New York, June 7, 2009 – The 2009 Tony Awards got off to a rollicking start with virtually everyone on Broadway joining in a chorus of Let The Sunshine In, followed shortly thereafter by Rock of Ages’ Bret Michaels getting smacked on the head by a descending stage set.  While Hugh Jackman may be the gold standard of Tony hosts, Neil Patrick Harris did an admirable job, although we kept wondering why his tuxedo was so shiny.  NPH walked the red carpet proudly with his partner David Burtka, as he does every year at the Tony Awards.

The three Billy Elliots David Alvarez, Kiril Kunish and Trent Kowalik won hearts with their tongue-tied acceptance speech, but they were blasé around Sir Elton John, who composed the score – because they’ve met him before.  Their Best Actor in a Musical win was historic, marking the first time that a Tony award has been shared by three people. 

Liza was happy, happy, happy in the press room, mugging with her Tony statuette.

Hollywood types like Dolly Parton and Will Ferrell thrilled the Broadway folks, but despite her lack of Broadway credits, everyone was swooning over Anne Hathaway all evening.  )Perhaps because Nicole Kidman, who was slated to appear, had to cancel.)

Tony Awards viewership was reportedly up this year, and that doesn't count the 1,000 people gathered in Times Square to watch the live simulcast.

New York, May 30, 2009 – Prince Harry’s first official visit to New York City culminated with the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic on Saturday. 

We spent an idyllic day sipping Champagne and watching the polo match in the sunshine on Governor's Island. Madonna, Kate Hudson, Chloe Sevigny, LL Cool J, Matt Lauer, Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan watched Harry’s Sentebale team triumph over Nacho Figueras’s Black Watch.

The match was a benefit for American Friends of Sentebale, a charity that Harry co-founded with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to support at-risk children in that African nation.

More from the polo match at NYMag.com.

New York, May 28, 2009 – Despite rain and fog, partygoers packed the rooftop of the Palace Hotel in midtown Manhattan shortly after 9:00 P.M. to witness the official lighting of the electric Burberry sign across the street, atop the fashion house’s new U.S. headquarters.   The Burberry sign became a part of the New York City skyline since the building at 444 Madison Avenue is one of only a few in the city zoned for such.

And so the rock band One Night Only blasted music as guests like Orlando Bloom, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Harry Connick Jr., Carla Gugino and Rose McGowan happily danced in the rain on the rooftop terrace.  Bloom laughed when we asked him a question.  “I can’t hear you,” he shouted.  “Honestly, I’m like, partially deaf.”   

Blake Lively, Penn Badgley and Justin Long arrived late, made a quick circle at the packed party and then decamped to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. 

Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey had sole discretion over how the sign would look.  “Nobody’s allowed to have a choice,” CEO Angela Ahrendts said firmly.  “[Christopher] controls everything the consumer sees.  As far as the brand is concerned, he can have whatever he wants,” she said.

New York, May 27, 2009 – Ladies really shined at this year’s FiFi Awards, the Fragrance Foundation’s annual honors.  We were relieved to learn that Ernest Borgnine does not have a fragrance on the market, but his lovely wife, Tova, does, and was nominated for a FiFi.  “This is not my night.  This is her night,” Mr. Borgnine happily informed us, although he couldn’t help taking just a little credit.  “Well, I helped her pick out the first perfume that got her started, and so I feel like a part of it,” he said, beaming. 

Ditto for Dustin Hoffman, who noted that for once it was he who was accompanying his wife to an award ceremony.  Lisa Hoffman has a growing fragrance business  “Being here is just beyond anything I’ve ever imagined,” she said.  She says Dustin doesn’t really wear scents.  “But he loves to smell it on me.”

And Paris Hilton was honored at the FiFi’s for her commercially successful fragrances.  “Fragrance is really a passion of mine.  It’s very exciting; every year it does so well,” she told us backstage, and added that it felt nice to receive the award. 

Presenters at the awards included Kate Walsh, Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige.  But men weren’t totally ignored: Marc Jacobs received a lifetime achievement award, and Sean “Diddy” Combs’s Sean John fragrance I Am King took top honors in the men’s luxe category. 

New York, May 26, 2009 – Racecar driver Helio Castroneves made the media rounds in Manhattan after winning his third Indy 500 race on Sunday.  The one-time Dancing with the Stars winner showed he’s still got it, kicking his legs with the legendary Rockettes dancers at Radio City Music Hall. 

Castroneves said that his Indy winning strategy was to “save fuel” during whole race, leaving him “clean air” for that final burst. 

The win was especially joyful for the Brazilian-born Castroneves, who just weeks before the Indy 500 was acquitted on tax evasion charges in a Florida trial. 

West Point, NY, May 23, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert Gates attended the 2009 U.S. Military Academy commencement in West Point on Saturday during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.  We noted that Secretary Gates was very accessible to photographers at the West Point graduation, and we wondered if that had anything to do with the change of administration – during the Bush administration, government officials for the most part turned a cold shoulder to the media at the West Point graduations.

Gates jokingly told the crowd that he’d been doing this long enough to realize that his speaking was keeping the graduates from partying.  The traditional hat-toss followed soon after.

At least Gates was on time for the graduation ceremony – a couple of days earlier, he arrived several hours late for the Salute to Freedom dinner aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan. 

New York, May 19, 2009 – Bette Midler had a perfectly rational reason to get rapper 50 Cent involved in restoring a park in his boyhood neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens.  “50 is an extremely generous guy and he’s really rich now, and he loves his neighborhood, so we pitched him this idea,” Midler told us at the New York Restoration Project spring picnic.  Midler is thrilled that Fitty was enthusiastic about her idea, especially in these tough economic times.  “He made a killing with that VitaminWater, which everybody knows about – I’m sure people are knocking on his door,” she deadpanned. 

Fitty says he was immediately sold on the project.  “When I got a chance to see some of the different things that [Midler] was doing, I wanted to be a part of it.  I was already making $1 million in donations per year through G-Unity Foundation, and then this was a way to have it directly affect people in the community.”

Alas, 50 and Bette did not sing a duet at the spring picnic, which was inside a tent in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan.  But we were treated to a surprise performance by Tony Bennett! 

Comic Judy Gold emceed, and Martha Stewart, Tim Gunn, Gayle King and In the Heights star Lin-Manuel Miranda laughed at Midler’s foul-mouthed fundraising schtick. 

New York, May 18, 2009 – That heightened sense of excitement among the glittering crowd at the American Ballet Theatre’s annual spring gala was due to a very special attendee, Michelle Obama.

Designer Carolina Herrera sponsored the ABT gala, drawing show biz personalities like Renee Zellweger, Mariska Hargitay, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Lorne Michaels, Iman, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos and Matt Lauer.  All were thrilled to be in the presence of the first lady.

Mrs. Obama spoke at the gala, and welcomed students from the ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School for their first-ever performance at the Metropolitan Opera House.  “This dance academy is a wonderful legacy for a woman who dedicated so much of her life to making arts and culture accessible for all,” Obama said of former first lady Onassis.  Jackie O’s sister, Lee Radziwill and daughter, Caroline Kennedy, were there. 

The ballet was the last stop on Mrs. Obama’s day in New York City.  Earlier, she cut the ribbon on the newly reopened American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

ABT photos: Caroline Torem Craig