April 29 – Britain’s Princess Anne was all over New York today, in Harlem visiting with children, at a British tourism agency, and dedicating a garden to the English citizens lost in the World Trade Center bombing. Note the gloves. Very proper.

City Harvest honored photographer Timothy White and actor Harrison Ford at their Practical Magic Ball. Susan Sarandon and Ford’s girlfriend Calista Flockhart were on hand. White shoots movie posters, and has gotten high profile friends like Ford, Sarandon and Whoopi Goldberg to do ad campaigns for City Harvest, a food distribution charity.

Actress Tara Reid was leaving the Bryant Park Hotel as we entered for the premiere party for the film The Dancer Upstairs. Based on Nicholas Shakespeare’s book, the film stars Spanish actor Javier Bardem, and is John Malkovich’s directorial debut.

April 28 - The Costume Institute Gala unleashed a frenzy of pent-up glamour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, since they skipped it last year, post 9/11. The new exhibition, Goddess, showcases ancient Greek-inspired clothing throughout the ages, and so there were lots of draped gowns on an endless stream of goddesses from the worlds of Hollywood, fashion and society.

Gucci’s Tom Ford told us to wait and see the dress he’d designed for gala co-chair Nicole Kidman. Kidman did look smashing in the dress, and she accessorized with Academy Award winner Adrien Brody on her arm. Other cute couples were Dolce & Gabbana, Stella McCartney and Kate Hudson, floppy-haired David Bowie and Iman, Clair Danes and Selma Blair and Valentino and Heidi Klum. One happy couple may be expecting: Actress Angie Harmon was with pro football player husband Jason Sehorn, and told us, “This is the baby’s first press line”, but didn’t elaborate.

For $3500, the price of a ticket to the gala, guests felt like deities, dining on lobster, caviar and rack of lamb, in a room draped entirely in white velvet, with white carpeting. During dinner, a DJ was spinning when Diana Ross wasn’t singing. A dance followed with Ashanti belting out a few hits in The Temple of Dendur.

April 26 – At the White House Correspondents dinner in Washington D.C., actress Jennifer Love Hewitt was thrilled to meet U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen has the one body everyone wants to touch, but walked right past hand-held metal detector-wielding Secret Service agents. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told us he hoped we were shooting photos for Sports Illustrated. Dr. Ruth camped it up with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers and TV comic Drew Carey hung with presidential hopeful Al Sharpton. All of this might sound odd, and it is. We’ve never quite understood this annual event where news correspondents, Hollywood types, business tycoons, fashion models and politicians mix. But it is lots of fun. Bloomberg News threw a party to finish off the night.

April 23-24 – Madonna took some time off from publicizing her new album to celebrate Yehuda Berg’s new book, The 72 Names of God. Rabbi Berg is co-director of The Kabbalah Centre, of which Madonna is a disciple. The overbooked party was a less-than-serene madhouse, with many guests kept waiting outside. Inside, sipping red cocktails amidst blaring rock music were Maddie’s husband Guy Ritchie, fashion designers Roberto Cavalli, Catherine Malandrino and Mark Bouwer, Michael Douglas’ son Cameron, Molly Sims, Padma Lakshmi and Damon Dash. Sandra Bernhard, also a Kabbalah adherent, sported a denim jacket with sequined Jewish Star on the back. Kabbalah may offer just the message its celebrity followers need: in the gift bag, along with the colorful coffee-table-style book, was a long-sleeved black t-shirt bearing the phrase “no more ego”.

Sean Lennon and girlfriend Bijou Phillips showed up for the opening night of Dream a Little Dream, the play about 1960s pop group The Mamas and the Papas. Actress/musician Phillips is the stepdaughter of Michelle Phillips, a member of the group.

Independent film types were feted at the Risk Takers in the Arts Gala. Glenn Close, Kenneth Cole and author Walter Mosley lent their support at the event, hosted by the Sundance Institute.

Back to Madonna, she reportedly left Tower Records after signing CD’s for only about half of the 300 fans who had camped outside for days, but she mustered up enough energy to attend an after party.

April 21 – Many women may want to emulate the late style icon Audrey Hepburn, but Iman, Liv Tyler and Isabella Rossellini all looked quite chic at a gala benefiting an Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund charity. The fashionable crowd sipped cocktails at Sotheby’s amidst an exhibition of “time capsules” consisting of Ms. Hepburn’s personal items – letters, drawings, photographs, clothing and accessories. Other Hepburn belongings were auctioned off, including a Balthus drawing, a signed Cecil Beaton portrait of Audrey wearing a My Fair Lady costume, and a Givenchy ball gown she wore in the film Sabrina.

We found some well-known people at a small premiere screening of the 2002 film People I Know. Al Pacino, Kim Basinger, Ryan O’Neal and Téa Leoni star in the comedy/drama, scheduled for limited release in late April. Ethan Hawke, Christopher Walken, Barry Diller and his wife, fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg checked out the movie and chattered at the after party.

April 13 – Working in a family business is stressful, but when the family business is movie making, it’s only temporary. Three generations of Douglas’ – Kirk, Michael and Cameron – star in It Runs in the Family. Members of the clan on hand for the film’s premiere included Catherine Zeta-Jones (is she ever going to deliver that baby?), Kirk’s current wife Anne and ex-wife Diana Douglas, and Michael’s ex-wife Diandra Douglas. Non-family members in the movie are Bernadette Peters, Rory Culkin and Michelle Monaghan. Yoko Ono, Kathleen Turner and Mary Tyler Moore are unrelated to the film but were there anyway. Elvis Costello and jazz diva Diana Krall are not family, but are an item.

April 9 – 10 - Big happenings in the Big Apple the past two days. Hollywood types Richard Gere and wife Carrie Lowell, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Liev Schrieber and Julianna Margulies (are they dating?), Stanley Tucci and Edie Falco (dating?) and Chicago producer Marty Richards turned up to ogle Antonio Banderas in the Broadway musical NINE. Banderas’ wife Melanie Griffith stayed backstage but joined the crowd at the after party. Rave reviews.

At New York radio station 102.7 FM’s launch party, Mariah Carey’s handlers told security guards shooing away autograph-seeking fans, “Let them stay. We can’t afford the bad publicity.” Also on hand for the mayhem were country music superstar Shania Twain, Michelle Branch and fashion designer Betsey Johnson.

Some birthday parties are better than others. Willie Nelson celebrated his 70th with friends. His friends are Sheryl Crow, Shania Twain, Nora Jones, Leon Russell, Elvis Costello, Kris Kirstofferson, Lyle Lovett and other talented folks. They all jammed with Willie, and the Live and Kicking concert will be broadcast on TV. Oh, and Bill Clinton said a few words. And we were expecting cake and ice cream.