New York, 17 June 2008 – This year’s Whitney Art Party outdid itself, with a torrent of celebrities, art-world luminaries and fashion designers streaming into the Skylight Studios, downtown in trendy Shnot.  A burst of flashbulbs went off while we were chatting with Spider-Man star James Franco – first daughter Barbara Bush had arrived.  Sean Lennon, Monique L’Hullier, newlyweds Eli Manning and Abby McGraw, Sean Avery and Ivanka Trump were just a few of the other notable folks at the party. 

Many of the female guests wore the Herve Leger bandage dresses that Max Azria, the evening’s sponsor, revived – and they all pulled off the form-fitting frocks sensationally. Rocking a short white bandage dress, Rachel Bilson told us what she’d been up to while in New York – shopping in the meatpacking district that afternoon.   Gossip Girl star Michelle Trachtenberg talked up her line of jewelry, called Bella Veritas, that she makes on her dining room table.  “It’s all handmade by me, one of a kind pieces.  It just sort of started out as fun gifts for my friends and it escalated into we should sell this in stores”, she tells us. 

Eva Amurri collects black and white photographs, but has not worked up the courage to bid at a live art auction.  “I’d be too scared to, like I’d put my hand up when I wasn’t sure”, she said as she made her way through the cavernous space, eyeing possible acquisitions – this was a silent auction, after all.