What Was Kelly Ripa Doing at Diwali?
On Saturday night, Paramount Pictures sponsored a Diwali party at Manhattan's Pierre Hotel, gathering stars,
journalists and a handful of fashion executives to celebrate the festival of lights under the haze of a cough-producing smoke machine.
The evening, organized by The Namesake actor Kal Penn, Nepalese American designer Prabal Gurung
and others, raised funds for the Asian American Writers' Workshop, a non-profit that has supported the diaspora literary community since 1991.
When I arrived, at half past eight, hordes of guests were fanning out in the cramped foyer of the hotel's plush Cotillion Ballroom,
eating cubes of salmon sashimi on porcelain spoons and carefully avoiding tripping over each other's loincloths.
Were were On a winding princess staircase, stars and event coordinators took prom-style photos;
One of the latter introduced me to British singer and producer Jay Sean, who was wearing a pink and gold kurta.
While we waited for the ballroom to open, Sean kicked off his various creative endeavors,
including a canned sparkling-sake business and a TV show inspired by the aughts' coming to the music industry,
which was known as the South Will be remembered as the Asian millennial, he took 2009 by storm with "Down".
When the ballroom finally opened, its mirrored walls and ornate chandeliers were obscured by purple smoke.
Someone turned on the strobe light, and I was relieved to see such a beautiful place in Sweet 16, New Jersey.
Soon everyone started tearing up the dance floor of "Jalebi Baby", and an event coordinator commented that the event was
"putting Diwali" on the map" despite the fact that the festival is over 2,500 years old.
Below, I've ranked the evening ingredients on a scale of 1 to 10 gulab jamun.
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