D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A or two degrees of separation. So it is a clubby affair. Tables this year were named after New York nightclubs of yore and sundry attractions, such as the Playboy Club, Birdland, Plato’s Retreat, Studio 54, and the Copacabana. Mine was Trader Vic’s. All tables were elaborately and cleverly decorated by DeJuan Stroud. Perri Peltz, daughter of founder Lauren Veronis, reminded the guests of the evening’s inception, 30 years ago. The Four Seasons was, at that time—and still is— the ne plus ultra restaurant for the high mucky-mucks/ corporate/power corridor clientele at lunch and dinner. Its interior remains the
original—a collaboration of Mies, Philip Johnson, and William Pahlmann—and what was once pace-setting in design is now reassuringly classic: a modern stately, elegant self. They raised more than $600,000 on this night and over the last 30 years, this dinner has raised more than $7 million for cancer research. Among those attending were Mayor Michael Bloomberg with Diana Taylor, New York Police Department commissioner Ray Kelly and with Mrs. Kelly, who was one of the evening’s co-chairs, Christine and John Fitzgibbons, Denise and Michael Kellen, Jamie Niven, Margaret and
Andrew Paul, Perri Peltz and Eric Ruttenberg, Betsy and Paul Shiverick, Jeanne Sorensen Siegel, and Lauren and John Veronis. Also there were David and Lisa Schiff, Dalia and Larry Leeds, Herb and Jeanne Siegel, Hilary and Joe Califano, Joanie Schnitzer and Irwin Levy, Marlene Hess and Jim Zirin, Jeff and Liz Peek, Nancy Silverman, Alfred and Judy Taubman, Lally Weymouth with Joe Cowen, Tiffany Dubin with Bill Manger, Steve Kroft and Jenny Conant, Rochelle and David Hirsch, Barbara Walters, Cece Cord, Maurice Sonnenberg, Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen, Nina Rosenwald,
David Margolick and Linda Wells, Cy Vance, Jr., and Debbie Bancroft. Monday, May 21. Over to Jazz at Lincoln Center where Literacy Partners hosted their gala evening—the 29th annual. Black-tie. Liz Smith, Arnold Scaasi, Parker Ladd, and more from a group of founding supporters started this 39 years ago. It’s for reading. Teaching people to read. A simple matter that is not so simple anymore in this complicated society of ours. It’s one of those evenings that could only happen in New York. Liz is the emcee. She’s a master at it and very funny with her comments. The program starts in the theater. It draws
T H E A N I M A L M E D I C A L C E N T E R H O S T E D I T S L I V I N G L E G E N D S L U N C H E O N AT T H E H A R M O N I E C L U B
Eli Hoffman and Nancy Kissinger 34 QUEST
Chad West and Barbara Hoffman
Ellen Marcus
Wendy Lehman Lash and Libby McCarthy
Robert Liberman and Alex Goelet
LY N H U G H E S
Jeanne Siegel and Marilyn Sorenson