Everyone loves a cock­tail party. Even more than a cock­tail party, every­one loves a cock­tail party with a cause. However, the apple of every Big Appler’s eye is a cock­tail party with a cause hosted by a celebrity with the pos­si­bil­ity of going home with some fun party favors (I’m try­ing to be PC here). So which cock­tail ben­e­fit did a few brave LC-ers attend? Why, of course, it was (care­ful, now) Women Come First: A Benefit for the New Space for Women’s Health held at Babeland, SoHo (You fill in the blanks).

You may recall that late last year, Leibowitz Communications branded the New Space for Women’s Health, New York’s only non­profit inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tion pro­vid­ing reli­able alter­na­tive health care for women. It has been described as “safe and empow­er­ing and eco­nom­i­cally fea­si­ble” in a “health­care sys­tem [that] is increas­ingly depen­dent upon med­ical inter­ven­tions to address what is, most often, a nor­mal and safe phys­i­o­log­i­cal process.” For the organization’s launch, a lucky few LC-ans attended an eye-opening film, pro­duced by Ricki Lake, about the lit­eral busi­ness of giv­ing birth in America, endorsed by the New Space. A hop, skip, and a pre­na­tal heart­beat later, Ricki Lake became a mem­ber of New Space’s Board of Directors and the rest is, not his­tory, but present, and mov­ing forward.

So, as I was say­ing, a gag­gle of LC-ites stood in a crowd, sass­ily eying the hors d’oeuvres, catch­ing up, and famil­iar­iz­ing them­selves with the many sup­port­ers of the New Space and the diverse offer­ings of Babeland. Suddenly:

“Look there she is!” shouted Laura.

“Where?!” I said, a lit­tle too enthusiastically.

“There!” Laura pointed. “Look! It’s Ricki!”

We craned our necks ever so smoothly. “AHHHhhH!”

Of course, yours truly chats per­son­ally with celebri­ties all the time, so she knows EXACTLY what to say. As I sat there pon­der­ing how awe­some I am and how I know all the right things to say, I real­ized Laura had grabbed my hand, lead­ing me pretty much right over to where Ricki stood, and was strik­ing up a con­ver­sa­tion with a fix­ture of my child­hood years. I might as well have been meet­ing Oscar the Grouch or that guy who hosted ‘Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego?’

Me: “Uhhhh…”

Laura: “… So good to see you. Our agency did the design for this event and the New Space and we’d love to get a pic­ture with you for our blog!…”

I can’t remem­ber, but I think I smiled. I’m so awk­ward. Anyway, the night was a com­plete hit, sell­ing out its aptly named tick­ets (from “One Night Fling” to “Let’s Make a Baby”). What is the mea­sure of a well-executed gala? A fab­u­lous cause? Strong bonds formed with human­ity among the women and men who par­tic­i­pate in child­birth? I’m not sure, but I think the answers could def­i­nitely be embed­ded in the old reruns of the Ricki Lake Show.

See more pic­tures of us enjoy­ing the event here. A big con­grats to our great clients Rebecca Benghiat and Lara Miller for putting on such a suc­cess­ful party!