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Like all Peggy Siegal–run caviar-and-Champagne parties at the Four Seasons, last night’s celebration of Larry King’s 50 Years of Broadcasting was meant to be an enormous schmoozefest. But then the entire TV-news firmament was called away to Virginia, and so the planned red carpet was canceled, video crews were turned away, and reporters, or at least Party Lines reporters, were instructed to keep the questions “appropriate.” But, still, King wasn’t going to give up on the chance to wring a few laughs from the three remaining (aged) newspeople in town: Barbara Walters, Andy Rooney, Walter Cronkite. Longtime King friends Sid Young and Neil Simon were there, too, as well as many of his interviewees, including Ron Howard, Sandra Bernhard, and Mario Cuomo. “I’m honored that so many people are here, especially because I get to break news to you,” King joked from a podium. “Donald Trump bought the building. He was here 22 minutes, and if Donald is here 22 minutes, he buys the building.” Can’t imagine why people didn’t stay in town for material like that. —Miriam Datskovsky
