SCENE CITY Influential, And All in One Room

HALFWAY through the Time 100 party on Tuesday night,
Stephen Colbert summed up the crowd. "We are better than other people," Mr. Colbert said to
hearty laughter. He, along with many in the audience,
had been named the 100 most influential people by
Time magazine this year. "It's such a relief to be away from the riffraff who didn't
make the list, like the Pope and Oprah," he added. Luckily, there were plenty of other famous faces
gathered at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Among the first to
trickle into the cocktail hour were Mia Farrow and Ralph
Nader. Mr. Nader, in town for the evening, had been
busy in Washington "consorting with the plutocracy," he
said. The red lighting gave his seriousness a Philip K. Dick novel cast. It wasn't until the arrival of Jeremy Lin of the New York
Knicks that the mood took on an expectant hum. "That was pretty overwhelming," Mr. Lin said, after
fielding three separate press lines. The point guard
seemed a bit dazed, although he held his ground in a
well-fitted black suit and navy tie. "Everybody was
yelling at me," he said. "I thought I was doing
something wrong." Lauren Bush and her husband, David Lauren, did not
incite a similar frenzy. They found a quiet corner to
chat, while others exchanged business cards as if this
were a high-powered swap meet. "Some of the most interesting people on the list are the
ones you don't recognize," Mr. Lauren said,
diplomatically. "They're the ones who found a cure or
made some scientific discovery." Dinner was in the Allen Room, which was loosely
modeled after a Greek amphitheater, making it easier
to scan the crowd. Chelsea Handler, accompanied by a
doting André Balazs, the hotelier, leaned over a railing
to say hello to Harvey Weinstein and Georgina
Chapman. Arianna Huffington chatted with Matt Lauer and circulated the room.
After an asparagus and morel appetizer, Hillary
Rodham Clinton, wearing a dark pantsuit, took the
podium to a standing ovation. "I'm announcing my plans to run for president - of
Malta," she said. She gave shout-outs to Mr. Lin and Tim
Tebow (a no-show), before pivoting to more serious
matters like the upheaval in Syria and American
leadership. She also noted the other powerful women
on the Time 100 list. "You can run the world in heels and pantsuits," she said. Mrs. Clinton was followed by Raphael Saadiq, who
looked sleek in a trim Dior Homme gray suit while he
gave a rousing performance that set Kristen Wiig
dancing on her heels. Rihanna closed out the show with
a low-key set that ended with "Umbrella." Afterward, the party returned to the anteroom for
after-dinner drinks. There, Mr. Colbert's bawdy jibes
(particularly at the expense of Cardinal Timothy M.
Dolan, who was in attendance) were Topic A. But with the clock nearing 11 p.m. on a weeknight,
most of the boldface guests slipped out. They had a
world to rule.