The heady days are over.
Thursday night in Cannes, amFAR threw its annual gala. The party that once attracted Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, Sharon Stone, and Calvin Klein brought out a crowd of D list celebrities. All the big stars are gone. Stone, ever the wise woman, was the star of the Cannes red carpet all week but blew out of town before amFAR. She made the right decision.
In New York, the troubled Friars Club had a “roast” comedian Tracy Morgan at the former Ziegfeld Theater, now Ballroom. This was a rogue’s gallery of awfulness starting with Rudy Giuliani and Geraldo Rivera, followed by former “SNL” cast member Chris Kattan. No Tina Fey or Jane Krakowski from “30 Rock,” none of the “SNL” heavyweights. From the photos it looks a lot like the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Both organizations have been mired in controversy. amFAR is now under the aegis of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Festival. Contributions and grants are severely diminished yet salaries keep going up. Most of last night’s guests were models paid to be there. And as is now the custom, the group made no announcement today of how much money the evening raised. (They used to make these announcements immediately but that stopped a few years ago.)
The Friars have settled a $1 million sexual harassment lawsuit, fired their CEO after federal agents raided the place and he– Michael Gyure — was found guilty of tax fraud. They can’t re-open their restaurant because they don’t want to pay union fees to workers. Now they’re also suing Gyure (pronounced, ironically, “jury”).
