There are certain dinner invitations that are accepted immediately and calendars re-arranged to accommodate those dates, if there was a conflict previously on the calendar.
Last night, in celebration of the upcoming film WOMAN IN GOLD, businessman, philanthropist and art collector Ronald Lauder and his wife Jo Carole—hosted such an event for the personnalité mundane.
The private dinner---at Lauder’s Neue Galerie in honor of Helen Mirren---followed the screening of the film at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
WOMAN IN GOLD stars Academy Award winner Helen Mirren. The film follows the true story of Maria Altmann (played by Mirren), who fought to reclaim Gustav Klimt’s infamous painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer back from the Austrian government.
The painting, which is of Altmann’s aunt, had been originally taken from her family by the Nazis. Altmann won her case and was given the painting back; it was eventually bought by Lauder, who is also portrayed in the film, and hangs today in the Neue Gallerie.
Gathered with the famous Klimt painting overlooking the private dinner guest included Helen Mirren, Taylor Hackford, Meryl Streep, Don Gummer Leonard and Judy Lauder, Barbara Walters, Clifford Ross, Queen Noor of Jordan, Lally Weymouth, Leon and Debra Black, director Simon Curtis, Emily Rafferty (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Glenn Lowry ( MoMA) and Hosts Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder along with their daughter Aerin Lauder (their daughter).