Hungry for power
IF ONLY THE TABLES COULD TALK.
It was the society event of the year when New York’s rich and powerful gathered at the WaldorfAstoria on Thursday to kibbutz with church leaders at the 67th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner. Timothy Cardinal Dolan maintained a holy presence, sitting between President Obama and GOP nominee
Mitt Romney (r.). Just two days earlier, the candidates had been at each other’s throats in a contentious debate.
But the guests of honor weren’t the only strange bedfellows. Best-selling author Mary Higgins
Clark had a great view — of the back of Sen. Chuck Schumer’s head, as she sat thisclose to the fiery Democratic leader and just inches from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Only a few seats down, Edward Cardinal Egan maintained an angelic
peace between Mayor Bloomberg and
Gov. Cuomo.
“It’s a very formal event, but the idea is to have fun,” the Waldorf
Astoria’s catering guru, Jim Blauvelt, tells Confidenti@l. “It’s not your average evening because of who’s there,” said the executive, who has worked 32 of the exclusive dinners.
At the back of the sprawling dais, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, PR mogul Howard Rubenstein and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly were seen chatting quietly among themselves. Just below them sat Daily News
Chairman & Publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman,
next to Bishop Nicholas
DiMarzio, the bishop of Brooklyn. Nearby sat CNBC Money Honey
Maria Bartiromo, next to a rival, Fox News chief Roger Ailes. And he was only two seats away — by any account uncomfortably close — to MSNBC host Chris
Matthews.
Nearby was daytime talk show host Katie Couric, who kept her fans abreast of the goings-on. She tweeted at one point, “Who are these guys checking me out at the Al Smith dinner? Yeeesh!” With it, she posted a photo of Romney, Dolan and Obama looking at her and smiling.
Even though the cheapest seats went for a whopping $2,500, the demand to rub shoulders with the upper crust prompted the hotel to boot an orchestra, which had been booked to play classical music, to make room for extra seats.
The band was replaced with a recording, Blauvelt said.