At the pure glam & glitter Promise Ball at the Waldorf for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, there were A-listers everywhere you looked. I caught up with Lorraine Bracco proir to her replacing Kathleen Turner in The Graduate and asked her about her nude scenes. “I’m working hard and getting into shape—I’ve never been in a Broadway show before, I’m so nervous and excited. And New Jersey Senator-elect Frank Lautenberg quipped to The Sheet, “I feel like the last man standing—it’s a bad situation, women can lose the right to choose!”

At one point, Tony Bennett walked off the stage until the audience quieted down and gave him their undivided attention … the least they could do for the legendary crooner. “I’ve been singing for 60 years,” said the 76-year-old entertainer. “I had so many hits, I was the Britney Spears of my day.”

The ball was chaired by JoAnn and Joseph Murphy and Ronne and Alan Fisher, and honored Angelica and Russ Berrie. Chuck Scarborough emceed the fab fete, while auctioneer Rosie O’Donnell, recuperating from her ninth hand surgery—in a sling and on painkillers—had the crowd in their own stitches, spewing insults to VIPs while skewering herself as well: “Crazy lesbian Rosie is about to start the auction.” Referring to her lawsuit with magazine publisher CEO Dan Brewster of Gruner & Jahr over her defection from Rosie, O’Donnell quipped, “I set out to have this career that’s just about to end.” As for the live auction: “Whoever spends the most money, I’ll have oral sex with … now that’s something for the Post.” Rosie also promised to fly with a $25,000 bidder to an auctioned-off San Francisco event: “I’m gonna have no money in a few months, so I’m free to go.” Guests felt like contestants on The Weakest Link! Rosie even auctioned off and sold a pool table to herself—for $15,000! Maybe the more she spends, the less she can lose in the lawsuit … The wild evening raised a cool $2.5 mil!