Princess Yasmin Khan’s annual fund-raiser battles the Alzheimer’s that took her mother Rita Hayworth. Black-tie. The Waldorf’s Grand Ballroom. Long beaded gowns on loan; family jewels out of the vault. This time, behind stunner Brooke Shields, designer Naeem Khan and decorator Carleton Varney, off in a quiet area two hearts beat together.
One heart, Deborah Norville: “I’m here because my family suffered with the disease. My dad’s mom. At the end a Baptist minister came to see her. He said, ‘Do you know Jesus Christ?’ And grandma said, ‘No. I don’t ‘spec he’s been by here today.’ ”
The other heart told Deborah how my similarly stricken mom didn’t even know who I was at the end.
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Celeb events
Realty agents mumbling Oprah wants a Manhattan apartment . . . Alec Baldwin feeds his itchy mouth at Fine & Schapiro, billed as “Best Kosher Food on the Upper West Side” . . . Heavy subject today is bullying. In 5th grade, Laura Dern wept because kids taunted her. Spelled sideways her last name was Nerd . . . LL Cool J, doing A-OK on “NCIS”: “TV taught me one thing: How to wake up in the morning.”
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Many Mays
Can’t help it if you don’t know the name Jefferson Mays. Tony winner for B’way’s solo “I Am My Own Wife” performance. He’s at it again. Playing eight characters in “A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder.” Opens the Walter Kerr Nov. 17.
“The great part is offstage. Costume designer Linda changes my shape in seconds. I plunge into the wings’ darkness and three people throw me into something.
“It’s like an Indy 500 racecar pit. I run off. Open my mouth. They spurt in water, rip my clothes off, hand me a prop, stick a mustache on me, whisper what character I’m doing — happened once in tech rehearsals that I got screwed up — and shove me out.
“I do not look in the mirror. Forget the hair. Different wigs and hats. In many meetings I said how I thought the characters should look and brought my bagful of hats to Linda’s workshop. All are in the production. See, I’ve always loved hats. Every morning as I wake up, I put on some bowler or pith helmet.”
Right . . . well . . . I don’t understand that but . . . OK.
“Playing a woman, my clothes contain an ample bosom. Anatomically correct, it heaves up and down. Plus, a large bustle. One of the men has a foam tummy.”
Yeah, like I said, OK . .
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News from the Irons men
Nov. 5 Jeremy Irons is among us. The University Club. While handsome son Max upholds the cinematic bloodline — in colorful films like “The White Queen” and “Red Riding Hood” — daddy Jeremy addresses the Irish Georgian Society. Why? Owns a house in the auld sod and will tell how he created it, spruced it and loves it. Yeah, so, anyhow, why? A favor for an Irish woman longtime buddy who owned a pub in Alphabet City.
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Shakira’s call
Shakira signed a multiyear deal to be T-Mobile’s spokesinger . . . XM’s Brett Winterble interviewed the Monster Headphones CEO and says: “It was a bad connection. This guy makes high-end headsets? The mouthpiece on his phone was damaged.”
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Selling chefs
With products selling online — not in stores — everyone wants airtime. A problem is some stars promote, not produce. Even the famous chefs play musical spoons. Emeril Legasse, who sold to Martha Stewart, off HSN. Now, QVC. Product spokesman Todd English, with restaurants countrywide, also shopping channel hopping. TV’s cash registers, QVC and HSN, aren’t hearing ka-chings.
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Woman on the East Side dining alone. She’s reading. The waiter asks, “What’s the book you’re reading?” She shows him the title: “Never Eat Alone.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.