Out & About
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.

Global Green USA held its annual awards dinner last night, with the honorees seated in the center of the room: Nobel Peace Prize-winner, Mikhail Gorbachev; real estate developer Douglas Durst; the chief executive of United Technologies, George David; the founders of Friends of the High Line, Joshua David and Robert Hammond, and filmmaker Roland Emmerich (“The Day After Tomorrow”).
Global Green is the American arm of Green Cross International, founded by Mr. Gorbachev in 1993. It claims to be the only national environmental organization headquartered in Los Angeles.
The French actress Julie Delpy, a fixture at Global Green galas, said that her favorite place to take in natural beauty is Belle-ile, off the coast of Brittany. “To me it’s a disaster, for people on top of the world not to be concerned about the environment,” she said.
Actors Emmy Rossum and Robert Thomas helped present the awards. Mr. Thomas is rehearsing for the Broadway run of Michael Frayn’s play “Democracy,” which has its first preview the night after Election Day. Ms. Rossum is in the film version of “Phantom of the Opera,” to be released in December.
Speaking of election issues…Global Green’s Legacy Program works to destroy weapons of mass destruction. “We know where they are, and they’re not in Baghdad; they’re in the United States and Russia,” said its director, Paul Walker.
He described his first trip to Russia in 1994, where he found weapons in warehouses with broken windows and bicycle locks on the doors.
“Inside, it looked like wine racks full of shells – one shell could destroy a whole city,” he said.
Global Green also promotes green housing and recently announced a partnership with Habitat for Humanity of New York City.
Guests were encouraged to take the centerpieces with them – small, potted tropical plants that came with the instructions, “please provide very little water and lots of love.”
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The Hispanic National Bar Association, which represents 27,000 lawyers across the country, concluded its three-day conference with a gala last night.
Before Senator Schumer and Council Speaker Gifford Miller took the podium, one of the event’s chairwomen, Linda Maria Wayner, lauded the audience: “I know lawyers are social creatures, but I must say, this is probably the best-looking crowd of attorneys I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
The crowd included the president of the Dominican Bar Association, Julissa Gomez, and a member of the Puerto Rican Bar Association, Ada Lil Torres. The two women were classmates at Mother Cabrini High School in Washington Heights.
The outgoing president of the group, Carlos Singh, made leadership the theme of his final speech: “I ask what are you going to do to make America better. We are the largest minority group in the country – the mantle of leadership has been passed to us. It’s time to assert it.”
Noting that half the members of the senate are lawyers, he added, “We must inspire young people to become lawyers; we need more lawyer leaders of color.”