Showbiz411

Hurricane Sandy is shutting down New York’s glittering social life for a couple of days. The first casualty: super producer Nile Rodgers’ annual We Are Family Foundation dinner and concert. Rodgers and wife Nancy Hunt were scheduled to salute Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, for their charitable work with the Rainforest Foundation. Needless to say, all the tables were sold out. Sting was supposed to perform with Rodgers and his famed group, Chic. Alas, the event at the Hammerstein Ballroom was postponed last night “until the earliest possible date.” The We Are Family Foundation was born right after September 11, 2001 when Rodgers and Hunt put together a charity single version of his “We Are Family” with Diana Ross, Patti Labelle, and dozens of other stars. The foundation is for racial tolerance, but has also been very effective in building schools in Third World countries.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.