Jamie Dimon's Honoree Style: No black tie, no long speeches, and Charlie Rose

Jamie Dimon, center, at Thirteen's gala on Monday. Please see more photos at http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20090504wnet

The chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co. not only stepped up for Thirteen's gala last night, he also had fun with it. "Charlie Rose came to my office and interviewed me. So we'll have a video of that. No black tie, no long speeches, we don't want to bore all of you," he said during the cocktail hour at Gotham Hall. And by "you" he meant a lot of people he cares about: "JPMorgan is here, my parents are here, and my wife will be here soon - she's running late," Mr. Dimon said.

Does Mr. Dimon have a favorite show on Thirteen? "I haven't had a lot of time to watch television in the past year or so," he said, adding that his parents were more avid Thirteen viewers. "I was on Charlie Rose a while ago, he interviewed me in Aspen."

Since we didn't get to see the videos played at the gala, we tracked down that Charlie Rose Show interview from July 2008. In that segment he had a few words about philanthropy. On a personal level, he said, "I think we have a tremendous obligation to humanity and mankind. Anyone I read about who doesn't have a level of obligation, my respect for that person drops tremendously." And when it comes to JP Morgan Chase & Co., he said: "We're unbelievably philanthropic, we give away $100 million a year, we now help microfinance, we work on climate change, we're a great corporate citizen in every single way, we give jobs to the disabled, we have teams to speak to you if you're blind.... What I remind people is that sometimes do-gooding goes too far. If JP Morgan isn't a vibrant, healthy company we can't do anything.... We want to be known as a great corporate citizen and still do a great job for shareholders. It's not either or." Another pearl of wisdom: "problems don't age well."

The other honorees at the event, which raised more than $2.3 million and drew more than 300 guests, were Kevin Kline and Meredith Brokaw. Mr. Kline said he chooses organizations to support "that are dearest to my heart, like the theater company of which I am a founding member."

Spotted: Jamie Dimon, James B. Lee Jr., Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates, Tom and Meredith Brokaw, Neal Shapiro, Bill Moyers, David Brancaccio, Paula Zahn, Ric Burns and Bonnie Lafave, Lewis Cullman, Ward Chamberlain, Shelley and Donald Rubin, William Rudin, James Tisch, and a friendly group of Con Ed employees who shared their tips for saving money in the downturn (besides staying home and watching Thirteen): Pull the plug on your computer when you're not using it, buy a programmable thermostat, and visit coned.com/powerofgreen.

View photos from the event here.