By Erica Schwiegershausen 6/28/12 12:00pm

literary events

Rebecca Mead and Janet Groth.

Former New Yorker Receptionist Discusses Misogyny, the Condé Nast Cafeteria and Her New Memoir

“Twenty-one year flat-line” was the way that Janet Groth, receptionist at the New Yorker from 1957-1978 described her aforementioned career last night at the reading of her memoir The Receptionist: An Education at the New Yorker at Greenlight Bookstore.

Ms. Groth recounted a time of William Shawn, E.B. White and Joseph Mitchell with a slightly nostalgic but none too romanticized air. She recalled telling the man who first interviewed her for the position that she wanted to write. “Can you type?” was his response. Not professionally, she told him. He reviewed her resume and inquired about a short story prize she had won while in college. “Did you type that?” Read More

By Emily Gogolak 6/28/12 9:30am

Bird brain

A male of the high American literati variety in its natural habitat.

Birdwatching with Jonathan Franzen in Central Park

Tuesday afternoon was a particularly outdoorsy one for The Observer. Donning binoculars, sneakers, sunscreen, and shorts, we set off to Central Park to get in touch with nature and to go bird watching. Among our avian sightings? A Red-tailed Hawk, a Black-crowned Night Heron, two Eastern King Birds, and a particularly interesting bespectacled male of the American high literati — Jonathan Franzen.

Mr. Franzen is to birding what David Byrne is to cycling. An up-and-coming spokesperson for the hobby, he was in Central Park to help launch the new HBO documentary, Birders: The Central Park Effect. Airing on July 16, the film follows seven urban birdwatchers as they literally schedule their lives around the rhythms of bird migration passing through New York. Unabashedly among them is Mr. Franzen. Read More

By Sarah Grothjan 6/27/12 5:20pm

New York in Film

Isaac Mizrahi and Derek Blasberg at W New York Downtown.

Grand Classics “New York in Film” Series Starts with a Screening of Isaac Mizrahi’s Pick: Sweet Charity

Last night, a group a fashion moguls, designers, models and perfectly dressed men and women, made their way to the W New York Downtown hotel to view the first film screening in in the Grand Classics series “New York in Film.”

The evening commenced with a cocktail hour, rife with fashion editors and a lingering music crowd. It was a fitting precursor to the film screening of Sweet Charity–a personal pick by Isaac Mizrahi, a New York fashion icon who knows all about sexy.

“There’s a difference between when you put air quotes around something, and it’s actual meaning, you know what I mean? So it’s like ‘sexy’ is not as good as sexy, and this is a really sexy movie,” Mr. Mizrahi told The Observer, sincerely. Read More

By Jessi Rucker 6/27/12 4:35pm

Movie premieres

0-1

Drinking Beer with the Director of Beasts of the Southern Wild, Now in Select New York Theaters

When Benh Zeitlin graduated he wasn’t sure if he was actually going to be able to make films.

Now, after winning Best Picture at Sundance, Best First Film in Cannes and receiving rave reviews across the board, his feature directorial debut The Beasts of the Southern Wild is being released in select theaters today. At a special friends-and-family screening at the IFC Center last night, Mr. Zeitlin introduced the film and thanked Rooftop Films, the New York outdoor-screenings non-profit that awarded him with the 2009 Eastern Effects Equipment Grant that helped make Beast a reality. Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 6/27/12 3:29pm

the eight-day week

promenade

To Do Wednesday: Eating for a Good Cause

Every week this season there’s been another multi-chef tasting—don’t the chefs at New York’s top restaurants ever tire of competing against one another for the attention of glutted convention attendees? Even if they have, they won’t be complaining at tonight’s All-Star Tasting; Michael White (of the Altamarea Group, with hot eateries like Marea) and Alain Allegretti Read More

By Daniel D'Addario and Elise Knutsen 6/27/12 11:33am

shindigger

Sigourney Weaver (Patrick McMullan)

Shindigger: Rainy Days and Mondays at the Red Lights and Political Animals Premieres

Cursing the heavens Monday, The Observer spent the day sitting inside, watching from our window as the urban dwellers below suffered the unwanted ablutions of a peripatetic summer storm.

What to do on such a waterlogged evening? We brainstormed two rainy-day pursuits and resolved to both before the day was through. A movie and a museum, it was to be, though not in traditional fashion. Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 6/27/12 8:00am

the eight-day week

Maria Bello.

To Do Wednesday: Shop With Purpose

Today, a smattering of powerful women will be doing some light shopping at Henri Bendel. We know, this isn’t exactly breaking news—but the shopping they’re doing will aid more than just their look! Actress Maria Bello, De Niro-wife Grace Hightower De Niro, confusingly named power-dermatologist Dr. Doris Day and other social fixtures are to pick Read More

By Spencer Rothman 6/26/12 6:20pm

Charity Events

Eric McCormick and Debra Messing. (Leandro Justen/Patrick McMullan)

Will and Grace Reunited on Stage at Trevor Live

“I’d be devastated if my son grows up to be a hetero. As a parent, you just envision a certain life for your child. Just imagine the fabulous things he’s going to miss out on! When I think my son might not ever know the joys of having a quarter share on Fire Island, and walking through Judy Garland Memorial Park on the way to the Meat Rack!” Debra Messing said holding back melodramatic tears to a roaring audience last night at Trevor Live, an evening of music and comedy to benefit the Trevor Project.

“Every parent hopes for their child to not be a heterosexual! Think of all the things they’ll miss out on…skinless chicken breasts and brown rice,” Eric McCormick added sarcastically. This was the first time the duo had taken the stage together since their hit TV show Will & Grace went off the air in 2006.

The Trevor Project was founded in 1998 and has since become the leading national organization providing intervention and suicide prevention service to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. Every year the foundation honors someone who has helped make progress for the LGBTQ community, and this year’s honoree was Susan Sarandon, an open advocate for increasing visibility and understanding of the LGBTQ community. Read More