Gareth Pugh (Getty Images)
Wednesday, July 20
Pugh Foundation
The Met’s Alexander McQueen wingding is due to close soon (Who’d have guessed that the summer’s biggest blockbuster would feature weird shape-shifting metallic entities, but not be the Transformers sequel?!), and we need a new British avante-garde type to turn the female shape into manic pointiness. Gareth Pugh it is! The experimental Brit—he’s Anna-approved!—has long struggled for commercial success, but things might be turning around: he’s collaborating with makeup purveyor MAC on a color collection (that’s where the real money is). McQueen muse and beer baroness Daphne Guinness is declaring new loyalties by dropping by tonight’s MAC party to celebrate the collaboration, along with Mr. Pugh, Lydia Hearst (hope Mr. Pugh’s makeup comes in yellow, like great-grandad’s journalism!) and the first lady of what-does-she-do-again-who-cares-she-looks-fab, Genevieve Jones. It all goes down at the New Museum—so there’s some of the art-world frisson of the Met’s Costume Institute Ball, in celebration of a product you’ll be able buy at Duane Reade!
7:30pm, New Museum’s Sky Room, 235 Bowery, private event.
Thursday, July 21
Curating the Curators
The bearded writer/curator Adam Kleinman—he scribbles on art for art rag Texte zur Kunst, the clever devil!—drops by the Swiss Institute to deliver a
lecture on overused aesthetic tropes used to rationalize away realization of dark truths. So deep. And Mr. Kleinman expects attendees to bring something to the table. The ad copy for the event mentions “an Italian philosopher,” intentionally not naming him. (We give up. Machiavelli?) It’s called “Search and Destroy” and will, we’re told, take on curators and art writers—Mr. Kleinman’s own kind!
Swiss Institute, 495 Broadway #3, 7pm, reserve seats by emailing RSVP@swissinstitute.net
Friday, July 22
Bully for You
If there’s one set of people who’d know about bullying, it’s those capital-R, capital-H, extra-scare-quotes “Real Housewives.” Routinely bullying one another at whatever hoity restaurant will allow cameras in at off-peak hours, they’ve elbowed their way into the public consciousness with vanity singles, vanity magazine covers and vanity charity events. (Somehow we watch their antics week after week while our DVDs of Downton Abbey go sadly unwatched.) Tonight, the show’s archetypal brassy redhead, Jill Zarin, hosts a dinner in support of the Anti-Defamation League’s anti-bullying initiative. “Guests include Jennifer Zarin,” the tip sheet informs us… so it’ll be a family affair! Go if you’re out east and maybe want a bit of camera time. (Trust us, these charity gigs always make it on the air.)
Georgica, 108 Wainscott Stone Road (Wainscott), private event
Saturday, July 23
Living Social
If you’re still out east, and you’re still transfixed by reality-TV ladies, Devorah Rose’s Social Life magazine hosts a party in honor of itself (and Kimora Lee Simmons’ appearance on its cover). Ms. Rose is that fast-climbing weed whose rise was recently chronicled in the pages of the Times Style section as well as in the CW channel opus High Society. Oh, she knows how to throw a drink and a hissy fit, but tonight’s all about her society magazine. Ms. Simmons’s former husband, Russell Simmons, isn’t scheduled to attend as yet, which is unusual, because this is a party and cameras will be there. But her current beau, the actor Djimon Hounsou, will be there (what an upgrade!) Meanwhile, perma-perky TV blonde Ali Wentworth and Law & Orderer Mariska Hargitay co-host a family fair in support of the Children’s Museum of the East End, so that the museum may have money to run educational programs year-round. (Wait, but there are no people there after Labor Day, right? Just tumbleweeds and boarded-up mansions.) Ask Ms. Hargitay how she feels about her eighth consecutive Emmy nomination! Ask Ms. Wentworth, uh, why the first Google auto-fill suggestion for her name is “Ali Wentworth puffy eyes”?
Social Life party, Social Life Estate, by invitation only; Children’s Museum of the East End party, 376 Bridgehampton / Sag Harbor Turnpike (Bridgehampton), 10:30am to 1:30pm, visit cmee.org for tickets and information.
Sunday, July 24
Club Wed
Does the air smell sweeter today? Are Tiffany-blue ribbons littering the gutters and strains of “Here Comes the Bride” drowning out your brunch conversation? While we’re shuffling out of bed in the direction our first bloody Mary of the morning-noon-early afternoon hours, gay couples will be applying for their marriage licenses—same-sex marriage goes into effect today statewide. The city clerk’s offices will be open on this Sunday, in an unusual step that either will ensure that you, gentle affianced reader, can wed just as soon as possible—as long as you’re one of the 764 couples that win the lottery established by Mayor Bloomberg to protect the beleaguered city clerks from repetitive-stress disorder. If you lose the lottery, you may be spared the awkward conversation you thought you could save for Monday, the usually-reserved-for-straights “where is this going” talk—eek! If you haven’t had that conversation yet, Mr. or Ms. Long-Term Relationship, you’d better, before you’re dragged to the city clerk’s office on a sunny Sunday. Maybe you’d be happier meeting us for brunch after all!
Clerk’s offices in all five boroughs will be open to issue marriage licenses to lottery winners; register at nyc.gov or by calling 311 between 12pm on July 19 and 12pm on July 21.
Monday, July 25
Zach Stage
The theater, such a welcome landing pad for down-on-their-luck stars. Broadway’s always been a regular boulevard of second chances. Hiya, Brooke—how’s Morticia treating you? Christie! How’s the weather in Chicago? Zach Braff, the wunderkind behind our precocious niece’s favorite DVD, Garden State, did these thespians one better, writing the play All New People for Second Stage Theatre. (It’s Off-Broadway—all the better for this artsy fellow!) The work is about New Jersey (of course) during a desolate winter of the soul (ditto). Tonight’s opening and cast party will settle for all time all of our pressing questions about Mr. Braff’s old TV series, Scrubs—and help us figure out if, like plays, the personae of serious actors can have second acts!
All New People opening night, Second Stage Theatre, 305 West 43rd Street, curtain at 7pm with cast party to follow, invitation only.
Tuesday, July 26
Rockin’ Robbins
Once upon a time, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon were the standard-bearers for liberal moviegoers who liked their popcorn with a side of advocacy. Their ribbons! Their speechifying! Their his-and-hers Oscars! Their usually-pretty-decent-and-always-extremely-tasteful movies! That era is over—Ms. Sarandon, having switched careers from actress to some sort of sexy-grandma Ping-Pong investor, is frolicking around town with a pair of skinny jeans and a paddle, and Mr. Robbins is now, it would seem, a rock star. His band, Tim Robbins and the Rogues Gallery Band, a soi-disant “rousing gypsy Americana” group, perform at Le Poisson Rouge tonight. (Russell Crowe’s Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts will be, in spirit, opening.) We may never get back the golden age of Sarandon/Robbins (it really was a Clinton Administration kind of love affair), but we’ll go a few stops on the 6 to hit Susan Sarandon’s Ping-Pong club after the concert.
Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, doors open at 6, show begins at 7, visit lepoissonrouge.com for tickets and information.
Wednesday, July 27
Call of Judy
We came back from the Hamptons after a weekend chockablock with TV stars—and find that the only thing worth doing in Manhattan of late is sitting in front of our TV! Nevertheless, we’re forcing ourselves out of the house to sit in front of a bigger screen, with even better air conditioning, to the summer-long Judy Garland retrospective at the Paley Center; today’s screening of Judy highlights includes an episode of The Sammy Davis, Jr., Show and The Ed Sullivan Show as well as Ms. Garland’s own variety show. Out of those three, we’ve heard of one! But a museum of TV feels a bit more virtuous, as a place to spend hours watching old talk shows, than a living room. If you’re a member of the, well, specific target audience, go ahead and bring your husband (that is, if you went through with it)!
Paley Center, 25 West 52nd Street, 12:30pm, visit paleycenter.org for more information.
