Parties You Will Never Get Into

One of the biggest hip-hop stars of the day recently made headlines when he premiered his latest music video at a Hollywood event.

Kanye West, who has been in the news for both his music and shenanigans in recent years, hosted an event in Los Angeles to show his new 30-minute-long video entitled “Runaway.” The video follows Griffin, played by West, as he races in a futuristic sports car down the road – only to find a heaping pile of debris. As he approaches the wreckage, Griffin discovers a woman named Phoenix and pulls her out of the smoldering rubble.

The epic music video comes ahead of West’s new album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” and features many songs within the cinematic endeavour. During the L.A. screening, West told the audience of friends, fans and media that he had “contemplated suicide” in the past, but that he had recovered.
Kanye made news recently when he was named one of the top 5 influential men in the country. According to AskMen.com, West is the fifth most influential man in the United States.

Continuing her advocacy for pooches, country music superstar Carrie Underwood turned out at the 6th Annual Pedigree Adoption Drive in New York City. Fellow vegetarians and dog lovers flocked to the affair, held in Manhattan’s Bideawee Adoption Center on March 30, 2010.

Underwood, who appears in the online campaign with Ace, her adoptive chihuahua, urged guests to open their homes to dogs. The Grammy award winning songstress and American Idol champion also convinced guests to visit and become a fan of Pedigree’s official Facebook page. For every new fan, the dog food manufacturer would give one food bowl to an animal shelter until Dec. 31.

“Half the dogs in shelters never find a home,” she said.

Underwood posed for photos on the red carpet, where she clutched a docile beagle puppy in front of the paparazzi.

All in all, Pedigree is pledging $2 million in aid of dog shelters across the US. The company already gave $50,000 to Underwood’s own effort, the Checotah Animal, Town and School Foundation (CATS).

Fresh off her first movie, Soul Surfer, Underwood is embarking on a 54-city concert tour sponsored by Pedigree. Moreover, she would take to the stage at the Academy of Country Music Awards on April 18.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital held its first ever Estrellas Por La Vida (Stars for Life) Gala on Apr. 6, 2010 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. Living up to its namesake, the gala drew more than 300 stars and VIPs, including some of Latin Hollywood’s most stellar personalities.

Wilmer Valderrama, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, among others, took a brief respite from their Hollywood chores to attend the black tie affair. Hudgens and Efron were present to support their High School Musical 3 director Kenny Ortega, who was up for an award that night with Daisy Fuentes and Zoe Saldana.

Fuentes, Zaldana and Ortega were honored for their philanthropic feats involving children fighting cancer and other life threatening diseases.

Guests sipped wine courtesy of the legendary Beringer Vineyards and dined on dishes prepared by world famous chef Wolfgang Puck.

Later in the evening, a silent auction was held. The winemaker auctioned a wine-tasting tour in their 1876 Napa Valley headquarters and two of its award winning products: the 2007 Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay and the 2005 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

Proceeds of the auction would benefit the charitable works of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, one of the leading pediatric cancer centers in the world.

In Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning play punk lesbian lovers. However, on the red carpet of the film’s March 11, 2010 premiere, the two New Moon actresses looked every bit the dolled-up Hollywood femme fatales that they were.

Spectators headed to Bowery Hotel after the film’s screening, held at the ArcLight Cinemas’ Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles. At the hotel, Tommy Hilfiger cooked up a rock-and-roll celebration in honor of the movie.

Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, the film’s legendary subjects, came in the flesh at both the screening and the party. Lucky punk lovers and artists were able to get autographs from Jett at the screening.

Other famous faces, like actress Chloë Sevigny and rocker Dave Grohl, also joined the group and rubbed elbows with the punk rock goddesses. Director Sigismondi was also present, and so was Michael Shannon. Stewart’s foxy New Moon co-star Taylor Lautner also joined in the celebration.

Both Stewart and Fanning will appear with Lautner this summer for Eclipse, the third film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire novels. Robert Pattinson, who plays Stewart’s lover in the vampire films, was visibly absent in the bash.

Grilled cheese and beer were passed around the room, while music from The Runaways’ original albums blared from the speakers.

For the first state dinner of his administration, US President Barack Obama did not scrimp on pomp and pageantry. On November 24, 2009, he poured them all on India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur.

For a first, the event broke away from tradition on several levels. First, the President lavished the foremost state dinner not on Mexico or Canada, but on India. Furthermore, he held it under a specially built tent on the White House South Lawn, not in the State Dining Room.

Obama’s tent victoriously atoned for its derring-do. Insulated against the cold, rainy November evening, the tent proved to be a seamless extension of White House. Eleven chandeliers, hanging from a cavernous canopy, radiated glorious ambient light on invitees. Better yet, the magnolia-adorned walls offered them a view of the Washington Monument.

Due to the tent’s expansive capacity, 400 VIPs, including top Indian diplomats, were able to come. Inside, the sea of bodies made for a curious mélange of tuxedos, gowns and saris. In deference to the occasion, First Lady Michelle Obama donned a gown designed by India’s Naeem Khan.

There to toast the Prime Minister was a flotilla of Democrats, including State Secretary Hillary Clinton, Social Secretary Desirée Rogers, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, plus a few Republicans, also came.

Unsurprisingly, Hollywood sent a few emissaries like director Steven Spielberg and actors Blair Underwood and Alfre Woodard. Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson and Indian-born musician A.R. Rahman, along with jazz crooner Kurt Elling were also around to provide entertainment. From media came CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman.

Place settings consisted of state service plates inherited from the Eisenhower, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations. From them, guests ate, among others, salad with rocket leaves harvested from Michelle Obama’s White House Kitchen Garden.

Tables were draped in apple green linens and came with gilded cane chairs. On each table sat a combination of hydrangeas, roses, and sweet peas in colors not unlike the peacock, India’s national bird.

On top of Hudson and Rahman, guests had entertainment in the form of The United States Marine Band. Marvin Hamlisch also directed an ensemble from the National Symphony Orchestra.

Every year, before spring, the Associates Committee of The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center holds a Bunny Hop. Marking its 19th year last March 9, 2010, the affair gathers rich parents and their kids for a good cause.

This year’s honorary chair Tina Fey and her daughter Alice led over 800 VIBs (Very Important Bunnies) to the event. Like all other years, it was held in the giant FAO Schwarz toy store at Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Garbed in Sunday clothes, kids walked the pink carpet to a veritable fantasyland. The toy store let tiny attendees flit around miniature photo booths and dress-up stations complete with manicuring amenities. They also tried their hand at face painting and balloon art, or dine on cupcakes, mini-hotdogs, fruit kebabs, candy necklaces, and PB&Js. In addition, an Easter Bunny was on hand to hug them.

One of the more standout tots in the 2010 event was four-year old Barron, Donald and Melania Trump’s son. Helena Grace, Kelly Rutherford’s baby, was another.

In attendance was Heather Leeds, The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center President. Other guests included Leslie Heaney, Dee Dee Ricks, Alexandra Lind Rose, Lauren Stahl, Catherine Carey, Lisa and Chris Errico, Amanda Taylor, Karen Cohen, and Barbara McLaughlin.

SMSKCC’s 19th Annual Bunny Hop raised more than $350,000 in funds, which would go to the Pediatric Family Housing Endowment. In the next five years, the Associates Committee pledges to raise $2 million for the Endowment. It would finance the overnight stays of MSKCC’s indigent patients and their families.

For a second year in a row, European children’s clothing label Papo d’Anjo sponsored the event, alongside UBS Financial Services. This year’s Hop was co-chaired by Celeste Boele, Annabelle Fowlkes and Laura Harris. The vice-chairs were Kate Doerge, Kate Allen, Palmer O’Sullivan, and Laura McVey.

Imagine yourself in a room packed to the rafters with genuine Hollywood idols and celebrity types. Imagine yourself only a star-struck breath away from legendary women like Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins.

That’s exactly what happened to invited guests at The New York Times’ T Magazine party on Jan. 15, 2010. Thrown inside a cramped space in West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, the celebration unofficially set off a series of shindigs leading to Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards.

Hosted by Peggy Siegal, the T Magazine party was a veritable magnet to celestial beings, among them Scientology clerics Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. It likewise lured Quentin Tarantino, Jared Leto, Ashley Olsen, Ben Stiller, and Adam Lambert.

Legendary peahens Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins were among the party’s early birds. They were spotted conversing early in the evening, before MacLaine moved on to chitchat with Julianne Moore.

Only days away from winning a Golden Globe for TV’s Big Love, Chloe Sevigny attended the get-together with filmmaker Liz Goldwyn. Another TV thespian in the crowd was Kim Raver, who stuck close to her Lipstick Jungle co-worker Lindsay Price. Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan also came, but without boyfriend Shia LaBeouf in tow. She was seen close with The Office actor B.J. Novak.

Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford could also be sighted here, puffing a fag with an unidentified boy friend. At the outdoor smoking area, Eli Roth could be seen cozying up to an unknown blond.

Around 9 pm, the party almost hit overcapacity. Yet guests were mostly eager to fill two less breathing spaces with the grand entrance of Cruise and Holmes. Before long, Holmes hit a conversation with Glee actress Dianna Agron, while Cruise cracked some jokes with Woody Harrelson. All the while, Holmes’ ex Chris Klein kept his distance.

TomKat exited the party after 10 pm, probably in a rush to get home to their daughter Suri. But directress Sofia Coppola chose to tag her 4-year-old daughter Romy along to the party.

Dina Lohan and her starlet daughters Lindsay and Ali burst in the doors fabulously late. However, everybody was preparing to vacate the penthouse just then.

President Bill Clinton suited up on October 7, 2009 for the New York Historical Society History Makers Gala. However, the annual affair largely celebrated the life of another US president, Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln’s shadow was all over guests at the gala, which was held at the New York Historical Society’s swanky Manhattan headquarters. The gala served to inaugurate the first major museum exhibit associating Lincoln with New York City.

President Clinton was there to kick off the Lincoln exhibit with a keynote address. He was also on hand to accept the 2009 History Makers Award from the Society.

This exhibition was the culmination of the NY Historical Society’s yearlong celebration of Lincoln’s birthday bicentenary. The Society first marked that milestone in February with an exhibit of Lincoln’s handwritten documents.

Titled “Lincoln and New York,” the newer exhibit chronicled Abe Lincoln’s Gotham experiences, from his historic campaign speech in Cooper Union to his funeral procession through the city. It came with hundreds of documents, paintings, and artifacts, including the lectern from which the Cooper Union speech was delivered.

Brooks Brothers, Inc. lent the exhibit a faithfully made replica of one of Lincoln’s suits. The former president wore it first at his second inauguration and then on the day of his assassination in 1865.

Costing $2.5 million, the Lincoln exhibit was lead-sponsored by JP Morgan Chase & Co. Other sponsors included the US Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program.

Gala-goers produced anywhere between $1,000 and $5,000 to gain entrance to the black-tie gala dinner. They were, in turn, served sumptuous food such as lamb chops coupled with parmesan paves.

Expensive tables were no object to the well-heeled guests, which included Bernard Schwartz, Philip Mirrer-Singer, and Emily Kimball.

Chairing the gala were Stuart Rabin, Patricia Klingenstein, Roger Hertog, Martin Gross, Richard Gilder, Diana Roesch DiMenna, Ravenel Curry III, Judith Roth Berkowitz, and Helen Appel. Lazard Freres & Co. Senior Managing Director Vernon Jordan was honorary chair.

Louise Mirrer, the Society’s president and CEO, attended. Understandably, the gala would benefit her organization’s future exhibits and philanthropic projects.

Two days after the gala, “Lincoln and New York” opened to the general public.

For as long as there are gulfs in income, Tatler has always been in existence. One of the world’s oldest magazines, Tatler has assiduously stalked the loftiest strata of social class since Queen Anne’s reign.

In commemoration of its 300th anniversary, the publication mounted a party of the bacchanalian order on Oct. 14, 2009. Party planners threw the bash where it all began: London’s majestic Lancaster House, where Tatler started its first photographic party coverage in 1901.

Seven-hundred people, representing a cross section of blue-blooded royalty, grand nobility, landed gentry, and new money, responded to the invitation. There to swill endless founts of champagne were social heavyweights like Sir Philip Green, Manolo Blahnik, and Marie Chantal of Greece. Amid servings of canapés and slices of a human-sized cake, one could also find Sir Stuart Rose, Talulah Harlech, Rupert Everett and Peaches Geldof.

Vogue UK’s editor Alexandra Shulman was also around, along with Nicholas Coleridge, vice-president of Tatler’s parent company, Condé Nast International. Also gracing the bash with their presence was Samantha Cameron and siblings Robert, Sophia and Emily Sheffield, Vogue UK’s deputy editor.

Marking this once-in-a-lifetime signpost was the new Tatler editor, Catherine Ostler. Former editor of ES, Ostler succeeded the post vacated by Geordie Greig in February. In effect, she inherited editing duties for the magazine’s November edition, also known as its tri-centennial anniversary issue.

Ostler did not disappoint though. The resultant anniversary issue was a highly special collector’s edition, an unmistakable postage-stamp head shot of Queen Elizabeth II splayed on its cover. Described as “300 years of Mischief,” the special issue came in three variations.

Tatler began as early as 1709, when British journalists Richard Steele and Joseph Addison looked to disseminate tittle-tattle in the coffee shops to a wider audience. Centuries later, in 1901, Tatler was reborn, changing the way society rags are made forever.

It snowed stars and socialites inside Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City as UNICEF threw its annual Snowflake Ball on Dec. 2, 2009.

Belying its icy subtext, the Snowflake Ball was actually warm with the charitable hearts of its guests. Two of the invitees were feted for their fiery humanitarian efforts: Island Def Jam Music Group Chairman Antonio “L.A.” Reid and UNICEF’s Ethiopia representative Ted Chaiban. The former received UNICEF’s Spirit of Compassion Award; the other, an Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award.

Music luminary Mariah Carey, who came with husband Nick Cannon, was on hand to introduce her Island Def Jam boss to the stage. However, the singing duties went to fellow Island recording artist Chrisette Michele.

Besides the awarding, the gala served to commemorate the lighting of the humongous UNICEF Snowflake. Hung high above Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, the Snowflake is a larger-than-life reminder to Gotham dwellers that, indeed, ‘tis the season not to be frosty. Anyone in their million-dollar cars would notice the 28-foot high leviathan, scintillating with 16,000 Baccarat crystal prisms.

UNICEF’s Snowflake was donated by the Stonbely Family Foundation. True to form, Christine Stonbely co-chaired the Snowflake Ball with Claudia Lebenthal. George Stonbely was also present, along with Barbara Bush and Maggie Betts, who served as the affair’s junior co-chairs. Charlotte Moss and Pamela Fiori, in turn, acted as chairs of the Snowflake Project.

Hosted by Al Roker, the Snowflake Gala was attended by U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s CEO and President Caryl Stern. Also spotted at the gala were actors Tea Leoni and David Duchovny.

Hugh Hildesley from Sotheby’s led a live auction. Moneyed invitees bid on items like a private dinner with Star Chef and UNICEF Ambassador Marcus Samuelsson and a photo shoot with shutterbugs Vinoodh Matadin and Inez van Lamsweerde.

Before the night ended, UNICEF raised $1.9 million. An unsurprising sum, as invitees included Jenna Bush Hager, Lauren Bush, Erica Reid, David Lauren, Vern Yip, Muffie Potter Aston, Somers Farkas, Anthony Pantaleoni, Matt Lauer, Dikembe Mutombo, Dayle Haddon, Gillian Miniter, Bryant Gumbel, Gelila Assefa, Wolfgang Puck, Fareed Zakaria, Paula Zakaria, Jaime Jimenez, Deborah Roberts, Michael Belleveau, Sandra Lee, and Dave Lieberman.

Invitees had dinner prepared in part by Marcus Samuelsson’s eatery Aquavit. Popular restaurateurs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Alfred Portale also livened up the evening’s gastronomic delights.