A Spaghetti Dinner for People Who Don’t Eat Cold Pasta

A welcome departure from the standard gala fare of vulcanized chicken, the Spaghetti Dinner for the Women’s Lunch Place was held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza and featured a lively cocktail party with a massive silent auction in the Venetian Room, followed by a delicious, family-style Italian dinner in the Grand Ballroom.Front and center were such worthies as TV producer Stan Leven; polo-playing tech guru Dean Goodermote and his equally equestrian other half, Diane Arnold; cigar and golf aficionado Frank Williams Jr.; redheaded real estate chatelaine Chantelle Persac; celebrity chefs Jody Adams and Douglass Williams; Women’s Lunch Place board president Clemia Brittenum; and other notable somebodies.Several people made the salient point that noodles are a universal language, while one woman impatiently prodded her tablemate to pass the pasta, saying, “I don’t eat cold spaghetti.”Throughout the evening, the following exchanges were overheard:“I love your name.”“Thanks. It was almost worth the marriage and the divorce.”And: “Are you our celebrity guest?”“Uh, no. I’m pretty sure that’s you.”

Any number of people wound up wearing some of their dinner, yours truly included, but the evening raised beaucoup bucks to help the daytime shelter and its guests: women experiencing homelessness and poverty.

Best of all: The party favor turned out to be a box of radiatori, which one guest called “the most useful thing I’ve ever gotten at one of these things.” Meanwhile, the evening’s award for sour grapes went to the guest who looked at a woman and said, “She looks like she’s never eaten a carb in her life.”

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Fairytale Fete

The billionaire bacchanalia known as the Storybook Ball is an annual big-ticket, black-tie fundraiser for Mass General for Children. The theme is always a classic children’s book; this year, it was Corduroy. The evening’s highlight was the carnival games with prizes from luxury retailers. Guests included cochairs Sarah and Walter Donovan and Laura Will and Dave Nicholson; Beacon Hillions Maggie and Bill Moran; and one guest who complimented a man on his wife’s stunning Bulgari earrings, to which the man responded, “I don’t pick it out. I just pay for it.”

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A Spirited Affair

The Peabody Essex Museum’s annual gala had a strong supernatural vibe, themed around the exhibition “Conjuring the Spirit World: Art, Magic, and Mediums.” Among the 875 guests: shoe designer to the stars Thom Solo; legal eagle Yasin Akbari; and the evening’s honoree, Stuart Pratt. A delicious dinner was accompanied by a mind-bending performance by mentalist David Gerard, followed by dessert, dancing, and tarot readings.

This article was first published in the print edition of the March 2025 issue with the headline: “Carb-E Diem.”