D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A gala is always attended by a member of the Royal Family. It was attended this year by Princess Alexandra of Kent, the Honorable Lady Ogilvy. It was a black-tie dinner, impeccably organized by Kathleen Hearst, who is head of the American Associates. The honorees were Frederick Whittemore who received the Benjamin West Award, and Frank Gehry, who was recipient of the John Singleton Copley Award. These honors were presented by Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British Ambassador to the United States, and Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, president of the
Royal Academy of Arts. Hugh Hildesley, of Sotheby’s, and chairman of the American Associates, conducted an auction that raised $80,000. There was a surprise sixtyfifth birthday party on Friday night for New York realestate mogul Richard LeFrak, orchestrated by his two sons, Harrison and James, and presented at the Hammerstein Ballroom on 34th and Seventh. Event planner Bronson van Wyck designed the shindig, and at least three hundred attended. LeFrak’s wife, Karen, got him there by telling him they were going to see a ballet piece
she was working on, and that his mother would be there to join them. Oh come on, on his sixty-fifth? The company they keep. A great deal of the town’s wealth was present, including New York’s two richest men (as far as anybody knows), Mayor Bloomberg and David Koch, who between the two of them are said to have the aggregate wealth of a hundred billionaires. Not that there weren’t quite a few other billionaires in the room, like the most famous one, The Donald, who now is always backlit for any public occasion, thanks to the
paparazzi trailing behind. Glorious Foods catered, and one of the first guests to hit the dance floor when the disco started was none other than the old disco hound himself, His Honor, the Mayor. History Lesson. On the Tuesday night just before Thanksgiving, at the New Amsterdam Theater on West 42nd Street, currently home of Disney’s Mary Poppins, there was a book signing for John Loring and his biography of Joseph Urban, aptly titled Joseph Urban (Abrams). Urban was one of the most influential designers of the first third of the twentieth century,
t h e l u n g c a n c e r r e s e a r c h fo u n d at i o n ’ s a n n ua l a w a r e n e s s l u n c h eo n
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