Nathan Lane, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick.

The reverberation of dinner chimes echoed through the stairwell of the Plaza as a tardy Shindigger rushed up the steps to the 28th Annual Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards on Monday evening. And there we found what we like to call a “celebrity boil,” as a multitude of cameramen and reporters besieged a trio of thespian besties: Sarah Jessica Parker, hubby Matthew Broderick and the evening’s performing arts honoree, Nathan Lane.

While the petite and camera-ready SJP graciously posed and purred in her vintage Oscar de la Renta dress, her husband looked on sheepishly and Mr. Lane seemed somewhat overwhelmed.

“It’s been a lot of hard work,” Mr. Lane told Shindigger about starring in the upcoming production of Douglas Carter Beane’s new play, The Nance, which begins previews on March 21. “We’re now going in our fourth week of the rehearsal.”

Would the legendary comedic actor be taking refuge from the Broadway stage this summer in the Hamptons, we wondered?

“I’m not going to be getting out there a lot,” he replied. Right now, he was simply enjoying the moment. “I actually didn’t even know [Guild Hall] gave awards. I didn’t know I was up for one!”

Lifetime achievement awards sound stuffy. And yet this affair was anything but. Snatching a glass of cabernet sauvignon, Shindigger assessed the environment of high-society doyennes and dapper men. The energy was regal, but loose. The profound waft of money in the room was overpowering, but inclusive. These were the mighty East Enders—patrons of the arts—and they were beyond marvelous.

Better yet: they knew it!

As the first course was served, the evening’s master of ceremonies, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Marshall Brickman, welcomed Lorne Michaels and Dan Aykroyd to the stage in order to present the lifetime achievement award for visual arts to John Alexander.

“Don’t let that East Texas accent fool ya,” joked Mr. Aykroyd, handing over the prize to the American landscape artist. “John is one of the most intelligent and sensitive, semi-articulate Texans on the planet.”

The razzing continued as writer/critic Ken Auletta presented the honor for literary arts to biographer Walter Isaacson.

“He’s also a little weird,” Mr. Auletta began. “He only urinates once a week ... He owns 15 identical suits and one tie.” (Setting the record straight, Mr. Isaacson told the crowd that “only about a third of that was true.”)

During a pause for dinner, Shindigger decided to wander the ballroom. We interrupted Carl Spielvogel, who was lecturing Cristina Greeven Cuomo about the greatness of America and the importance of international diplomacy.

“I have been going to the Hamptons since I was the premeditated thought of my parents,” giggled Ms. Cuomo, the editor in chief of Manhattan magazine, patting her tiered-lace Chanel dress. “Southampton is my hamlet! I love it out there.”

Of everyone present, Ms. Cuomo confessed that tonight she was most excited to be in the company of Mr. Michaels. “I’m a huge closet comedy fan. I love everything he does. 30 Rock—I can’t believe it’s over! Devastating,” She said, adding that her soon-to-launch glossy rag, Beach, is “going to have a great sense of humor.”

Before Shindigger could table dance anymore, Mr. Brickman was back at the podium. “I’m Nathan Lane. Don’t fuck with me! I’m a professional,” he teased, before recalling several entertaining experiences with Mr. Lane from their time spent working on the commercially successful disaster that was The Addams Family. He then handed the stage over to Tony-award winning director Jack O’Brien, who delivered a less profanity-laden introduction and presented Mr. Lane with his plaque.

(Meanwhile, Shindigger noticed an exceedingly late arrival, as the endearingly lissome Blythe Danner slipped her way to a head table.)

Rounding out the awards, Alec Baldwin presented a special award for leadership and philanthropic endeavors to former investment banker, American Ballet Theatre trustee and Guild Hall chairman Melville “Mickey” Straus, whom power publicist Peggy Siegal described as “the bravest person in the room.”

“He’s the most loved,” she said.

Shindigger passed on dessert but eagerly refilled our wine, as our tablemate, gala co-chair and c/o Hotels owner Jenny Ljungberg, explained one of the organization’s goals moving forward.

“[We want] to get a younger crowd to come to Guild Hall,” she said. “It has sort of a stuffy connotation and a stuffy feel, even though their offerings are anything but stuffy.”

To help further Ms. Ljungberg’s cause, Shindigger approached Ms. Parker and demanded to know if she had introduced her little ones to Guild Hall.

“We try to see and do as much as they offer, as much as life with children allows,” she said.

As the night was coming to a close, Shindigger swung by the bar for a final refill. Ms. Danner had the same idea, and so we asked why she had been so late.

“I was doing an Actors Fund benefit,” she explained with a smile. “I was the stage manager of the first act of Our Town, and then B.D. Wong is the second, and S. Epatha Merkerson is it in. She’s wonderful! We were laughing and laughing and having a good time, but I was able to slip away.”

We then babbled on about her summer plans and her return to Broadway. “I took over for Estelle Parsons,” she told us. “I’m going to be Matthew Broderick’s mother. It’s a whole new cast!”

Which sounded like nice work, if you can get it.

Adelina Wong Ettelson, Cora Cahan, Fiona Howe Rudin and Sarah Jessica Parker at the New Victory Theater.
(JONATHAN ZIEGLER/PatrickMcMullan.com)

It’s quite something to behold a bare-chested man jumping around in a cherry red kangaroo suit. As we entered the youthful domain of the New Victory Theater’s gala honoring the Australia Council for the Arts, there he was.

A hodgepodge of theater philanthropists and celebrities entered slowly behind us, passing not only kangaroo-man but an assembly of cast members from Melbourne’s Circus Oz, the current holiday show at the venue.

Liev Scrieber and Naomi Watts arrived with their opaquely blond brood. Sarah Jessica Parker sneaked largely unnoticed into a prime orchestra seat.

The spectacle finally got underway after a brief welcome from the New 42nd Street president Cora Cahan. Then the zany troupe of Circus Oz invaded the stage, flinging themselves into the air with gravity-defying acrobatics, dancing to hip-hop to their hearts’ content and zipping through short, klutzy comedy shticks.

After the show, guests shuffled in the chilly night air through the Times Square masses to the adjacent Liberty Theater. A handful of passersby were amazed to see the ever-so-petite SJP being joyfully escorted across the way by Ms. Cahan.

We chatted with event co-chair Adelina Wong Ettelson about the highs and lows of planning such an event this year. Her biggest headache? The boldface diaspora to Art Basel Miami Beach.

“Considering that there are so many things going on right now, we are so happy with the turnout,” she chirped, ironing out a crinkle in her gilded lace Valentino dress.

“We saw Liev and Naomi brought their kids,” Shindigger noted. “Did you?”

“Not brave enough,” laughed the mother of a two-and-a-half year-old and seven-and-a-half year-old.

We were surprised to see designer Isaac Mizrahi in attendance, as he darted past us to his table in the ballroom. Shindigger followed and asked him his favorite act from the circus. “The girl with the fabulous legs who juggled the balls and then juggled the table—that was very sick!” Mr. Mizrahi told us.

“Can you juggle?” we asked.

“No. I can’t juggle. I can barely walk. Are you kidding?” Neither can we, Shindigger thought, as another wine-clown presented us with more libations.

This might explain part of the reason we were so passionately drawn to the Persian rose hue of the scalloped-back Lanvin dress worn by gala co-chair Fiona Howe Rudin.

“Part of this is personal for me. I struggled in school a lot—I have ADHD—and I really found my voice through the arts. The arts really saved my life in a way,” she told us.

We were curious what this longtime New Yorker thought about all the gentrification in Times Square; the very space that the New Victory Theatre inhabits was once a burlesque and porno joint where Gypsy Rose Lee performed.

“My grandparents would never ever take me to 42nd Street or even Times Square,” Ms. Howe Rudin said. “I know from other board members that at the time, in the late ’80s, there were five to six felonies a day on 42nd Street. We can’t even, in today’s New York, remember how really dangerous a place this was and how different it is today.”

As master caterer William Curran’s crudités and prosciutto-wrapped asparagus starters were replaced with roasted meats and seared fish, Ms. Parker addressed the crowd.

“My family and I have been coming to the New Victory and the intimate performances spaces of the 42nd Street Studios for several years now,” she began.

“It was my mother, on the birth of her first grandchild, who became a subscriber. And with great fondness and vivid recollection of that, my own young children now mimic and recite moments and stories, and even lines—some to the point where you wish they would move on,” she said with a smile.

Meanwhile during the meal, Ms. Watts dished about her kids’ reaction to the show beforehand.

“I think they liked the humor and imaginative side of things,” she told The Observer.

“But I think some things went over their heads.”

Thestar of The Impossible also expressed excitement about upcoming projects. “The phone is ringing. As long as that’s happening, I feel blessed,” she said.

For a crowd full of parents with expectant children waiting at home, the night was late, and people gingerly began bidding each other “cheerio.”

They carried with them a few poignant words from Ms. Parker: “I was raised in a home where the arts were the most important part of our lives, and I want that very much for my own children.” She went on to explain that the challenge is a lack of resources, which is exactly what has brought such a philanthropic group of supporters to the gala.

“How amazing is it that in a city filled with cultural resources for adults, there is but one New Victory for kids and families? And how lucky for us and for New York City that’s it here?”

And how lucky for a bare-chested kangaroo that Shindigger stumbled out the door without making a drunken pass.

Sarah Jessica Parker (Getty Images)

Australia’s given us some of our best stars: Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Paul “Crocodile Dundee” Hogan, Cate Blanchett... So we’re eager to attend the New 42nd Street Gala, which is honoring the Australia Council for the Arts for creating theatrical works for young kids. (You don’t need to be in Perth to see them: the shows travel around the world.) The evening’s co-chairs include perpetual arts advocate and newly minted Glee star Sarah Jessica Parker and socialite Adelina Wong Ettelson; honorary chairs are Aussie theater-booster Hugh Jackman and his lovely wife.

The New Victory Theater, 209 West 42nd Street, 7pm, tickets and information can be found at newvictory.org.

Cipriani 42nd Street, 110 East 42nd Street, reception at 6:30pm, dinner and program at 7:30pm, after party at 10:30pm, tickets and information can be found at http://snowflake.unicefusa.org/snowflake-ball/

“This is my first Cosmo lunch; I’m reigniting them because Helen Gurley Brown used to do them,” Ms. Coles, wearing a sleek black sleeveless turtleneck and black trousers, told the Transom. As precious lunch-hour minutes ticked by, Ms. Coles herded the fun, fearless women into the dining room.

“I’m sorry if I look a bit tired. I have to be truthful, I’ve been up the last few nights with my biographer,” Ms. Coles quipped in her opening remarks. “I would ask you to re-engage with the magazine; over the next year, I’ll be making changes. You all think you are here for a free lunch, but of course you are not. I’ll be hitting all of you up for ideas, your advice, your tips for younger readers.”

At least among those assembled, the verdict seemed to be that Ms. Coles might spark new interest in the magazine. “I do read Cosmo now and again—not regularly, but now that Joanna is there, I probably will,” actress (and Jon Hamm companion) Jennifer Westfeldt said. “She’s been such a great supporter and friend, and I think she’s such a wonderful lady.”

“I don’t have a lot of time to read magazines, but with Joanna at the helm, I think it’s going to be really great and aggressive and smart and surprising,” said Sarah Jessica Parker.

Rose McGowan, meanwhile, thought aloud, “I wonder how Cosmo will change, because it’s totally been a slut magazine.”

Ms. Coles also took the opportunity to celebrate recently elected women. During her opening remarks, she congratulated New Hampshire Governor-elect Maggie Hassan, Hawaii Representative-elect Tulsi Gabbard, New York Representative-elect Grace Meng, and Connecticut Representative-elect Elizabeth Esty, all of whom spoke during the fish course.

At the tables, however, the conversation turned less political.

“Wasn’t there a Sex and the City where Carrie was wandering around Paris and she was depressed and lonely?” someone asked.

“Let’s ask Sarah,” someone else suggested, motioning to the next table.

“I wonder if guys even like it when you touch their perineum; I can never tell,” Ms. McGowan mused. “Someone should actually ask guys that.”

Ms. Coles? Are you listening?

Sarah Jessica Parker (Patrick McMullan)

“Sarah Jessica invited me,” said television personality Amy Sedaris. “I’ve never even been to the ballet!” The actress, who played Sarah Jessica Parker’s publisher on Sex and the City, was standing alone in the midst of a crowded cocktail party before the New York City Ballet’s Fall Gala at Lincoln Center last Thursday. Ms. Parker, one of the evening’s co-chairs and a friend of the guest of honor, tan and glam designer Valentino Garavani, had yet to walk the red carpet.

“I love the sets, though,” said the ballet neophyte, in a tea-length dress as starchy as a tutu. “But he just told me”—she gestured at a nearby party guest—“that the stage is very bare tonight!”

Ms. Sedaris had slightly more knowledge about the evening’s program than did broadcasting icon Barbara Walters. We asked her what her favorite ballet was. “Tell me what the ballet is tonight,” she told us gamely, “and I’ll tell you it’s my favorite!”

We inquired about the just-announced joint interview with Barack and Michelle Obama on The View the following week. Would Ms. Walters go hard or soft on the president and first lady? “Both hard and soft!” she told us. “We’ve been writing questions all day!

“You know, there are five women asking questions, and two interview subjects—both of them,” she continued, before the conversation was interrupted by a magenta-clad, jewel-bedecked interloper. “The bar would not serve me!” she shouted. It was Princess Firyal of Jordan.

“This is a reporter,” said Ms. Walters.

“So write that!” the princess cried. “Write that they are closed, that they would not even serve me two sips of water!”

We promised we would denote the bar’s closure at the very moment we glimpsed Iman snapping pictures with well-wishers. “Let’s do a prom photo!,” said a male friend of hers. We caught her as she entered the crush of people in the entryway to the bar area. “Follow me,” she exhorted, leading us to the quieter balcony, which overlooked a slew of people rushing through the lobby to claim their seats. Who were we to argue? We asked about her relationship with Valentino, the designer who’d crafted the costumes for the evening’s ballet. “He’s a great host. He makes sure a huge party feels like an intimate gathering. He has staff that helps him—but it feels as though he’s doing it all himself! There are people doing it, but he’s very involved.”

Anjelica Huston paused in her conversation with Ron Rifkin (who’d played one of Carrie Bradshaw’s Vogue editors, and who we later saw embracing Ms. Parker—she knows how to gather a posse!) to speak to us about Valentino, for whom she’d worked as a model in the 1980s. She was not wearing Valentino this evening. “The dresses were a bit small for me!” she explained. “These days, he’s designing for small Italian women.”

We’d gotten caught up chatting and had little time to tarry before the ballet began: rushing up the stairs to the first circle, we realized we were behind a group of men gathered around Ms. Parker herself (husband Matthew Broderick was absent, likely performing in his Broadway show, Nice Work If You Can Get It). The group moved as one—to a closed bar station so that Ms. Parker could grab a napkin to spit out her gum—then headed to the center of the first circle, where, all in a row, Iman, Valentino, Ms. Huston and Ms. Parker formed one very glamorous cheering circle. The ballet was preceded by a video in which celebrity friends who couldn’t be present testified to Valentino’s genius. Hugh Jackman, in a maroon henley, talked about how Valentino criticized his wardrobe; Meryl Streep read his name in an exaggerated Italian accent; and Rita Wilson commented on his impressive tan.

At intermission, we joined the crowd swarming outside—including Anne Hathaway, in near-transparent embroidered green Valentino. She recalled for us a Valentino party of past vintage—she’d been one of the attendees at his 40th anniversary celebration in Rome. “It was a very good party, with aerial ballet dancers,” the Les Miserables actress told us crisply. She’d first met the designer on the set of The Devil Wears Prada, at which time, we posited, she must have been relatively green.

“Quite,” she replied, turning away.

The curtain rose upon the magical second act, the world premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Bal de Couture, with elaborate black-and-white tulle gowns with hidden fuchsia lining. Valentino himself came out after the ballerinas’ bows to adjust a tutu’d black swan’s crown and announce, “The most important thing is that all of you came to see my clothes—but what is very important is being a part of the New York City Ballet.”

Immediately afterward, as patrons noshed on a dinner of lobster and salmon—and Valentino circled past our table declaring “Oh, I’m so happy!”—Ms. Parker addressed a small circle of reporters (she’d left her matching cape at her dinner seat, next to Bravo executive Andy Cohen, in order to accept thanks for hosting the event and circulate). Asked whether she wished to wear the Valentino ballet costumes she’d seen onstage that evening, she noted, “We all spend a lifetime looking at things we can’t have—that’s the beauty of having eyes. That’s why there’s museums, theater, music!” She said Valentino had first invited her to dinner five or six years ago, and that he was, indeed, a wonderful host.

Valentino

Another New York cultural institution begins its season tonight: the New York City Ballet’s Fall Gala honors the designer Valentino Garavani (we don’t hear that surname often!). The designer has crafted costumes for three ballet performances tonight, including one world premiere. Turning up to support the ballet, Valentino, or simply their own right to have a good time are event co-chair Sarah Jessica Parker, Barry and Diane (once again!), Carolina Herrera, and Linda Evangelista. Perhaps the most unexpected guest? Andy Cohen, who’s supposed to be hosting his live Bravo talk show at eleven sharp—hurry home to the studio, Andy, before your limo turns back into a pumpkin!

Lincoln Center, cocktails at 5:30pm, performance at 7pm, supper ball at 9pm, tickets and information can be found at nycballet.com.

Jon Hamm with a mustache. (YouTube)

— Mindy Kaling was spotted pleading with John Mayer to give his expert opinion on her love life at Koi in the Trump SoHo. We can only speculate that his answer involved calling her genitals racist.

— Jon Hamm plays Aimee Mann's director in her new music video for Labrador:
http://youtu.be/XA1cX-wgMdM

— A bevy of musical greats made a show last night in memorial of Broadway composer Marvin Hamlisch. Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Aretha Franklin and Itzhak Perlman performed for VIPs including Mike Nichols, Nancy Pelosi, Regis Philbin, Susan Lucci, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alan Cumming, Sheldon Harnick, Mary Rodgers and Paul Shaffer.

— Eva Longoria and Mark Sanchez were spotted holding hands while leaving a romantic dinner at Daniel. You know, if you care about that kind of thing.

— And in chair-related news, Clint Eastwood feels bad about making fun of the president, and calls himself a Libertarian. Also he has no respect for tables.
http://youtu.be/7mIC8Nw7LqI

Are they at it again?

We could discuss the upcoming election, or our broken health care system, or the dearth of affordable housing in New York, but there is a more pressing issue—one that demands discussion now: where will Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick move next?

The couple listed their Village townhouse just last week and the speculation is already underway. Never mind that they already own another Village townhouse on Charles Street that was magnificent enough to host both the President and Anna Wintour. Clearly, the fact that the couple is selling 20 East 10th Street, which they bought in 2011, is a manifestation of their insatiable search for real estate perfection rather than a desire to stay put.

For whatever reason—perhaps because we spent so many years watching Carrie's pursuit of true love?—her real estate hunts, both real and rumored, never fail to capture our collective imagination.

The most recent development, as reported by Brownstoner, is that the couple bought a $4 million new-build townhouse in Brooklyn Heights. The most likely candidate would seem to be the single-family townhouse on the corner of State and Hicks. (If so, the sale has not yet been registered with the city as there are no records on the new brick townhouse at 314 Hicks Street.) But then, SJP house hunting rumors are as common in Brooklyn as artisanal pickles. Case in point: Brownstoner notes that this purchase is definitely not the same as the two Brooklyn Heights townhouses that the couple was rumored to have been buying on State Street before the deal fell through.

Ms. Parker and brood were said to have spent three years looking before buying the not-quite-right townhouse at 20 East 10th Street, considering everything from a Central Park West co-op to a penthouse at 54 Bond Street. Are the Parker-Brodericks incapable of settling down? Still looking for the one? Or did they find true love with the Charles Street townhouse where they've lived all along? We'll just have to wait for the next suspicious LLC to hit public records.

kvelsey@observer.com

This is not the Village townhouse where they hosted President Obama. The couple has two Village townhouses, you see.

Although they already owned a townhouse on nearby Charles Street, Ms. Parker and Mr. Broderick bought the townhouse in March of 2011 under The Heirloom Trust for $18.9 million, selecting the five-bedroom after a lengthy search for the perfect city perch. But allegedly, they never moved in and now they've listed it for $24.9 million with Sotheby's brokers Stephen McRae and Debbie Korb. Are they trying to collect a celebrity premium for having spent the last year-and-a-half there but not there?

We can certainly see how Ms. Parker and Mr. Broderick fell for a spread with seven working fireplaces, a "massive, beautifully-detailed double parlor" and a Boffi kitchen with direct access to the garden for dining al fresco. Although don't expect any of the endearing wackiness that SJP often displays in her clothing choices. We suspect that Ms. Wintour may have helped her decorate. It certainly has the sheen of icy perfection that the editrix is known for. Maybe it made Ms. Parker long for her other home nearby?

And now we can all get back to our favorite activity—speculated on where SJP and her brood will move next. Park Slope? 15 CPW? Into her BFF Miranda's building? Or staying where they are?

kvelsey@observer.com