What would you pay to hear Nicole Kidman say the word “shofar”? Wednesday night, 600 guests paid $1,000 each for the privilege. The utterance came as part of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s tribute to the owner of the New York Post, who is a friend and compatriot of Ms. Kidman’s.

“On this beautiful shofar it reads: Rupert Murdoch, Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Laureate.”

The center honored Mr. Murdoch and his press empire for informing the world about bigotry and intolerance and the center’s work in combating them.

“As we have heard many times this evening, communication is the key to making our world a better place,” Ms. Kidman said.

Now, it would have been something else to see Ms. Kidman blow the shofar. But actually, the world is waiting for Ms. Kidman to say who gave her the ring she’s been wearing on her wedding finger. (Could it be her compatriot, the country singer Keith Urban?) Ms. Kidman was carefully shielded from being asked the question by reporters.

The event raised $1.5 million for the center, which is based in Los Angeles with outposts in New York, Toronto, Miami, Jerusalem, Paris, and Buenos Aires. Members of the New York board include Norman Brodsky, Natalie Wilensky, and Allen Adler. The head of the New York office is Rhonda Barad.

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The sign of a hardworking event designer was on the mirror. For the cool dinner party Chanel threw Wednesday, Bronson Van Wyck used the luxury house’s new line of lipsticks to write Coco Chanel’s most famous lines on the bathroom mirrors of Lever House (such as, “Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.” Mr.Van Wyck, who is about to turn 30 and shares office space with the interior designer Celerie Kemble and fashion designer Leila Rose (talk about inspiration at the watercooler!), also created gorgeous bouquets of red orchids, roses, and tulips on the dinner tables. Other arrangements featured rows of the new lipsticks, which launches in May. As the mastermind of the new product demonstrated, the woman in the know opens her Rouge Allure lipstick by clicking the gold top of the case.

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The Central Park Conservancy gave hundreds of its friends their most memorable winter night on Tuesday, when it reserved Wollman Rink for a private party.

The conservancy’s affairs tend to be fancy schmancy. The great thing about this annual event is that it’s fun, casual, and free.The menu included chicken fingers, pizza, caramel-coated apples, and popcorn.

The crowd showed proficiency at basic skating. The fanciest move 6-year-old Alicia Rivera tried was skating backward (she prefers the bar in gymnastics class). In general, people had better command of cute skating attire than double axels. Gillian Miniter earned a best-dressed 6.0 for pairing a brown fur hat with blue recreational skates she bought for the event at Paragon.

“This is so nice. It’s not crowded. And everyone here is so well-mannered.When the kids bump into me, they say, ‘I’m sorry,'”a veteran figure skater, Eleanor Peterkin, said.

Even though Leni Welte hurt her wrist on the ice, she still thought the party was a 10. “It’s the best party in town,” Ms. Welte said.

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“It’s all about the food,” Mina Newman said as she bounded into her favorite room at Christo’s Steak House: a freezer full of prime meat dry-aged 21 days.

Meat is the main story at the low-lit, cozy restaurant in Astoria, which reopened Wednesday after a major renovation. But it’s not the only story. As consulting chef, Ms. Newman has given the traditional Greek menu “a more cosmopolitan emphasis” by offering dishes such as wild fish from New Zealand.The Queens native draws on her cooking experiences at Dillon’s Prime Steakhouse and Layla.

“I want customers to be pleasantly surprised by the diversity on the menu,” one of the restaurant’s owners, George Stergiopoulous, said.

Luckily, the facelift hasn’t changed the unpretentious character of the place. Christo’s still looks and feels like one of the neighborhood’s tavernas, even offering an almost extinct amenity: a butcher shop. It’s a past worth preserving. As Ms. Newman noted, it is often said that the best Greek food is found not on any of the Aegean islands but in Astoria.

– with Clay Carlson

agordon@nysun.com