Altruistic Engines and Rockers
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Every New York woman knows there are men of steel, buildings of steel, and for those special nights, cars of steel.
The best place to check out all three was at the gala preview of the New York Auto Show held at the Javits Center on Thursday night to benefit East Side House Settlement.
The chairwomen of the gala committee, Annie Churchill, Fe Fendi, and Tatiana Platt, quickly developed crushes on a white Lamborghini, not only because of its looks, but because of its altruistic engine: It was auctioned to support East Side House Settlement’s programs for youth, families, and seniors living in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.
Fortunately, on this pre-congestion pricing night, there were plenty of cars to go around for all the ladies and gentlemen present, including maternity designer Liz Lange, couple-about-town Somers and Andrew Farkas, the publisher of Esquire magazine, Kevin O’Malley, and several members of East Side House Settlement’s board: Joan Young, Michael Moreno, Philip Yang, Andrew Siff and Candida Romanelli, who is also director of the Auto Show.
East Side House Settlement’s other big fund-raiser is the gala preview of the Winter Antiques Show, which has a very different atmosphere, crowd, and mood. Suffice it to say the Auto Show preview is quite a bit racier.
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The night before Sir Elton John performs at Radio City Music Hall in a fund-raising concert for Senator Clinton, he’ll be on the stage of the Waldorf-Astoria’s Grand Ballroom performing at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s Hottest Pink Party Ever. The rock star — a big supporter of the foundation — has attended, but not performed at, the annual event for the past couple of years, usually sitting next to the foundation’s founder, Evelyn Lauder, and watching others (Tony Bennett, Sheryl Crow) croon. But April 8, Mr. John will resume the role of entertainer to honor his friend Linda Stein, a real estate broker who was slain in her apartment in October and was a member of the foundation’s advisory board. So perhaps this means Mrs. Lauder will be able to sit next to her husband, Leonard Lauder, who just last week announced a $131 million gift to the Whitney Museum of American Art.
agordon@nysun.com
