PHOTOS: Inside the 28th annual Angel Ball at Cipriani Wall Street
On Monday evening, Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research held its 28th annual Angel Ball at Cipriani Wall Street—a promise kept by songwriter and foundation co-founder Denise Rich to her daughter, Gabrielle Rich Aouad, who was 27 when she died after a courageous four-year battle with acute myelogenous leukemia. Dazzling on the red carpet, Rich told Observer, “Behind you is a picture of my daughter, who I miss every day. Her last wish was that there would be no more cancer. And we’re fighting until I’m not alive anymore to make sure there won’t be more cancer. We’re very dedicated to the cause.”
This year’s ball was a smashing success, raising $3 million for cancer research. (Since its inception in 1996, the foundation has awarded more than $47 million in grants supporting research into cutting-edge cures and less toxic treatments for blood cancers.) The evening’s honorees were actress, singer and philanthropist Lynda Carter, six-time Grammy Award winner and multi-platinum recording artist Dionne Warwick and entrepreneur and philanthropist Nicola Verses.
Armand de Brignac, Hunky Dory by Kathy Hilton, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, LALO Tequila and Rumor Rose provided the evening’s cocktails, while Lorraine Schwartz, Valmont, the Four Seasons Naviva and L’AGENCE sponsored the ball itself. Deborah Cox, the Tony and Grammy Award-nominated singer who emceed the evening, arrived in an opalescent sequined L’AGENCE gown and told Observer it was “an incredible moment of celebration,” praising Rich for keeping her promise to her daughter for so long. Fresh off Titanique, Cox said Warwick had inspired her since childhood with hits like “That’s What Friends Are For” and “Déjà Vu,” and that it was wonderful to see Warwick’s legacy of philanthropy celebrated.
Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter wore a form-fitting metallic gown with a ruffled black Schiaparelli cape-like jacket. She said she had tried to look as glamorous as possible, but the evening was about serious things. “It’s about celebrating the fabulous minds of scientists.” Asked whether A.I. could help find a cure, Carter told Observer, “Absolutely… I think it can speed up a lot of research, but you have to be very careful that those data points are repeatable.” She was also there to support Rich, her longtime friend and collaborator. “She was fighting for the life of her daughter, and I’m fighting for the life of my husband,” Carter added, referring to her late husband, Robert Altman, who died of a blood cancer in 2021.
Multi-hit pop singer Taylor Dayne wore a sparkling black dress—sequins were a theme of the night. Dayne told Observer that the evening was “full circle on so many levels.” She worked with Rich as a writer and artist nearly 30 years ago and has attended the Angel Ball almost from the beginning. A cancer survivor herself, Dayne said her diagnosis had taken her by surprise. “People were like, ‘Rip your colon out immediately.’ And I was like, ‘Take a beat and a breath. I’m going to think this through, and then I’m going to come back, like I would do anything in life, and figure out the best course.’” She stressed the importance of funding cancer research and credited early detection with the fact that she is still here today.
Kathy Hilton, the night’s chair, shimmered in red and echoed Dayne’s message about early detection. “Now is the time to go get your Instagram—mammogram,” she said, catching herself in a human moment. “Only I would say that,” she laughed. Then she collected herself and added that her mother had called herself “naughty” for going 10 years without seeing a doctor and had died at 62. “That’s a shame,” Hilton said.
The night’s other notable guests included Alec and Hilaria Baldwin, Alex Lundqvist, Bianca Peters, Carol Alt, Charlie Walk, Cooper Helfet, Daisy Toye, David and Tara Dollinger, Eric Goldie, Erika Hammond, Erin Lichy, Fer Da Silva, Gigi Paris, Harvey Spevak, Isaac Boots, Laura Geller, Melissa and Joe Gorga, Mike Masco, Nick Barrotta, Lorraine Schwartz, Ofira Sandberg, Peter Thomas Roth, Ross Pino, Sandra Lee, Simone I. Smith, Steve Gold and Tiki Barber.
Cipriani Wall Street glowed with dreamy pink lighting, and two angels with dangling heart lockets were projected above the stage. At the center of each table, five white candles in glass cylinders of varying heights sat on a bed of hydrangeas and pink roses. Armand de Brignac Gold champagne flowed, and as baked tagliolini with mushrooms was served, Cox thanked attendees for their support and introduced Gabrielle’s sisters, the evening’s co-hosts, Daniella Rich Kilstock and Ilona Rich Schachter, along with their families.
In a heartfelt message to her mother, Kilstock said, “You showed us that even out of the greatest sadness, something extraordinary can grow.” Her daughter, Kayla, followed with an impassioned tribute to her grandmother: “You taught us that love doesn’t end when someone is gone. Sometimes that love becomes even bigger.”
Rich then joined her family onstage and asked the rapt audience to light a white candle “to honor those fighting cancer and to those we have lost. And a special prayer for my friend Clive Davis, who passed this year.” While the evening was more about hope than loss, it was impossible not to feel the absence of those who were no longer there.
In an off-the-shoulder teal gown by Sau Lee, Kelly Leach told the story of two soulmates. She called her husband, Todd Day, her octopus because his love language was physical touch, and he wrapped himself around her every night. He was first diagnosed with lymphoma and beat it, and for seven years, as she put it, “the storm stayed clear.” They began dreaming again, bought a house in the Poconos, adopted a couple of dogs and, after six rounds of IVF, welcomed their son, Nikolai. Then the cancer returned. A clinical trial eventually cleared his scan, and he was cured, but the treatment had taken a toll on his body. “We reached the shore only to drown on the beach.”
Two weeks before the anniversary of his death, Leach “made good” on their last dream and welcomed their daughter, Elizabeth Chloé, through IVF. The research hadn’t failed, Leach said. “It gave us seven years.” She told the audience, “Gabrielle’s Angels funds that research so you can give another family time.”
Seth Herzog, the resident comedian and sketch performer on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, led the live auction. Lots included a Belmond trip to Peru, stunning Lorraine Schwartz earrings and a week at the Lucia Magnani clinic in Italy. Star Jones led the paddle raise, which brought in more than $340,000, and donors received heart canvases and sculptures by Fer Da Silva. There was also a raffle for a cheetah-print Chanel bag, with tickets at $250 apiece. Dinner was prime roast fillet of beef with tricolor baby carrots, followed by vanilla crème meringue and apple mille-feuille, with refills of Vescovello Toscano Rosso.
With performances by Shaggy, Taylor Dayne and Deborah Cox, the evening could have passed for a Broadway production on the surface. But the urgency of finding a cure was ever-present. Dr. Stephen Nimer, chairman of the foundation’s medical advisory board and, in Rich’s words, an incredible doctor who had helped her daughter, took the stage. “All of you have played your part,” he told the room. “And so I suggest, when you think of this amazing foundation and how you have all contributed, that you say exactly the opposite of Shaggy’s song and proudly say, ‘it was me.’”
He told the story of Emily Whitehead, who once stood on that same stage as one of the first people in the world to receive CAR-T cell therapy for refractory leukemia. She is still in remission 15 years later, and the therapy is now approved to treat three types of cancer. None of this progress was inevitable, he reminded the audience. It happened because of scientists who worked late into the night, biotech and pharma companies that took risks on new therapies, patients and families who enrolled in trials and donors like them. Then he made a plea: “Please keep coming back every year until the foundation’s goal has been met. And that will be when we all get to live in a world where no one dies of cancer.”
At the evening’s end, guests danced to “Tell It to My Heart” like it was 1988, then grooved to “Boombastic,” with DJ sets by M.O.S. and Kiss, before spilling out onto Wall Street. Many will be back next year, perhaps a little closer to a cure.
