Bunch of Bozos

(Top Left: Allyson Jaffe, Beth Franklin, Marci Katz, Pam Mittleman, Kelly Gordon and Lauren Siff ; Top Right: Jonathan Stearns, Jose Menoyo, Jason Silberman and David Borden; Bottom Left: A Big Apple Circus clown with Rachel Gilli and Lauren Rosen; Bottom Right: Lisa Hughes with Big Apple Circus clowns) Photo Credits: Morgan LaForge

Anyone who ever dreamed of running away and joining the circus would’ve had their fantasy fulfilled at Under the Big Top, the Children’s Hospital League gala held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.

Guests were greeted by a ringmaster on stilts, and clowns in both the literal and figurative sense populated the cocktail reception, where a giant sculpture of an elephant balancing on a ball dominated the bar. Prominent among the throng: Channel 4 hottie Lisa Hughes and her shutterbug husband, Mike Casey, enchantress Elizabeth Georgantas, the radiant Andrea Rittenberg Segel and her other half, Jay, the devilishly handsome Alex DiPietro and his gorgeous brunette bride, Lindsey, eminence grise Evan Kushner, blond bombshell Kat VanDernoot, party pair Lynne and Gary Smith, co-chairs Rachel Gilli and Lauren Rosen, and one woman who said, “Clowns freak me out. I’m not sure how I’m going to make it through this evening.”

After passed apps that included corn dogs, dinner was served in the ballroom, although there was one attendee who said, “I’m on a strict cotton candy and vodka diet.” The live auction, which included a biking trip through Bordeaux and a visit to the annual Easter egg hunt at the White House, raised a huge amount of money, and then the dancing started, which prompted the following remark: “This is just like my bar mitzvah…except I can drink legally and I actually stand a chance of seeing a woman’s breasts at the end of the night.”

With a Side of Humble

(Left: Peter Bishop, Randi Cutler, Charlie Baker and Kate Walsh; Middle: Bryan Rafanelli and Gordon Hamersley ; Right: Paul, Pamela, Ashley and Wesley Karger ) Photo Credits: Atlantic Photo Service Inc.

Chew on this: The Dow Jones has almost doubled in the past decade, but one in five American children are hungry. That disparity is the tip of the iceberg that the guests at Food for Thought floated on while raising money for the Grow Clinic at Boston Medical Center.

Held at the Mandarin Oriental, the annual dinner is both a major reality check and a major good time, attracting a big-hearted crowd that included the likes of Boston’s answer to Mother Theresa, Dr.
Deborah Frank, supermodel-in-hiding Randi Cutler and the chrome-domed Joel, most of the Belkin mishpucha, the achingly lovely Amy Fisher, dizygotic do-gooders Paul and Wesley Karger with their beautiful brides, Pamela and Ashley, emcee extraordinaire Heather Unruh, silver fox Michael Winter and his foxy wife, Deb Goldberg, the ethereal Mary Woolfson, ambassador Alan Solomont and the delightful Susan, Chestnut Hill chatelaine Nancy Adams and the dashing Scott Schoen, bedazzling Toni Dixon and her hubby, George, impresaria extraordinaire Marti Jones, the magical Linda Matzkin, yummy mummy Molly Schoeck and numerous equally sparkly others.

True to the spirit of the evening, the centerpieces were made of vegetables that would be repurposed for the Grow Clinic’s food pantry, but not before one guest sat down, put his napkin in his lap and said, “Is this a DIY salad bar?”

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

(Left: Kitty and Michael Dukakis ; Middle: Courtney and Michael Forrester and Wendy Shattuck ; Right: Julie Crockford, Malcolm Rogers and Ben Taylor ) Photo Credits: Roger Farrington

If you like seeing your name on public things, going into politics is a fairly sure bet—but when you’re as modest as Michael Dukakis, it’s simply an occupational hazard. The former governor and presidential candidate was honored at An Emerald Evening, a cocktail reception hosted by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Spotted mingling among all the old masters: board chair Ben Taylor, museum grand poobah Malcolm Rogers, mega-philanthropists Wendy Shattuck and Sam Plimpton, the soignee Jane Roy, uber-babe Tatiana Webb, power chick Geri Denterlein and her other half, legendary journalist Jack Thomas, his former compatriot Tim Leland with the always stunning Julie Hatfield, and so on and so forth.

There were glowing remarks from a variety of distinguished people, and it was announced that Riverside Park in Brookline will be renamed in honor of the governor this spring, which prompted one attendee to grumble, “Yeah, but first we have to get through the goddamn winter.”