New Republicans

Left meets right at T.N.R.'s birthday bash

The op-ed set turned out in tolerantly optional black tie to fete proprietor Martin Peretz atThe New Republic's seventieth-birthday party, in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington. Guest of honor Warren Beatty was detained in Paris by "a pressing personal problem." Toasters included Irving Kristol, Fran Lebowitz, Representative Barney Frank, Betty Friedan, Kay Graham, and Henry Kissinger. Between the highbrow hype, guests marveled at literary editor Leon Wieseltier (the thinking man's John Travolta), who hit the floor with the lustrous Mrs. Peretz.