New York, May 26, 2009 – Racecar driver Helio Castroneves made the media rounds in Manhattan after winning his third Indy 500 race on Sunday.  The one-time Dancing with the Stars winner showed he’s still got it, kicking his legs with the legendary Rockettes dancers at Radio City Music Hall. 

Castroneves said that his Indy winning strategy was to “save fuel” during whole race, leaving him “clean air” for that final burst. 

The win was especially joyful for the Brazilian-born Castroneves, who just weeks before the Indy 500 was acquitted on tax evasion charges in a Florida trial. 

West Point, NY, May 23, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert Gates attended the 2009 U.S. Military Academy commencement in West Point on Saturday during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.  We noted that Secretary Gates was very accessible to photographers at the West Point graduation, and we wondered if that had anything to do with the change of administration – during the Bush administration, government officials for the most part turned a cold shoulder to the media at the West Point graduations.

Gates jokingly told the crowd that he’d been doing this long enough to realize that his speaking was keeping the graduates from partying.  The traditional hat-toss followed soon after.

At least Gates was on time for the graduation ceremony – a couple of days earlier, he arrived several hours late for the Salute to Freedom dinner aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan. 

New York, May 19, 2009 – Bette Midler had a perfectly rational reason to get rapper 50 Cent involved in restoring a park in his boyhood neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens.  “50 is an extremely generous guy and he’s really rich now, and he loves his neighborhood, so we pitched him this idea,” Midler told us at the New York Restoration Project spring picnic.  Midler is thrilled that Fitty was enthusiastic about her idea, especially in these tough economic times.  “He made a killing with that VitaminWater, which everybody knows about – I’m sure people are knocking on his door,” she deadpanned. 

Fitty says he was immediately sold on the project.  “When I got a chance to see some of the different things that [Midler] was doing, I wanted to be a part of it.  I was already making $1 million in donations per year through G-Unity Foundation, and then this was a way to have it directly affect people in the community.”

Alas, 50 and Bette did not sing a duet at the spring picnic, which was inside a tent in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan.  But we were treated to a surprise performance by Tony Bennett! 

Comic Judy Gold emceed, and Martha Stewart, Tim Gunn, Gayle King and In the Heights star Lin-Manuel Miranda laughed at Midler’s foul-mouthed fundraising schtick. 

New York, May 18, 2009 – That heightened sense of excitement among the glittering crowd at the American Ballet Theatre’s annual spring gala was due to a very special attendee, Michelle Obama.

Designer Carolina Herrera sponsored the ABT gala, drawing show biz personalities like Renee Zellweger, Mariska Hargitay, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Lorne Michaels, Iman, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos and Matt Lauer.  All were thrilled to be in the presence of the first lady.

Mrs. Obama spoke at the gala, and welcomed students from the ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School for their first-ever performance at the Metropolitan Opera House.  “This dance academy is a wonderful legacy for a woman who dedicated so much of her life to making arts and culture accessible for all,” Obama said of former first lady Onassis.  Jackie O’s sister, Lee Radziwill and daughter, Caroline Kennedy, were there. 

The ballet was the last stop on Mrs. Obama’s day in New York City.  Earlier, she cut the ribbon on the newly reopened American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

ABT photos: Caroline Torem Craig

New York, May 12, 2009 – “Thank you very much, Mr. Nicolas Cage; I’m very glad you are here today.  As soon as I saw you, I was thinking my daughters would have loved to have an autograph,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the crowd gathered in the delegates dining room on Tuesday evening, surrounded by artworks created by exploited Ugandan children for the Weclome to Gulu exhibition.  But Cage was not the center of attention this evening – he was only there to speak on behalf of the cause spearheaded by artist Ross Bleckner, who was formally sworn in as a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador at the benefit.  While Bleckner was expecting the ambassadorship ceremony, he was completely surprised when U.N. officials announced that that day was his 60th birthday, and presented him with a cake and led all of us in a round of “Happy Birthday.”  Ambassador Bleckner says he never mentioned that the ceremony fell on his birthday, but his friends apparently put the word out.   “I was not expecting that cake, that was a big surprise,” he said.

Wishing Bleckner well were Alec Baldwin, Joy Behar, country music star John Rich, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Francisco Costa and artists Brice Marden and Jenny Holzer.