New York, May 8, 2007 – Time magazine feted their 100 Most Influential people with a black tie gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center – conveniently located within the behemoth Time Warner Center in Manhattan. The room was filled with movers and shakers from Henry Kissinger to Cate Blanchett to Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang to publisher Arianna Huffington.

We asked Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera how she got ready for her evening as a newly anointed member of the influential. “I have hair and makeup people show up at my hotel room and fix me all up”, she said. Sir Richard Branson promised to refrain from his trademark stunts for the evening. "I’ve got a dinner jacket on – I’m behaving tonight. When you become influential, you become sane and conventional, and I’ve got to fit in", the Virgin founder told us.

Presidential candidate John Edwards kept quiet, making it clear that the evening was his wife Elizabeth’s time to shine as one of this year’s Time 100.

Not everyone on the influential list attended the gala. Martha Stewart perused the Time 100 list, naming those she’d most like to meet – Oprah Winfrey, Sacha Baron Cohen, Brad Pitt and Paul Allen – none of whom were there. Oprah’s sidekick, Gayle King, however, attended with Newark mayor Cory Booker – the pair had been spotted together several weeks earlier at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in D.C.