Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Wonderful evening at the home of Ambassador Esther Coopersmith (2230 S Street, N.W.) who gave “A List” party in honor of Barbra Streisand who is a strong advocate of the Women’s Heart Alliance, an organization calling attention to the unrecognized burden of heart disease among women. Beautiful DC Spring evening (magical) – perfect temperature, crystal clear sky. I had the pleasure of spending much face-to-face time with Barbra. She clearly knew who I was when introduced. She knew the connection to Larry Kramer as she was supposed to produce “The Normal Heart” for Hollywood, but did not as it went to HBO. I was seated directly across from her at a narrow table and right next to Esther Coopersmith, the hostess. Amazing crowd with many politicians – Nita Lowy and Rosa DeLauro (who kept shouting me out in their remarks); Ed Markey who gave a short speech and said “Wow, what a party – I am sitting here with Tony Fauci!”; Sen John McCain, Chris Dodd, Lloyd Hand, James Brolin (Barbra’s husband and father of Josh Brolin), Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Gary Gibbons (the only other NIH person), Catherine and Wayne Reynolds, Diane Rehm, henry Waxman, Irene Pollin, Anita Mcbride, Rima Al-Sabah, Sen. Franken, Debbie Dingel, and many other notables. Barbra was amazingly nice – warm, sincere, funny, friendly. I was surprised since Harold Varmus had told me that on a prior visit by Barbra to NIH when he was Director and I was not present, Harold said that Barbra was aloof and not friendly. Totally opposite tonight. You get the feeling you could really be her friend.