Monday, December 3rd

Meredith Bryan — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:27:09 -0400

Where writers go to drink have sex and gather material for blogging about how they drank and had sex at a writers’ colony—i.e., the MacDowell Colony—hosts a Centennial Gala at the Roseland Ballroom, featuring works of art and literature produced at the colony. The juicy, delectable Rachel Weisz reads from Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones (which Ms. Weisz is currently filming in Connecticut), Elaine Stritch—in her trademark man’s shirt and tights, we hope!—reads the late Spalding Gray’s Monster in a Box, about his experience performing Our Town on Broadway. (Mr. Gray was a MacDowell Fellow; and Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town at the colony.) The endearing Calvin Trillin hosts, and honorary co-chairs include Kevin Kline, Blythe Danner, and the lovely Jane Alexander, who told us about her favorite MacDowell work. “You can’t beat Porgy and Bess in my mind,” she said. Ms. Alexander said she first became familiar with MacDowell when she was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and “had occasion to visit MacDowell with Bill Clinton and present it with the National Medal of the Arts.” (Wait, Clinton visited MacDowell? Now that would be a novel worth reading!) Ms. Alexander stars in HBO’s icky-sex-fest Tell Me You Love Me. “I’ve had a pretty extraordinary response walking down the streets of New York,” she said. “Younger women come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for letting the world know that women over 60 are still interested in sex.’” Phew! Meanwhile if you’re courting a foodie or a foodette, take him or her to the Union Square Barnes & Noble, where culinary cuties Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman discuss tasty stuff to place in your pot.

[MacDowell Colony Gala, Roseland Ballroom, 6:30 p.m.; Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman, Barnes & Noble, 33 East 17th Street, 7 p.m.]

Observer » Monday, December 3rd

Monday, December 3rd