Party Line: A 'Night in Hollywood' at Cirque du CMOM

Photo by Michael Donahue // Buy this photo

Jack Wohrman (from left) and Liza Creech and David and Sarah Thompson were at the Cirque du CMOM party.

Brad, Angelina and Meryl would have fit right in Saturday night at The Children's Museum of Memphis as "Night in Hollywood: A Vanity Affair" was the theme of this year's Cirque du CMOM fundraiser.

The event was designed to make the almost 900 guests feel as if they'd just been to the Oscars presentation and were ready to party. Guests entered on a red carpet lined with members of the "paparazzi" taking their photo. Inside, they found themselves on "Rodeo Drive," complete with palm trees and the Hollywood Hotel.

Other areas included the Vanity Affair Room, which was decorated with white paper lanterns and white drapery and featured Hollywood movies playing on a screen and deejay Mark Anderson playing music for dancing. Partiers relaxed in "Ciro's," a tent modeled after the long-gone Hollywood nightclub on Sunset Boulevard.

This year's Cirque du CMOM was the fifth record-breaking fundraiser in a row for The Children's Museum of Memphis, said museum CEO Dick Hackett.

Cindy Dobbs and Janie Lowery were event co-chairwomen.

Cochon 555

Ben Hollis wore a T-shirt adorned with a diagram of a pig Saturday at the Cochon 555 cooking contest. "Heavenly," "om nom nom" and "awe" and "some" were used instead of "belly," "butt" and "cheeks" to denote the different cuts of a pig. "I ordered it online so I can wear it tonight," Ben said.

Kelly English of Restaurant Iris and his team won the Memphis Cochon ("pig") contest. They were one of five cooking teams that showed what they could do with a whole heritage-breed pig at the event at The Columns at 1 Commerce Square. Creations from Kelly and his team included "Heart, Grit and Grind," which Kelly described as "a play on the (Memphis) Grizzlies motto. We ground up all the offal -- the spleen, liver, kidneys -- and a couple of other pieces of the animal, cooked it down and reduced it with stock, herbs and truffle and put it over grits."

Also representing Memphis was a team led by Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman of Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen. Kelly, who planned to watch the Super Bowl with Andy and Michael, said, "Andy and Michael are two of my greatest friends on Earth. I was proud to be up there cooking with them at the event."

Guests sampled cuisine from the teams, drank wine from five wineries as well as beer, ate desserts and continued the festivities at an after-party down the street at Felicia Suzanne's restaurant.

Cochon 555 helped Memphis "gain more recognition" for its culinary arts, said Ben Smith, chef/owner of Tsunami restaurant. People usually look at Memphis as "barbecue, blues and Elvis." Having Cochon 555 in Memphis gave "a little more legitimacy in how people look at us."

Concert at home

The New York Times described pianist Bruce Levingston as "one of today's most adventurous musicians," The New Yorker called him "a poetic pianist," and The Washington Post referred to his "wonderfully even touch." Guests who heard the internationally acclaimed concert pianist play last week in the living room at the home of Allie and Michael Varner concurred; Bruce fit all those descriptions.

The Varners dubbed their evening "From Carnegie Hall to Chickasaw Gardens." Bruce, who was Michael's across-the-street neighbor growing up in Cleveland, Miss., performed solo as well as with violinist Colin Jacobsen and Colin's brother, cellist Eric Jacobsen. Also at the party were the other members of Colin's acclaimed string quartet, Brooklyn Rider: violinist Johnny Gandelsman and viola player Nicholas Cords. Pianist Kimball Gallagher also played. The musicians performed last week at concerts in Oxford and Cleveland.

Music at the Varner miniconcert included works by Gabriel Fauré, Antonín Dvorák and Frédéric Chopin. Toward the end of the party, Michael and Bruce played duets to Scott Joplin and John Philip Sousa.

Being in the home of his "oldest friend" and seeing "so many people enjoying such wonderful music" was very special, Bruce said. "In many ways, so much of that music was written to be played in homes and salons. Concert halls were really something that came later in music history. In some ways, it's like enjoying a beautiful painting in someone's home rather than a museum."

Carnival king in Venice

Countess Alessandra Ranghiasci Montgomery from Gubbio, Italy; her husband, Richard Montgomery, and their 4-month-old son, Count Lucas Montgomery, were special guests at a reception hosted by Roseramey Long on Saturday afternoon at Roseramey's Midtown home. They were in Memphis to meet with Silky Sullivan, a four-time Mardi Gras king -- the krewes of Iris, Shangrila, Midcity and Morpheus -- in New Orleans. They asked Silky to be the visiting American king of the Carnival of Venice in 2013, said Richard, who presented a slide show of their palazzo and past Carnivals of Venice. Following the reception, Silky took them to his club, Silky O'Sullivan's, for barbecue.

"We had a fantastic time," Richard said. "Alessandra has always appreciated the American way of living, and this is her first time to experience the South."

"It was very warm and very Italian," Alessandra said.

-- Michael Donahue: (901) 529-2797; donahue@commercialappeal.com

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