Dejeuner Sur La ArtTable

Lots of little-known facts about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s president, Emily Rafferty, were disclosed at the annual luncheon organized by ArtTable, a professional association for women in the arts field.

Ms. Rafferty has four sisters with whom she discusses everything — “arts, politics, health, literature, hairstyles, and the general state of the world.” She is a past president of the Blue Hill Troupe, which presents the works of Gilbert & Sullivan. She was one of the founders of the ArtTable luncheon. This year, she was the honoree at the luncheon, attended by a substantial number of the women trustees of the museum.

In the remarks of the keynote speaker, Caroline Kennedy, the several hundred guests also learned that Ms. Rafferty is related to the Kennedys. “It’s a complicated relationship,” Ms. Kennedy said. “Essentially, my relative’s relative married her relative.”

Ms. Kennedy followed Ms. Rafferty as a student at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, and later, as an employee of the museum. Ms. Kennedy’s job was in the film office, and her most memorable project was a movie in which children and Muppets get trapped in the Temple of Dendur one night.

Ms. Rafferty recalled that Ms. Kennedy was not always a model employee.

“I remember you got a royal screaming at from Dick,” Ms. Rafferty said, referring to Richard Dougherty, a museum executive who had his kind moments, too: He helped push for Ms. Rafferty’s promotions.

Ms. Kennedy wasn’t talking about Muppets at the luncheon. Now the vice chairwoman of the New York City Fund for Public Schools, she described the improving arts curricula in the schools, but asked for help from the members of ArtTable.

“Please help the school system understand how to give the best arts education. The cultural community could take the lead in defining success,” Ms. Kennedy said.

One example of how a museum can work closely with New York City public schools is the current exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, “A Year With Children,” which showcases artwork created by 1500 second- through sixthgrade students.

Peabodys on Their Own Terms

ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross earned his fifth Peabody Award Tuesday for his coverage of the scandal surrounding Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually explicit e-mails to Congressional pages; it will join his four others on a table in his office, he said at a reception before the ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Local reporters were also on hand to accept the honors, among them Alan Cohn of New Haven’s WTNH and Karen Hensel of Indianapolis’s WISH; both won for stories that came from listener tips.

With his wife and mother is tow was journalist Jack Hitt, who won for his “This American Life” piece on the denial of habeas corpus to terrorism suspects.

Not all winners were members of the press. New York-based conductor Leslie Stifelman won as a producer of the HBO documentary “The Music In Me,” about children with a passion for music.

“The strangest story we found was an African-American boy who wanted to sing Chinese opera — and was extremely good at it,” Ms. Stifelman, who is the music director for “Chicago” on Broadway, said.

The team behind the NBC’s series “Friday Night Lights,” drawn from a movie about a town’s obsession with football, stood, fittingly, in a huddle formation. They included actors Gaius Charles and Adrianna Palicki; an executive producer and writer, Jason Katims, and a co-executive producer, Jeffrey Reiner.

“I didn’t realize the Peabodys honored mainstream television. It’s a nice start. Maybe in four years we’ll win a People’s Choice,” Mr. Reiner, who had been an outsider linebacker for his high school team, the Chatsworth Chancellors, said.

The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication bestowed 35 awards out of 1,050 entries this year, recognizing excellence in radio, television, and cable. Satellite radio was eligible, but did not win any awards.

“It’s only a matter of time,” the director of the awards, Horace Newcomb, said.

Who wins?

“We have one criterion: excellence. That’s too vague. It’s excellence on its own terms.”

agordon@nysun.com