The Clothes Are The Thing At Public Theater Gala

At the Delacorte Theatre’s 2010 Public Theater Gala, guests like Liev and Naomi, David Schwimmer, Zach Braff, Lucy Liu, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson got to watch Pacino perform. Then had to puzzle over his weird post-curtain outfit:

Liev and Naomi, dressed for summer. Yes, knickers are now part of the urban summer uniform.

Kate Walsh clearly wanted ’70s – disco print and a “Ladies of the Canyon” silhouette is one take on that.

Sarah Paulson‘s print and Amanda Peet‘s jacket shoulders are in a war to the death.

Edie Falco: strictly business.

I like Lucy Liu’s “oh, just threw on my specs – with a silk dress and cage heels” air.

Lily Rabe, who shares the stage with Pacino in Shakespeare in the Park. She’s carrying over Elizabethan levels of embellishment to the 21st century.

It’s hard not to make some Unmarried Woman remark when talking about Jill Clayburgh, which I’m sure gets old even if everyone is just genuinely excited. It’s even harder to work in when she’s actually there with playwright David Rabe, supporting daughter Lily, above.

Sam Waterston gallantly ignores the fact that Lois Robbins is being consumed by a rogue flower garden, complete with leg-eating trellises.

David Schwimmer: the Strokes circa 2001 called. They want their hair back. Zoe Buckman initially thought it was cute that he wanted to match. Now, her expression says otherwise.

Speaking of at the end of their ropes: as usual, Lou Reed is pissed off. His expression clearly says, “I made nice all weekend as King Neptune on the Mermaid Parade; now get the fuck off the phone so we can play piano with our blind rat terrier.”

Zach Braff used to infuriate some of us to an unreasonable degree, such that some of us couldn’t even include him in this post because some of us couldn’t bear to format his smug face and imagine Garden State dialogue coming out of his smug mouth. But that’s not really about him, and this is part of my self-assigned therapy. He’s with Taylor Bagley.