Parties of the Month

Best fêtes

OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 4

The Grimaldis do America. Estee Lauder's dinner for the royal family kicked off the tour in New York. Guests: Barbara Walters, Pat Buckley, Jerry Zipkin, Bill Blass. Song and dance: Princess Caroline warbled German ballads to a violin accompaniment, then tangoed the night away. Subdued Stephanie did neither. Raison du voyage: The Princess Grace Foundation—USA Awards Gala, Beverly Hills. Leading men: Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, James Stewart, Roger Moore, Frank Sinatra. Morning after: Dejeuner sur the Dynasty set, followed by a brief stopover on The Love Boat. Shocker: The princesses wore pants.

OCTOBER 30 * NEW YORK

Bob Colacello's dinner for Prince Johannes and Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. Guests: Park Avenue and the press, imported to Palladium's "backstage." Costume: Gloria (an hour and a half late) was dressed to kill in a chain-mail coat of armor (circa 1968), her tresses in a conical, turquoise-and-pink, teased-up Mohawk (circa 1978). Royal command: The princess dictated Prince, but was glad to boogie atop a speaker to Laura Branigan's disco version of "Gloria." Susan Blond swooned over Prince Kyril of Bulgaria: "Finally, a prince who looks like a prince." Princess Alessandra Borghese was an updated Robin Hood in black velvet, while Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia opted for a casual pullover sweater. Jann Wenner stayed late.

NOVEMBER I * CHICAGO

The Gem Ball, inaugurating the Field Museum's Grainger Hall of Gems. Guests: Pritzkers, Armours, Ryans, and Swifts galore. Gewgaws: $70 million worth of jewels lent by Harry Winston to decorate the room (and some of the ladies), and five big bijoux for display, courtesy of the Smithsonian. Party favors were chunks of uncut amethyst. Semiprecious moment: Ravenous Robert Ziebarth gulping down chairman Maureen Smith's fifty-carat sapphire. (He didn't swallow.)

NOVEMBER 6 * NEW YORK

Diane Von Furstenberg's dinner for Italian publisher Leonardo Mondadori. Guests: Mix 'n' match, from Raquel Welch to E. L. Doctorow, Bianca Jagger to Mort Zuckerman, Princess Caroline to the Didion-Dunnes. Heavy talk: Richard Gere's steady, Sylvia Martins, debated modem art with the younger Niarchoses, Spyros and Philip. Jet-setters settled in the library; literary lords holed up in the living room. "You couldn't get English spoken anywhere."

NOVEMBER 8 * HOUSTON

Marilyn Oshman Lubetkin's fourth annual Orange Show Foundation benefit. Guests: The Cullens and Cooleys, playwright Ntozake Shange, one-third of ZZ Top. Diversion: Synchronized swimmers and the Fabulous Thunderbirds blues band. Party favors: Rainbow beanies topped with whirligigs for the men, pop-together fruit necklaces for the women. Drollery: Mannequins modeling vintage swimsuits.

NOVEMBER 11 * NEW YORK

The American Museum of the Moving Image's Salute to Sidney Lumet. Guests: Albert Finney, David Mamet, Walter Cronkite, Paul Newman, A1 Pacino. Take-home treats: Lumet's picture on a reel tin of pistachios. "It's the first time," said Treat Williams, "I've ever left with my director's nuts in a can." Aftermath: Maureen Stapleton and Sylvia Sidney led the raid on the amaryllis centerpieces.

NOVEMBER 11 * NEW YORK

The Fifth Annual Literary Lions Dinner at the New York Public Library. Guests: Jackie O, Katharine Graham, Ben Bradlee, Sally Quinn, Ann Getty, Warren Hoge. Roaring Norman and Norris Church Mailer welcomed cubs Howard Fast, Elizabeth Drew, and George Kennan. Prestige: Everyone gloated, knowing there's a two-year waiting list for aspiring patrons. Unnoticed: Sumptuous paisley tablecloths underneath chocolate lion centerpieces.

NOVEMBER 17 ★ NEW YORK

Jean Stein's post-PEN gathering for Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal. Guests: Saul Steinberg, Diane Keaton, Brooke Hayward, Peter Duchin, and a posse of literary groupies. Tone: Gore was at his most feline, Mailer at his most shaggy. Guests were bemused—they had hoped for a literary slugfest between two old rivals but found, in Mailer's own phrase, "toothless tigers." Deprived of this cabaret, editors hounded writers, demanding to know where their copy was.

NOVEMBER 19 * NEW YORK

Marietta Tree's dinner for art dealer Harriet Crawley in her Sutton Place apartment. Guests: Susan Mary Alsop, Jackie O, Maurice Tempelsman, Bartle Bull, Consuelo Crespi, Grace Dudley, Bob Silvers. Tone: The deliciously global group was split among three round tables. Lancashire hot pot flattered the English element. Marietta shimmered in Mollie Parnis. Australian painter Fraser Fair described his portrait sitting with the Queen Mother, who had told him, "Young man, you are looking at history." John Gutfreund raved about his new baby boy.

HOST OF THE MONTH * Investment banker and compulsive partygoer Alexander Papamarkou. He threw twelve dinners in three weeks—one in absentia, from his sickbed.

ABSENT HONOREE * Michel Bergerac, who failed to show up to receive his Top Dog humanitarian award at the Animal Medical Center's seventy-fifth dinner dance.

Angela Janklow