I’ll Have What She’s Having

(Left: New Kids on the Block at the Sense-ation gala; Right: Wyc Grousbeck at the Sense-ation gala)

Adversity makes for strange bedfellows, like Mass Eye and Ear and New Kids on the Block, who teamed up to pull off Sense-ation, a blockbuster gala at the Westin Copley Place.

Seen hangin’ tough were such boldfaced names as North Shore newlyweds Christina and Peter Townsend, brunette beauty Kimberly Kosanovich and her other half, Milan, blond PR babe Kelley Doyle, Celtics grand poobah Wyc Grousbeck, fashionista Elisha Daniels, Perkins cutie Marilyn Rea Beyer, Boston booster Dot Joyce, and one person who, after inquiring why NKOTB were performing and being told that Joey McIntyre’s son has a hearing deficit, asked, “So is that why there are earplugs on the table?”

The evening raised a cool $1.6 million, and the video screen running the entire length of the ballroom prompted one man to ask his wife, “Can I get one of those for the house?”

However, the evening’s highlight was undoubtedly a woman who looked to be in her 80s and went full-on teenybopper when the band took to the stage, prompting someone to say, “She’s clearly on the right stuff.”

Repurpose, Reuse, Recycle

(Liz Walker at the Silent Spring Gala)

There’s a certain irony in the Silent Spring Institute’s name, given that its mission is to make a lot of noise about environmental factors that contribute to breast cancer and other women’s health issues.

That said, its annual gala, held at the Royal Sonesta, attracted a well-spoken, well-dressed and well-heeled crowd that included the likes of uber-philanthropist Ted Cutler and his luscious daughter, Ellen Calmas, real estate titan Arthur Winn, BJ’s CEO Laura Sen, honorees Enid Shapiro and John Erban, hipster doctor and keynote speaker Siddhartha Mukherjee, Greater Boston Food Bank head Catherine D’Amato, city councilor Josh Zakim with pretty young thing Grace Rosenthal, unapologetic Mets fan Ellen Grubert, Empiriko CEO Pam Randhawa and one woman who said, “It’s hard to get my sister-in-law out of the house on school nights,” to which a friend responded, “God bless her; I can’t wait to get away from my kids.”

However, the evening’s funniest exchange came when a man complimented a woman on her outfit and she replied, “Thanks. And if you come to this event next year, you’ll see it again.”

License and Registration

(Left: Joe Ferra and Nancy Stuart at the Dream Together Party; Middle: David and Terry Wilkins with James O’S. Morton at the Dream Together Party; Right: The Beano Boyz Crew at the Dream Together Party)

Minus the Village People, pretty much everyone who’s anyone was there when the YMCA hosted its Dream Together Party at the Four Seasons.

Present and accounted for: ubiquitous banking panjandrums Rick Musiol and Denise Leyhe, the absurdly handsome Bobby Kleinau with stunner Ali Dallaire, Raytheon bigwig David Wilkins and his wife, Terry, the hale and hearty Mike Daley with his other half, Janet, real estate mack daddy John Fallon, power titan Tom May, marketing and PR guru Tara Murphy, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley, uber-lawyer Bob Popeo, and so on and so forth.

Drinks in the Aujour’dui space were followed by dinner in the ballroom and a performance by the Beano Boyz Crew—the brainchild of New Edition member Michael Bivins—and the evening raised more than half a million bucks.

The only downside: The seizure-inducing blinking blue rings that served as raffle tickets. As one guest put it, “I keep thinking I’m getting pulled over by the police.”

Please Hold

(Janusz Mazon, Anaïs Chalendard, John Neumeier, Lasha Khozashvili, Ekaterine Chubinidze and Paulo Arrais at the ballet)

At the opening night of Boston Ballet’s ravishing production of Third Symphony of Gustav
Mahler by John Neumeier, guests entering the Opera House were informed by ushers that the performance would be an hour and 45 minutes without intermission.

“That long without a pee break?” complained one attendee. “They should be selling Depends at the concession stand.”

Once you added in the standing ovation, however, the evening clocked in at around two hours and 15 minutes. And on her way out, the same woman said, “I take it back. The concession stand should be selling Kleenex.”