Chatter: High Society: Brooke de la Villanova

Pssst! Hello, dumplings. I need to type quietly, because Edgar is still napping after the big-hoo-ha gala opening of the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. What an evening! Joan Shepp must have been clogged like the Conshohocken Curve the week before. The crowd included theater folk like Nathan Lane, Edie Falco, Doris Roberts and Terrence McNally. (Playwright Edward Albee was mortified because no one told him it was black-tie. At least his khakis were pressed.) I confess to flirting with Richard Thomas, who maddeningly still looks like 18-year-old John Boy Walton. Goodnight indeed! …

You couldn’t swing a cosmo without hitting one of the city’s social elite. The opening dinner was hosted by the David Cohens and drew out Henri David, the Joseph Torsellas, the Gerry Lenfests, the John B. Kellys, Midge Rendell, and of course Ira “I never miss a gala” Lubert. We feasted on delish dishes from Steven Poses’s Frog Commissary, including yummy lobster mac-’n’-cheese that had Edgar bursting in his cummerbund. Ralph Roberts’s clan turned out in force, and the evening’s many testimonials elicited suitable sniffles and occasional laughter. Suzanne told a wonderfully bawdy tale of how, in her youth, she showed up for a theatrical audition not realizing it was for a job as a stripper at the Troc! No wonder Edgar calls her “the Phyllis Diller of Rittenhouse Square.” …

Finally, krumpets, if you’re still fretting over holiday gift shopping, it’s society jeweler Craig Drake to the rescue: He’s just launched a new side biz helping folks acquire diamonds of more than five carats. You don’t wear them (unless you want to look like a walking chandelier), but rather park them in a vault and watch them appreciate. That’s a gift that keeps on giving. …