Singer Valerie Simpson led the accolades for public relations powerhouse Peter Brown at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday night when she told the black-tie crowd, “He believed in [Simpson and late husband/collaborator Nick Ashford] before anyone thought we had the goods.”
Brown — who helped manage The Beatles and still represents Andrew Lloyd Webber — was honored for his work with Literacy Partners, which teaches adults how to read.
Simpson said, “I think we wrote this song about Peter,” and then sang, “Ain‘t Nothing Like the Real Thing.”
Bette Midler read from her memoir, “A View From a Broad,” and Gary Shteyngart read from “Little Failure,” a nickname his mother gave him. Born in Leningrad, Shteyngart arrived in the US at the age of 7.
“I was sentenced to eight years of Hebrew School for a crime I didn’t commit,” Shteyngart recited.
Also on hand: Liz Smith, Barbara Walters, John Demsey, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Ira Silverberg, Alina Cho, Robert Zimmerman, Jane Friedman and Markus Dohle, the Penguin Random House CEO who was also honored for his philanthropy.