My Great Friend Jason

Last night was a magically-breezy evening in Battery Park City, (pictured below at sunset), the perfect temperature for dinner outside on the Hudson, the occasion being a 31st birthday party for my great friend Jason VanOra, a psychology professor at Kingsborough Community College. Over guacamole and chips, chicken quesadillas, and a chocolate brownie sundae, Jason, who looks about 22, made me feel a bit old, as I have a belt older than him! But I was very happy to celebrate, together with our close friends Peg and Beth.

Occasionally in life, you come upon someone who not only has great intelligence and charm, but also a warmly empathetic nature too. There’s an instant “click.” And that person, with whom you have great chemistry, gradually joins the category of “best friend.”

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Mario Buatta

I recently spent two incredible evenings with the legendary interior designer Mario Buatta, a longtime friend and frequent interview subject who appears in my upcoming book, Katie Up and Down The Hall. Mario stars in an especially fun chapter titled “Prancing With The Stars,” all about my dog’s tete-a-tetes with a host of celebrities, one of her favorite being Mario, the nation’s “Prince of Chintz,” the acknowledged master of the English Country style, his work often featured on the cover of Architectural Digest.

Mario is also a passionate lover of theater, comedy, cabaret, and any good performance in town. One recent night, he kindly ushered me backstage to greet Joan Rivers after one her hilarious performances at the West Bank Cafe, the proceeds of which go to her two favorite charities, Guide Dogs For The Blind and God’s Love We Deliver.

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Looped on Broadway

This past Saturday night I had a real treat, sitting second row center at the Lyceum Theater, seeing the great Valerie Harper in her Broadway tour de force as Tallulah Bankhead in LOOPED, a riveting one-woman (and two man) production with Harper “nailing every last laugh with a professionalism that the real Bankhead would surely admire,” wrote the New York Times.

Sitting with my best friend (and lawyer), Michael Gordon, I was amazed by Valerie’s virtuoso performance, gut-wrenching and compelling from start to finish. Although backstage afterward with Michael and me, she confided that she was fighting a cold and that an onstage coughing spell was not in the script, you’d never know anything was wrong, as she marshaled her forces with hilarious “dahlings” sprinkled over countless jokes. Supporting her in every possible way is her fantastic manager-producer-husband Tony Cacciotti, who hospitably welcomed us backstage after the performance. back links check Valerie was dressed down in slacks and a baseball hat as she greeted her fans outside the theater.

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Another Problem Caused by Deforestation

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