If a celebrity doesn’t show up at an event, did it ever really happen? Tuesday night, guests at the Gucci-sponsored Associates Committee of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Fall Party had a chance to find out when Eva Mendes, Kerry Washington, Camilla Belle and Evan Rachel Wood neglected to fulfill their hosting duties at the glam fete. The verdict? The crowd, including Shoshanna Gruss, Julie Macklowe, Jill Kargman, Eleanor Ylvisaker, Jen Brill and honorary hosts Dree Hemingway and Amber Heard (with girlfriend Tasya Van Ree) certainly didn’t notice: the sold-out affair had the Four Seasons Grill Room so jam-packed, people could barely get their hands on a beverage.
“This is a heavy drinking crowd,” quipped one woman as she tried in vain to push her way toward the bar.
And it took a good 10 minutes of flashing lights to finally usher the masses into the Pool Room for a seated dinner of burrata and beets and filet mignon.
A live auction of five lots, including tennis with John McEnroe that went for $15,000, was followed by dessert, including large swirls of cotton candy decorated with candied violets. Then a Four Seasons employee inexplicably turned on what looked like a jacuzzi jet in the central pool.
“Wow, they’re getting the party on by turning on the hot tub,” laughed Van Ree as many did just that on a dance floor erected in the Grill Room.