Rule Number One for movie producers and event planners who really want a hit: get Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. Instant blockbuster success and magical evenings happen at their hands. With these two, the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation was bound to host a successful night: A Magical Evening gala at the Marriot Marquis which raised $2.5 mil.

Chairs Francine LeFrak and Rick Friedberg, Eaddo and Peter Kiernan, and Paul and Barbara Daversa were joined by honorees James Nederlander Jr., Chuck Close, Matt Richter, and Brian Leetch. The magical guest list included Lindsay Price, Kim Raver, Molly Simms, Beth Ostrosky Stern, Mary Alice Stephenson, Margo Nederlander, Gilles Mendel, David Blaine, Donna and Dick Soloway, Kim Alexis and Ron Duguay, Lois and Buzz Aldrin, Kathleen Turner, Francis Fisher, Marty Richards, Veronica and Police Commish Ray Kelly, Maggie Rizer, Alexandra Reeve Givens, Matthew Reeve, and Will Reeve. One night’s magic inspired attendees to work their own kind of magic in their search for a cure for spinal cord injury.