New York, November 1, 2007 – While Cipriani Wall Street has been home to a slew of concerts featuring high-profile performers benefiting the Sarah Ferguson Foundation, Thursday’s La Dolce Vita bash bumped up the celebrity wattage in both the audience and on the stage.  This time several acts performed for the Duchess of York, including fellow Brit Natasha Bedingfield and culminating with a late, late (midnight-ish) show by Aretha Franklin.  The queen of soul complained about the chill in the room, but still delivered a powerhouse set that knocked the socks off of guests like Clive Davis, Brandy, Sex and the City hottie Jason Lewis and someone identified as Prince Abdullah of Dubai – a prince, how glamorous!

We had to laugh when reporters converged on Fergie - who had a very high-profile split with former husband Prince Andrew, complete with scandalous paparazzi photos – to ask her opinion on Heather Mills’ rant against the tabloid press over her divorce from Paul McCartney.  Ferguson’s advice to Mills was to suck it up. "If you are on the public stage, it's your public stage. Otherwise, don't be on the public stage”, she said.

Aretha Franklin photo: Caroline Torem Craig