“George Balanchine died of Mad Cow’s disease, the autopsy showed!” That was veteran dancer/choreographer Jacques d’Amboise “kidding around” the other night at a New York City benefit for his September concert. This is a charitable organization he founded to help disadvantaged children.

Well, the event was held at the fabled bar/restaurant P.J. Clarke’s, so maybe Jacques felt loosey-goosier than he would have at, say, the Met. 

Jacques was just full of gossipy tidbits this night. “You know, Balanchine was Lincoln Kirstein’s third choice for artistic director of the NYC Ballet. First, he approached Leonide Massine, who said ‘nyet.’ Then Lincoln asked Serge Lifar, another legend in dance, but he refused as well. So then he finally accepted Balanchine to teach the classical Russian style to American students.”

Jacques was unstoppable. He went on: “I think that Lincoln really wanted to be the czar of all the arts, but he was certainly hot for the boys; muscular boys, boys mowing the law, lean boys working at the garage, any and all boys.” One wonders what Mr. Kirstein, one of the most influential cultural forces in American life, would have thought about Mr. d’Amboise’s chitty-chat. Perhaps he would feel nothing more than amusement; Kirstein’s personal life was no secret among the arty types in New York – and around the world.

Jacques told more: “Nobody seems to know this, but the architect Philip Johnson was Lincoln Kirstein’s secret lover for years." Johnson designed The New York State Theater for Lincoln Center – which, according to Jacques, was named for Mr. Kirstein, not Abraham Lincoln, just in case you’re not on your toes, culture wise. (In truth, the origins of just how Lincoln Center got its name have been lost to the mists of time, but Jacques’ story is as good, if not better, than most.)

But finally, Jacques got off the subject of Lincoln’s many loves and quipped, when shown a clip of himself dancing on the "Ed Sullivan Show" back in the day, “Ed was an Easter Island statue in a tuxedo, with no understanding of ballet.” He then went on to detail the history of ballet – introduced from Italy to France by Catherine de’ Medici. This was interesting, but Jacques had no dish on Catherine’s sex life so, you know, people wandered off to the bar at P.J.’s.

Just another night of high culture in little old Manhattan.

***

So I went to salute my friend David Patrick Columbia, who invented NewYorkSocialDiary.com. He was being saluted by the good people at City Harvest. They feed hungry New Yorkers, so it was a very good cause since they told us that every third person in the free food lines is a child! I sent off my tiny check pronto.

I did want to salute DPC, as he is known to his pals. He filled a real vacuum when the famous Aileen Mehle, aka society columnist Suzy Knickerbocker, stopped covering New York and international society on a regular basis. The Social Diary is also crammed with Jeff Hirsch’s fabulous photos of fabulous people, and also pictures of New York streets, parks and other beautiful, compelling cityscapes.

We lunched in the overly elaborate rococo dining room at the Metropolitan Club, where the food is always first rate and the atmosphere old-worldly.

David then answered questions about the state of so-called "society" and also matters of privacy and privilege. He is a wonderful ethical guy. New York deserves him. And New York deserves and needs City Harvest, so send them a few bucks at 575 8th Avenue, 4th floor, NYC 10018-3069.

I have only one word of advice for this philanthropic effort, which does such good work. The next time you make a film showing lines of hungry people, try to put a few souls in there who don’t weigh 300 pounds.