Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones

One of the most well-produced events of the year is also the “Most Romantic Evening of the Year.” The Red Ball is the annual gathering of those closest to the heart of producer Marty Richards. It benefits The Mary Lea Johnson Richards Organ Transplant Institute (founded by Richards in 1994 in memory of his beloved late wife) and the Children’s Advocacy Center of Manhattan, NYC’s only nonprofit center offering treatment to young victims of abuse, which he also founded (with Georgette Mosbacher) in 1995.

Dapper gents in black and white tie and lovely ladies in fiery red (or other to-sigh-for romantic) ball gowns glided across the dance floor of the Grand Ballroom at The Pierre. The Ball’s honorary chairs included: Marty’s sister-in-law, Elaine Johnson Wold, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, looking quite voluptuous and so lovely in a black, floor-length ball gown, who arrived with hubby Michael Douglas.

The evening’s honorees were Richard Gere (Zeta-Jones’ Chicago co-star) and Carey Lowell, a couple long dedicated to social activism, human rights, and controlling the global spread of HIV/AIDS—through the Gere Foundation.

When The Sheet caught up with Lowell (ex-wife of director Griffin Dunne), she was quick to tell us that she once had lived in the Hamptons as a single mom (to daughter Hannah, now 15), before marrying Gere. When we asked how she dealt with life on the East End year-round, she quipped, “I drank a lot of red wine!” How did the former Law & Order star meet her sexy leading man? Lowell revealed that the year was 1995, and it was at her future hubby’s photography exhibition, “Tibet: The Pure Realm,” which displayed photos taken in the Himalayan region between 1983 and 1993 by the film actor (and dedicated Tibetan freedom fighter). The couple, both practicing Buddhists, are now also parents to son, Homer, born in 2000.

Entertainment for the evening included a special performance from Marty’s current Broadway revival, La Cage aux Folles, co-starring Gary Beach and Les Cagelles, with the participation of Christine Baranski.

Among the sparkling guests “seeing red”: Dina Merrill and Ted Hartley, Rue McClanahan, Arlene Dahl and Marc Rosen, Michele Herbert, Carmen Dell’Orefice, Caroline Hirsch, Lyn Paulsin, and Maria Theresa Fauci. This annual “Affair of the Heart” left a rosy glow on all of the assembled guests...a night to remember.