Elton John
‘s annual AIDS fund- raiser is a special night. Cocktails, dinner, auction, celebs, entertain ment. His big stardom and big heart bring out big money ($2 mil) and big names.
Like our newly re-elected mayor, who is slightly skinnier. Not just financially. Physically. “I’m really working to keep the weight down,” he said. “Trying to eat salads. I even run in the morning, but anyone who says they get thinner that way is nuts. The only way to lose is to eat less. The problem is, after I go to six events and don’t eat or drink anything, I get home and Diana [the live-in first ladyfriend] says, ‘Let’s get a hamburger.’ So we go to a nearby place, and with one glass of red wine, you dip the French fries in the mayonnaise and kill everything you tried to do.”
Gorgeous Sharon Stone, in belted black coat and big black hat, talked of being a plain mother: “I have three children, not just one now. And they’re not babies anymore. They’re 3, 4 and 9. Which means they all have schedules. So I’m up 7 every morning and I myself drive them to school by 8:15. And I cook for them. I’m a good cook. I’m very into being a mommy. I’m teaching the older one to make pancakes and French toast.” (Fortunately, the mayor didn’t hear about the French toast.)
The evening’s elegant host, Anderson Cooper, was in an elegant navy suit. Asked about Lou Dobbs, he backed off not like I had the swine flu, but like I was the Swine. Finally, smiling, he mumbled something to the effect of: He’s a legend . . . was a legend . . . should be a legend . . . always been a legend . . . real legend . . .
Nobody wanted anything to do with me. I asked the Food Network’s Sandra Lee is she marrying Andrew Cuomo — and she left me flat. I asked Daniel Craig how he relaxes after those tense scenes on Broadway, and he murmured: “Want a quote, I’ll give you a f – – – ing quote” and said: “I drink a lot and take narcotics.” He, too, then walked away.
Gina Gershon nearly tripped on the steps in her long purple gown. Billie Jean King was happy to meet Susan Lucci. A trio in the AIDS forefront, Dr. Mathilde Krim and the handsome couple Maria Cuomo and Kenneth Cole sat together. Evelyn Lauder wore pearls the size of kneecaps. “Got them in Australia 15 years ago,” said husband Leonard. “No, you got them for me for our 25th anniversary,” she said. “No, 15 years ago.” “No, our 25th anniversary.” This time it was me who walked away.
Sir Elton relived his recent hospitalization: “We’d just celebrated [his spouse] David‘s birthday at home and he’d left for the States.” David: “I was at Disney screening a film, which has classic Elton songs in it.” Elton: “I suddenly came down with this infection, and within 48 hours was in the hospital for nine days.” David: “I got waked in the middle of the night with the news. I felt horrible. I grabbed the first plane back.” Elton: “I was so glad to see him and so glad to get out of that hospital. Let’s not even talk about their food.”
In a small knot of Elton, David, their p.r., Fran Curtis, and me, Sir Elton John compared jewelry. He was wearing a diamond and emerald brooch. Me, too. He said: “Yours is bigger . . . and that’s always been my problem. Some other guy’s is always bigger.” Then: “And you can quote me.”
I love Elton John. Maybe because he was almost the only one who didn’t walk away from me.
Jill Hennessy, whom we love from “Law & Order,” is running hot. Out with a debut CD, “Ghost in My Head,” which will be featured in her first soon-due film “Roadie.” “I play a singer, and they’re using my song.” She’s also just shot her second movie, “Small Town Murder Scenes” with Martha Plimpton, in Canada. “My role is a hard-drinking cocktail waitress who gets into relationships with the wrong men. Fortunately, I didn’t do that in real life,” laughed Jill. “What I thought was a one-night stand turned into our nine-year marriage.”
So how’s she get it all together when she also has kids? “My mother-in-law lives in our same building, plus I have a nearby friend. Listen, sometimes I have to get up 4:30 in the morning, and then my time with them is 7 p.m. when I get home. My husband, who has some acting jobs as well, is wonderful. He takes the kids to gym class.”
Acting, I understand. But songwriting for Jill Hennessy? “Listen, I used to have a band. And not so many years ago I played guitar in the subway, Central Park and Washington Square Park for money. Then came ‘Law & Order,’ and I quit my band. TV sure paid more. So thanks to that I can at least take my kids out to dinner.
” ‘Ghost in My Head’ is about stuff that was painful for me. Stuff I never wanted to talk about. I didn’t want to confront it. I couldn’t. It was a time I’d be walking around Washington Square Park at 4 a.m. Alone.
“I can only tell you how grateful I am for what’s happened to me.”
A wall Streeter: “I saw a TV com mercial telling us to invest in Iraqi dinars. Should I move?”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.