of frequent NYSD persona Nancy
Holmes). Bidding for her outdid the “backstage
with the Rolling Stones” package, and the gavel came
down at $15,000 for the little cutie.
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Nancy
Holmes with the ten-week-old Jack Russell
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Then, right afterwards,
someone else in the
audience
(who shall remain nameless for the time being) offered to pay
$20,000 for the pup. So the previous bidder ($15,000) signed
off. Then,
when the show and the night was over, the bigger bidder disappeared
without leaving a name or a check. Big spender, big guy, that
he was (not).
Yesterday morning, no one knew where the dog
was going
or who was going to take her. The $15,000 bidder also signed
off. The last I heard, an earlier bidder, actor Tony
Danza ($8000) might
take her.
This is what I hate about auctioning off animals
at charity events. The jerk who bid 20 grand was
obviously showing off and the previous
bidder was so easily dissuaded from staying with his original
purchase that one can only wonder where his true heart lay.
Which means ... as
for the dog’s future ... who knows? Which means neither
of those people was thinking of the animal, the life. If
I had their names and pictures I’d post ‘em just
so you could see what a couple of goofballs look like. All
of it reminds
me
of a bumper sticker I saw on my block several years ago:
People who want to breed dogs should also rescue them. Yeah,
fat chance (with the notable exception of Brooke Negley who
is a major rescuer). Because Monday night at the Waldorf
was a perfect example
of what the animals are often facing in life. Jerks playing
Mr.
Big. |
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Chelsea
Cooley (Miss USA), Allie Laforce (Miss Teen USA), and
Nathalie Glebova (Miss Universe)
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Donna
Karan, Gianpaolo DeFelice, and Gaby Karan DeFelice
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Jaynie
and Chevy Chase
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David
Shaw and Glenn Close
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Connie
and Randy Jones with Vanilla Sasparilla
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Sir
Elton John and
Bette Midler doing what they do best
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Mindy
Lam, John Loring, and Nancy Holmes
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Jane
Eisner, Michael Eisner, Marlo Thomas, and Phil Donahue
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Jann
Wenner and Sir Elton John
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John
Hess, Mindy
Lam, Bette Midler,
and Nancy Holmes
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Zac
Posen
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The
Bear Man and Julia Erickson
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Liz
Smith
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Mariah
Carey
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Martha
Stewart and Deban Flexner (as Martha Stewart)
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Martha
Stewart and Kevin Sharkey
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Patty
Smyth, John McEnroe, and Tony Danza
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Last
night in New York all kinds of things were going on. The
Waldorf grand ballroom was filled to the rafters once again
with the annual Rita Hayworth Alzheimer’s Gala which
always brings out a big glamorous crowd and raises millions
for research on the disease that afflicted the great Hollywood
star of the 1940s.
And
over at MoMA there was a reception and dinner for His
Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and his new wife, Camilla,
the Duchess of Cornwall. This is the first visit of the prince to these shores
in 20 years. The last time was during the Reagan Administration
when he and his first wife caused a publicity sensation with
their visit. Or rather, his first wife caused a publicity sensation
which we later learned the Prince was not particularly thrilled
by. It was said that although Prince Charles has long loved visiting
the US, he abstained, after his first marriage hit the rocks
because of the negative public opinion against him personally.
However, many years have passed. Diana has been dead for seven
of them. Charles has remarried, to the lady who we all now know
is and was the love of his life;
he’s turned grey and craggy (and balding somewhat) and the world is a far
more dangerous and dreadful place (or at least it feels that way) than it was
or seemed back in those days.
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His
Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Camilla, the
Duchess of Cornwall (AP file photo).
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There was the
Steve Kroft 60 Minutes interview with the prince last Sunday when
he defined himself as “worrying about (his) country and its inhabitants,” which
he feels is the duty and position he finds himself born into. Inhabitants. We,
the inhabitants. Let my inhabitants go. Inhabitants, inhabitants who need inhabitants.
The flaws and the failings of Prince Charles lie
not entirely within himself but in the system that breeds such
creatures.
Having just finished Julie Baumgold’s The
Diamond which runs through more than two centuries of royal personages,
their ilk and the human dilema of being royal, it is resoundingly obvious that
their time has long since past. Long since past.
Prince Charles had the misfortune to be born into a situation
where reality doesn’t
readily appear to apply despite the fact that it’s banging on his doors
and windows every
day. It’s not his fault, although it’s possible that another person
in the same position with a different kind of intelligence might have been able
to do something stupendous with it since he is mainly a public relations man’s
dream. Or nightmare, depending.
What separates Prince Charles from most other royals in the world, besides his
proximity to the English throne is his wealth which today includes 135,000 acres
of farmland, forests, waterfront property, London real estate, and even a cricket
stadium. It produces $25 million a year and other income and supports him, his
wife and children and his large staff. There are perks as well, such as travel
on the royal train, along with about $7 million from the government to help with
official expenses.
His relationship to America now seems to be, not his diplomatic marketing of
the British people and their business and economic interests (which seems to
be what
the
rest of his siblings and family are charged with), but his lucrative ability
to raise millions from primarily very rich Americans who are willing to pay large
sums to wine and dine with him for his Foundation.
For sheer entertainment a few hours in the (massive) company
of the prince beats
movies, theatre and even reality TV. He’s perfectly pleasant,
beautifully turned out, ponderously pampered and earnestly pompous. He dwells
entirely in
a world surrounded by more than a hundred servants, extensive palatial real estate,
ancient traditions that bestow privilege (or lack of) which walls him off from
the vagaries of the hoi-polloi. And so he is at almost all times surrounded
by
naturally sycophantic individuals charged with listening to his ideas of how
things should be. There are almost no rich men or women on the planet who have
it this good, except possibly Warren Buffett or Bill
Gates, who came upon their
wealth and status in the old fashioned way – they worked for it.
The downside of being Prince Charles is
frequently lousy press in his hometown — unlike that of
his first wife who once, on a visit to these shores, went to
Harlem, took an AIDS baby in her bare arms and with that simple act singlehandedly
broke down all barriers of fear of the afflicted of one of the greatest scourges
in human history. It is telling that such acts ultimately earned for
her scorn and ridicule by her husband's set.
Since 1997 when he established the Prince of Wales Trust, his
big spenders who are dying to sup or dine and dance with him, to personally see
how his garden
at Highgrove grows, who enjoy hearing what he thinks are the great issues of
the day, pay handsomely for the privilege — or the thrill, depending.
The funds he raises from these outings and repasts are heavily advertised to
be dispensed
among sixteen different charities of the Prince’s choosing.
However, an examination of a 2003 tax return for the Prince of
Wales Foundation in the US showed that of the more than $6 million
collected that year, only a
little less than a quarter of it went to charities. Expenses, often a nemesis
in the world of charities, consumed the rest – his executive director was
paid more than a quarter million dollars. Outside a prince’s reality, those
who are serious about their objectives manage their priorities thusly: Evelyn
Lauder, for example, who created the Breast Cancer Research Foundation
about thirteen years ago and has raised well over $100 million for her cause
(which
has produced ongoing noticeable medical results affecting and improving the lives
of millions), also makes it her business to see that the money goes for the cause
(less than 11% of every dollar) and not for the la-dee-dah aggrandizement of
heavily princely ways.
The prince’s foundation is legal, without question, just as its donors
have every right to dispense with their largesse in any way they wish. However,
in the world of philanthropy, the charitable endeavors of the man who would be
King of England is several leagues behind the outstanding endeavors of Mrs. Lauder,
or even the Divine Miss M and her New York Parks Restoration when it comes to
results from efforts and outlay. Although perhaps, as it has been suggested,
it takes a British prince to prove what the 19th century American showman P.T.
Barnum opined, that “there is a sucker born every minute.” |
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