Olivier Nakache, Meryl Streep, Omar Sy, Eric Toledano and Mr. Weinstein.

As we walked out of Cipriani 55 on Wednesday, we were overwhelmed with confusion. What had just happened? Smiling, we headed for a cab, trying to piece together some sort of cohesion.

“We are getting people out of wheelchairs and walking," I recalled  Matthew Reeve saying at the beginning of the evening, poised on the red carpet of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation annual Magical Evening. 'That involves fundraising.”

“Its a wonderful chance to celebrate what the organization has accomplished and remind everyone what needs to be done, whilst remembering my father and step mother’s legacy.”

With the evening's noble purpose clearly set in our minds, we were ushered to our tables.

Good Morning America anchors Josh Elliot, Sam Champion and Lara Spencer kicked off the proceedings with a champagne toast. The taste of bubbly fresh on our lips, the presentation of the Christopher Reeve Spirit and Courage award soon followed.  We were inspired by James Dasavano's struggle to reverse his mother’s paralysis, a fete he accomplished with the help of his family and the foundation. Tears almost came to our eyes when we saw his mother walk beside him to the podium.

A little break in the ceremonies gave us time to gather our emotions and tuck into the starter and eyebrow-raising pop performance by Jason Derulo. “I suffered a broken neck when performing a routine back flip tuck preparing for my tour this year. When I heard that they reached out to me I said, 'absolutely.' I had to move a couple things around but I felt like nothing else was more important than this,”  Mr. Derulo told us, honored to participate in the evening.

After dinner we headed over to have a chat with masochistic magician David Blaine. When we got nearer we realized that he was eating glass to the audience of Meryl Streep and Harvey Weinstein. The night was careening into chaos. After Ms. Streep ran away in disgust we asked Mr. Blaine how he came to be involved in the organization.

“Want to see a trick?” he asked.

Please no, not the glass. Mercifully he pulled out a pack of cards and proceeded to perform a whirlwind of card tricks. “You can’t tell anyone about these tricks because they are going to go in my new show," he said as he pulled a folded four of spades from underneath my watch.

We suddenly heard Ms. Streep at the podium, poised beside Mr. Weinstein, the two having escaped Mr. Blaine to present an award to Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, the directors of the French box office hit The Intouchables. Ms. Streep almost gave the dagger shaped award to the producer Mr. Weinstein.

“Do I give to you now ... between the eyes?”

Do it Meryl. She didn’t and after a slightly unbelievable story about how he and Johnny Depp were the reason the handicap access bill was passed in the Senate, Mr. Weinstein handed off the award. Omar Sy, the lead in The Intouchables, gave an extremely moving speech which was soon followed by some more pop mayhem in the form of Mr. Derulo’s girlfriend Jordin Sparks. Earlier she had told us that “anytime I can be at a place where people are trying to make a difference or trying to change things I feel super. Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve are Superman and Superwomen so that is quite fitting.”

Her songs following us, The Observer headed for the door. Before we could exit, however, we were stopped by a camera crew for yet another Jersey reality show as they filmed what appeared to be two very tiny orange people. At that point nothing could surprise us.

Ms. Givens, for her part, has a powerful reason to stay in the city during the summer: she's a full-time, practicing associate attorney at the esteemed Cravath, Swain and Moore firm. Her brother, Matthew Reeve, has also been keeping busy: he's in a three-year graduate program at NYU, which he'll be leaving with dual Master's degrees in film and business, and which includes an intense summer session. "I just realized, I can't take any credit for this event in any way!" Mr. Reeve exclaimed. (A companion affectionately corrected him: "That's not true at all.")

When we asked Mr. Reeve what he'd been reading, he rattled off some very dry-sounding textbooks: The Independent Producer's Survival Guide; Basic Statistical Ideas for Managers. ("Great cure for insomnia," he offered.) Mr. Reeve is well-rounded, though; he said he'd also been reading Josh Waitzkin's The Art of Learning. "He was a former chess champion who then gave up professional chess and started tai chi," Mr. Reeve explained.

Speaking of memoirs, we also chatted with Francesco Clark, founder of the Clark's Botanicals skincare line, who's just released his own. Walking Papers, which details both the spinal-cord injury that left Mr. Clark wheelchair-bound and his painful, remarkable recovery process, arrived on American shelves June 3, and will launch in Russia, China and the United Kingdom in three weeks. The characteristically cheerful and polite Mr. Clark described his ordeal as, all things considered, a positive thing. "I'm getting better — I'm using my wrists now. I'm involved in a research study at MIT, a robotic research study," he said. "I don't know, I forget about my injury... life has to move on. And so my summer feels like your summer."

Apart from actor Hayden Christensen, the event drew mostly gorgeous media types: we spotted Louise Roe, erstwhile Olivia Palermo competition on The City and current host of The CW's makeover show Plain Jane, along with Allure editrix Linda Wells and men-about-town Peter Davis and Kristian Laliberte. But it was Paper's Mickey Boardman we couldn't help approaching; we were drawn to his jewelry. Over a lime-green polo shirt, Mr. Boardman wore an eye-catching, oversized green bib necklace.

Fenton, maybe?, we speculated internally, before Mr. Boardman beat us to the punch. "Joan Rivers for QVC!" he announced proudly. "My mom sent them to me. This color story is 'peacock.' I also have them in pink."