The 40th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame dinner and show ‘ held last night at the Marriott Marquis ‘ put to shame forever its much loathed rival, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In a three-hour show produced with panache by Phil Ramone ‘ who also served as announcer ‘ a cross-section of pop, rock, R&;B and country songwriters and performers took the stage and made magic.

Among them: the reunited Rascals, a trio that long ago stopped performing together and couldn’t even be seated together. But Felix Cavaliere and the brothers Eddie and David Brigati managed to put aside their differences for the first time in years. They played “How Can I Be Sure” and “People Gotta Be Free” from their halcyon days on Atlantic Records and won standing ovations.

They weren’t the only reunited group. Crosby, Stills, and Nash saddled up for a haunting “Helplessly Hoping” after James Taylor serenaded the crowd with several of their songs including “Teach Your Children” and “Love the One You’re With.”

Jon Bon Bovi and Richie Sambora gave two of the best speeches of the night accepting their award and playing “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Bon Jovi summed up the night when he said, “The business has changed a lot, but one thing they can’t take away is the song.”

It was a sentiment echoed by songwriter Paul Williams, now head of ASCAP, and Welsh singer Tom Jones, who received a citation for performing other people’s songs. Awards also went to pop team Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, whose hits included “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again.” They may have been the surprise stars of the night as they knocked out their own “You’ve Got Your Troubles, I’ve Got Mine” as if they were pop singers, not writers.

Broadway was represented by the composers of “Hair” and “Godspell.” For “Hair,” Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. reprised their 1969 hit with the Fifth Dimension of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” with cast members from the current Broadway revival leaping onto the stage and into the audience. They’d just finished their nightly show down the street.

Andy Williams

But the lump in the throat moment of the night really came when Andy Williams, who’ll be 82 this December, sauntered out to sing “Moon River.” Always a little square in the 60s and 70s, Williams has aged remarkably well. He was a little shaky when he first came out on stage, but within minutes he found his groove and sent “Moon River” sailing out over the audience. Even the hippest rock types couldn’t get over it.

And Motown was represented by the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the trio that wrote most of the hits by the Supremes and Four Tops. They left Motown in 1969 to start Invictus Records, where they had more hits with Freda Payne and the Honey Cone. At the time, their split from Berry Gordy was acrimonious. But time heals all wounds, so Gordy was there last night to toast them, and the guys ‘ Eddie and Brian Holland, and Lamont Dozier ‘ were happy to accept. Bebe Winans stood up for them, delivering a soulful rework of “You Can’t Hurry Love.”

Just as Gordy finished his presentation, Richie Sambora, singer Gavin DeGraw, and writer Desmond Child led their table loudly in a spontaneous singalong to HDH’s “How Sweet it Is (to be Loved by You).” Very cool. Elsewhere in the audience I spotted the Beach Boys’ Al Jardine, as well as Revlon chairman Ron Perelman, and a smattering of record company execs.’ In a much hobbled economy, it was to the credit of Hal David and Linda Moran, who run the organization, that the Marriott ballroom was full.

Luckily, the night was long on music and short on speeches. Richie Sambora said that when he met Jon Bon Jovi, he knew he had “it,” whatever “it” was. Rob Thomas jokingly asked Jason Mraz, winner of this year’s Starlight Award for a new generaiton songwriter, “to stop working. You’re too young and too talented.”

Tom Jones ‘ who’s just turned 69 and has grandchildren, he says, in their 20s ‘ sang “It’s not Unusual” and “Green Green Grass of Home” with as much exuberance as if it were 1965 and no time had passed at all. He got some rueful laughs observing: “Without the song, we’d just be box boys at Ralph’s Market.”

Clive Davis may have been “kicked upstairs” last year at Sony/BMG/Whatever Music but that doesn’t mean he’s gone gently into that dark night.

Quite the opposite. He’s more like the Dark Knight.

Davis, who’s in his mid 70s, looks like he will have the hottest fourth quarter in the music biz. Maybe ever.

His team at Arista/J Records is getting ready to unleash a barrage of releases by Davis’s biggest names all at once between September and Christmas.

First up is Whitney Houston’s comeback album, set for September 1st. The first single, written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster, is said to bring listeners to tears ‘ in a good way. The album also contains a hot single written and produced by Alicia Keys called “Million Dollar Bill.”

But then comes an avalanche of Davis’s big guns: Alicia has a new album herself, follow up to her monster hit, “As I Am.” Leona Lewis has her second American album, after “Bleeding Love” made her a superstar. Add to that new CDs from Carlos Santana and Barry Manilow.

Davis has been busy with some non Arista/J projects, too. Over at Sony Music, which is part of the conglom he’s now part of. Davis has exec produced Harry Connick, Jr.’s new album, which is said to be a breakthrough for the New Orleans actor-singer. “He’s going to be the new Frank Sinatra after this,” says a source.

In his spare time: wait, what spare time?

How hard is it to actually surprise a celebrity these days? The folks at RCA Music Group really tried hard last night, and it worked. They tossed’ a surprise party for Jamie Foxx on the third floor of the new Armani store on Fifth Avenue. It worked. When Foxx stepped off the elevator, he truly looked shocked.

The occasion was to give Foxx plaques for his mega-million selling album, “Intuition,” and its hit single, “Blame It.” You can see the star-studded video for that track here.

“Blame It” featuring T-Pain was No. 1 on the R&B charts for 12 weeks. Now it’s a pop hit. Foxx manages to fit all this in, mind you, between movies. He’s also a Best Actor Oscar winner. And he does a great Obama imitation.

He told a funny story last night in front of all the record company people who made “Intuition” a success, including his music manager Breyon Prescott and his everything-else manager Marcus King. He was on TV in “In Living Color” doing skits. He was playing a transvestite in a skit, but wanted to get a tape of his music to Teddy Riley, who was on the show that week.

(L-R) Breyon Prescott, Jamie Foxx, Marcus King

“I ran up to him in costume. He saw this big muscular transvestite coming at him, and he said, You know I feel very uncomfortable right now.”

Foxx noted that if he’d become a hit singer back then, his career would probably be over by now. “Instead, here I am.”

And here’s a little news: even though “Intuition” was released just this past December. and Foxx has plenty of singles left on it, he’s set to put a whole NEW album together come this December. If it’s half as good as the current CD, and the one before it, “Unpredictable,” we can’t wait.

And oh yeah: Clive Davis was not there because he’s working with Harry Connick, Jr. on an album that’s supposed to be “amazing.” Nevertheless, Jamie never forgets that it was Davis who put him on stage at his annual pre-Grammy bash a few weeks before Foxx won his Oscar for “Ray.” Foxx was a smash hit, and surprised the crowd as a musician and singer. The rest, as they say, is history.

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Steve Nash

Monday was a night full of surprise guests. Steve Nash, point guard for the Phoenix Suns, turned up with his wife, Alejandra, at a fundraising dinner for the new Ghetto Film School in the Bronx. The party, held at the Time Warner Center, was one of many this year to help get the high school off the ground come September. Nash, who’s 35, is smartly already looking to a future beyond basketball. He’s started a production company in Phoenix, and is making a documentary about Terry Fox for ESPN…Anderson Cooper also put in appearance ‘ he’s on the board of the Ghetto School, which is led by Joe Hall. Also on the board and very excited about the school: IFC Channel and Sundance Channel chief Evan Shapiro…

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Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend

Miramax Films gave a really nice premiere last night for Stephen Frears’s sexy new film, “Cheri.”

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After the premiere screening at the Directors Guild, the studio took over the Hudson Hotel and tossed a lovely get-together. Almost everyone came ‘ Frears plus cast members Kathy Bates and Rupert Friend. But star Michelle Pfeiffer must have decided it wasn’t for her. She came to the screening, took a bow at the start, then skipped out and was never seen again. Maybe she doesn’t like finger food.

The premiere did draw an eclectic crowd including Jean Reno, Dana Delany (on shore leave from “Desperate Housewives”), Bob and Lynne Balaban, and Donald Trump with wife Melania. Frears introduced the film, based on a novel by French legend Colette. As usual the director of “The Grifters” and “The Queen” ‘ among others ‘ has made a beautifully crafted, compelling piece of cinema. It’s almost like a sequel to his “Dangerous Liaisons,” except, as he pointed out to me, it’s not. It’s just that Pfeiffer is the star again, Christopher Hampton translated and adapted the story.

“The two have almost nothing to do with each other,” he told me. “When we made that movie, we were children.” It was 20 years ago, believe it or not. “This one was hard. It’s a chamber piece. And maintaining the tone was the biggest problem.”

Well, he did it. “Cheri” is the nickname of Friend’s foppish young man who sleeps around Paris in the early 1900s until he falls for the older Pfeiffer. She’ s a retired courtesan with a lot of money. Cheri’s own mother is a retired whore with money, played to perfection by Kathy Bates. The affair unfolds until, well, it doesn’t.

“Cheri” is one of those rare films that builds interest as it develops. If only Pfeiffer had come to the party, we would have told her that. Ah well. At least we got to talk to Kathy Bates. And the lambchops were terrific!

P.S. Outside the DGA Theatre on West 57th St. a’ well spoken young woman stopped Dana Delany. She said, “I’m from Germany, but I learned all my English from ‘China Beach’ and ‘The Cosby Show.’ My mother and I used to watch ‘China Beach’ all the time and studied how you spoke.”

Delany was a little concerned since her character cursed a lot and was a borderline alcoholic. But that’s the power of American TV. She told the woman she was honored.’ Nice.

P.P.S. “Cheri” boasts rare appearances by two women closely associated with the history of rock, of all things. Anita Pallenberg, famously Keith Richards’s ex, makes a cameo as a fellow courtesan. The scene was shot in Maxim’s in Paris. And Frances Tomelty, first wife of Sting, and mother of his two eldest children, plays Pfeiffer’s maid. Tomelty works regularly in British TV and theater but we rarely see her in films released here. Neat casting in both cases.

Michael Richards

Michael Richards, the Emmy winning actor who played Kramer on “Seinfeld” to acclaim, is a new man according to Larry David.

Richards, one of the funniest actors in TV history, hit bottom a few years ago after Seinfeld went off the air. He wound up in a career-stopping scandal that involved two alcohol-fueled rants ‘ one racist and the other anti-Semitic ‘ during November 2006 stand up routines at Los Angeles comedy clubs.

Neither event was the Richards any of his friends recognized. It was liquor and anger.

But now Richards, and Kramer, are back. In fact all of the ‘Seinfeld’ stars ”Richards, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld ‘ appear later this summer in about half the episodes of the new season of David’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ on HBO.

I’m told that the Seinfeld cast appears about midpoint in the season and takes the show to its season conclusion.

Neither Larry nor Jeff Garlin, a show producer who plays Larry’s agent, would tell me much more about it.

But Larry did say that Richards ‘is like a new man. He really went through something [with that incident]. He used to be very angry and bitter. He’s completely different now. You can see it, and he can feel it. I’m very happy for him.’

The most I could glean from David and Garlin ‘ and this is just adding a lot of supposition ‘ is that somehow the gang decides to do a reunion show or revive the ‘Seinfeld’ series in some fashion. We can only imagine for now that it doesn’t work out, and fails spectacularly.

‘I told Larry, I said, I can’t believe we haven’t done this before. It’s a natural,’ Garlin told me the other night. (By the way, viewers will see that Garlin has lost a lot of weight. How did he do it? ‘I stopped eating, and I exercised. It actually works.’)

As for David, he opens on Friday in Woody Allen’s really wonderful and funny ‘Whatever Works.’ Old time Woody Allen fans are going to really enjoy this return to a New York comedy. David is a gem, and actresses Patricia Clarkson and Evan Rachel Wood are cinches for Oscar nominations. There are also great, smaller turns by Ed Begley, Jr. and ‘Tudors’ star Henry Cavill.