Around Town
With Donna Shor
A GAGGLE OF GOSSIPS
No
subject was off limits when Café
Milano’s Franco Nuschese hosted
a party for gossip columnists and
society scribes at his beautiful
Washington home. In addition to
the usual suspects, whose bylines
we all know, add Lucky Roosevelt,
who was a journalist for Womens
Wear Daily before her stint as chief
of protocol during the Reagan
administration, and arts supporter
Ina Ginsburg, who wrote for
Interview Magazine during the
Warhol era.
The Washington Post’s new Reliable
Source columnists Roxanne Roberts
and Amy Argentsinger were
there, of course, and the urbane
Kevin Chaffee from the Washington
Times, who helped Franco organize
the evening. Also from the Washington
Times were James Brantley,
Ann Geracimos and Stephanie
Mansfield, along with her husband,
Tsotne Bakuria, a Georgian prince,
no less. Buzz babe Karen Feld of
the Examiner was there as were
Annie Groer of the Washington Post,
Garry Clifford of People Magazine
fame; Nancy and Vicki Bagley,
from Washington Life; Capitol File’s
Ann Schroeder; Chuck Conconi,
formerly of the Washingtonian, and
his successor, Garrett Graff; talk
show host Gwendolyn Russell; the
Washington Ballet’s Septime Webre
(after all, he uses body language as
his medium); baseball guru Winston
Bao Lord; Jeff
and Juleanna Glover Weiss; and
Bolivian ambassador Jaime
Aparicio and Pamela, among the
forty or so guests.
ENCORE!
Singers dominated
the gala scene last month, and
in a direct change from Cindy’s
rockin’ rhythm, mezzo-soprano
Cecelia Bartoli captivated her
audience, too, to the tune of four
encores, and an audience that kept
leaping to its feet. The setting was
the Washington Performing Arts
Society’s 40th Anniversary Gala at
the Kennedy Center, and she was
clearly having a good time, almost
dancing to one aria, and majestically
entering and exiting the
stage between each song and each
encore in a knockout shimmering
green silk whose train swept all
in its wake. Her captivating stage
presence won everyone over.
Swiss Ambassador Christian
Blickenstorfer and his wife
Susanne served as honorary
chairs, with WPAS chairman
Daniel Korengold and president
Neale Perl greeting the audience
and recalling the founding of the
group by the late, much-loved
Washington impresario Patrick
Hayes. The gala committee
co-chairs were Mary Mochary,
Patricia Stern and Susan Porter.
Guests included Gerson Nordlinger,
Jr; Nini Ferguson and her
houseguest, New York’s Carolyn
Roehm; Evelyn Stefansson Nef;
Shirley and Al Small; and Carol
and Climis Lascaris.
HEADS UP!
Here’s help for the
helpers: an unusual, important, but
little publicized new tax break that
can save you a bundle if you’re
planning a donation to a favorite
charity; but only if you hurry, it’s
short-lived; here’s why: When the
outpouring of support for hurricane
victims shorted the expected funds for other groups, the
September 15 bi-partisan tax relief
bills for Katrina victims included
generous savings for donors to
other institutions. House bill
H.R.3768 and the Senate’s S1696
will suspend certain restrictions and
caps on all individual and corporate
charitable donations made before
this year ends (when it all stops). To
further encourage charitable giving
before December 31, penalties will
be waived on donation-related
early withdrawals from retirement
accounts. Wilhelmina Holladay,
the founder and president of the
National Museum of Women in
the Arts, brought it to our attention.
Philanthropist Mary Mochary
promptly took the words to heart,
making a $500,000 Challenge
Grant to help the museum reach its
$2.5 million funding goal before its
twentieth anniversary in 2007.
FROM RUSSIA WITH STYLE
One more musician, but this time
a man: 23-year-old pianist Gleb
Ivanov. After winning almost every
piano competition there is to win
in Russia, he is just now coming
on the world stage. Presented by
the Young Concert Artists under
the aegis of Gilan Tocco Corn at
the Kennedy Terrace Theater, he
received several standing ovations
for his powerful playing and subtle
shadings. His musicality as well as
his showmanship made the evening
special, and his guileless charm
and sense of humor made him a
hit at the after-party as well when
hostess Judy Esfandiary welcomed
a crowd to her striking penthouse
at Washington Harbor. Among the
guests were Debbie and Braxton
Moncure, Dr. Milton Corn, and
Linda (Mrs. Isaac) Stern.
THERE WAS NO MUSIC ON THE MENU
at Arts for the Aging’s
17th Annual Benefit at the British
ambassador’s residence, but social,
political and diplomatic Washington
turned out for a great evening.
Chaired by Julia Hopping and
Anna Maria Via, the fund-raiser was
enhanced by the warm welcome
from the ambassador, Sir David
Manning and his wife Catherine.
Elizabeth Ironside is the pen name
Catherine uses for her thriller
novels. Best sellers in Britain, they
are now being published here
in paperback. Her “Death in the
Garden” will be joined by “The
Accomplice,” an unexpectedly
macabre tale from such a gentle
and witty lady. Arts for the Aging
was founded by the indomitable,
Basel-born sculptor Lolo Sarnoff,
and brings the enrichment of art to
the lives of the area’s elderly.
POTPOURRI
When Barbara
Walters was the roastee at the
recent benefit for the Spina Bifida
Association, it was so gently done
it seemed more like a bake-off than
a roast. Barbara, who arrived after
interviewing Saudi Arabia’s
King Abdullah, said that when she
learned he had four wives, he asked
if she would like to be Number
Five. Intrigued by thoughts of the
heady power this would bring
her, she said “I realized that if I
accepted I could perhaps end the
war in Iraq, bring peace to the
Middle East, and see to it that no
man in Saudi Arabia would ever be
allowed to drive again.”
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