“What just happened?” said Chip Gaines, the HGTV personality, collapsing into an elevator after the Time 100 gala on Tuesday night.
While Time magazine has diminished in influence, its annual exercise to rank the world’s “100 most influential people” still manages to draw a crowd. There were so many famous names at Jazz at Lincoln Center, even the celebrities were shellshocked.
These included the six cover stars: Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House; Taylor Swift, the singer; Dwayne Johnson, the action star; Sandra Oh, the actress; Gayle King, the journalist; and Mohamed Salah, the soccer player.
“Since I was a teenager, I was reading Time magazine. So to be here tonight, that’s pretty thrilling,” Ms. Pelosi said.
Did Hillary Clinton, who wrote the profile of Ms. Pelosi in the magazine, ask any hard questions? “I don’t know if there are hard questions left,” Ms. Pelosi said. “Except how to get to be president of the United States.”
Jared Kushner, the King’s Hand, squeezed past. When he was a bachelor, Mr. Kushner once told me he would replace his dining suite with a Ping-Pong table. Does he have the same setup in Washington?
“I don’t, I have three kids now,” he said. “Although sometimes I’d like to trade them in for a Ping-Pong table.”
As dinner was served, the room became a celebrity petting zoo. Here was Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, speaking with Trevor Noah, the “Daily Show” host, who was talking to Brie Larson, the actress. There was Colson Whitehead, the writer, mingling with Rami Malek, the Oscar-winning actor, and Emilia Clarke, the mother of dragons.
“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my ranking in world influence,” said Samin Nosrat, the chef and star of “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.” “I feel like you would have to be a megalomaniac to remotely think of yourself in this terminology.”
Her tip for dealing with notoriously awful gala food? “Pre-eat,” she said.
When Khalid performed his hit “Young Dumb & Broke,” Glenn Close got up to dance, Julianne Moore recorded a phone video, and Sir Harold Evans, the veteran editor, plugged his ears.
Ms. Swift, in a billowing pink and yellow J. Mendel princess gown, closed the evening, strumming a pink guitar.
I asked Edward Felsenthal, the chief executive and editor in chief of Time, whether featuring her on the cover wasn’t more a triumph of publicity over artistry. “It’s not a lifetime achievement award,” he said. “She had the biggest tour in America this year, so, case closed.”
When Ms. Swift got to the chorus of “Shake It Off’ (“haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate”), the whole room sang along.
Rolling Stones Ballet?
Mick Jagger stalked the halls of Lincoln Center Thursday night, but like a phantom of the opera, his presence was felt rather than seen.
The Rolling Stones frontman, who is recovering from heart surgery, stayed backstage at a gala celebrating the Youth America Grand Prix, which supports young ballet dancers. His distinctive voice introduced a ballet set to the Stones’ music, choreographed by his girlfriend, Melanie Hamrick, a dancer with the American Ballet Theater.
“Mick was like, ‘Go for it, let’s do it,’” Ms. Hamrick said. “I hope he liked it.”
The ballet was followed by a dinner, which required its own choreography and costume design. Colby Mugrabi, a chairwoman of the event, managed to avoid Libbie Mugrabi, her estranged sister-in-law, who is embroiled in a messy divorce.
Joanna Fisher, a socialite, wore a pouf of calamine-colored feathers, and Jean Shafiroff had on one of her floor-sweeping gowns. Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, the twin fashion designers, wore black vestments from their label, the Row. Mary-Kate snuggled with her husband, Olivier Sarkozy, occasionally producing an e-cigarette from her voluminous sleeves.
Cicely Tyson, the 94-yeard-old Oscar recipient, appeared onstage with B. Michael, the designer, and Calvin Royal III, the dancer, for a tribute to Arthur Mitchell, the choreographer.
“I was not allowed to dance as a child, because I was raised in a very religious household and dancing was considered somewhat sinful,” Ms. Tyson said over dinner. “Instead of giving me dancing lessons, my mother gave me piano lessons. I disappointed her and became an actress.”
