"Money has nothing to do with style at all, but naturally it helps every situation," said the late doyenne of Vogue, Diana Vreeland.
Well, Conde Nast, the magazine giant, must now be licking itself like the sleek cat that had cream thrown on it.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with its annual Costume Exhibit, named after Anna Wintour, queen of Conde Nast, is busy making this money-raising event more glamorous than ever.
Anna is asking men this year to wear white tie and tails and the asking price for tickets for fashion's biggest names go for $25,000 a pop.
If you find this outrageous, just consider that it enables the public to enjoy the civilization and high art gathered in the Metropolitan Museum the rest of the year. High international fashion and the 1 percent are giving a gift to the masses whether they want to or not. So I say more power to Anna and those who came before her like Mrs. Vreeland, Pat Buckley, Blaine Trump and all the rest.
•WHAT'S more Conde Nast is patting itself on the back for its coming May 1 American Society of Magazine Editors award to its prize-winning editor Graydon Carter for his imaginative work with Vanity Fair. He put this publication on the map once again by creating a connection to the actual movie industry, in giving the best Party of the Year in Hollywood. And his editorials, exposes, photographers and wit have made it unique.
•Non, je ne regrette rien or No Regrets as it is known in English. This song belongs to Edith Piaf, just as "Over the Rainbow" is Judy Garland's signature. Others attempt to sing these but maybe they shouldn't even try.
Actress Marion Cotillard won an Oscar in 2008 for brilliant portraying Piaf -- "the Little Sparrow" as she was affectionately known to the French -- in La Vie En Rose. Cotillard herself has no regrets -- not about her career, anyway. Soon, she will be seen in two eagerly awaited films.
She will star opposite Michael Fassbender in the female role almost every actress covets, Lady Macbeth, in director Justin Kurzel's latest version of Shakespeare's classic about ambition and murder most foul. ("Murder most foul" is actually from Hamlet but Shakespeare's theme was pretty much the same in both plays -- wear a crown, watch your back.) No release date yet, but it will be distributed by Harvey Weinstein. HW knows when to put his movies out to best advantage.
Cotillard is also receiving award-worthy buzz on The Immigrant, in which she plays a Polish immigrant who comes to the U.S. in the 1920s, falls on hard times and becomes a prostitute. This co-stars Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner (Jeremy was so good in the last Bourne film!) This will be released next month.
Cotillard had some relief from drama last year when she appeared in Anchorman 2. She was fine there, but I'm much more interested in how she'll play: "Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"
•SO much is going on right now that I think I'll just ruminate, not try to give you the hotsy totsy thing to read or go see. Frankly there are so many things to read that my bedroom boasts stacks of books I can't get to and going out is a nightmare because arranging tickets by e mail is a never ending chore.
And I will say once again that every e-mail or twitter or text requires several to clear it up because people answer in pronouns. "He will be there on time" when I have already forgotten which
he" he is and what we are doing.
•LET'S go to the people in Iceland, because they seem to be keeping up with trends. In a recent poll 50 percent of Icelanders said they believe in the theory of evolution -- or the specific that animals and other species evolved first and people came down the line later. Even 89 percent of Buddhists believe in Darwinian Evolution.
But 89 percent of Amricans say God created man in his present form from the get-go. And 58 percent of my conservative friends, well, 58 percent of them don't believe in Evolution. But 46 percent of all Americans seem to believe God only created everything in this world only about 10,000 years ago. Carbon dating and science mean nothing to them.
These figures were released by Michigan State University's John D. Mills.