At ‘Queen Mary’ Party, the Ship Is the Star
Must-see TV might be gone for the summer, but last night’s Britannia Ball aboard the Queen Mary 2 was 20,000 leagues headier and more surreal than any Scrubs rerun. A New York City Opera–BAM benefit on the world’s biggest, most magnificent cruise ship, the gala was attended by stars — okay, admittedly sort of B-list stars — like Chevy Chase, Cynthia Nixon, Jill Hennessy, Carson Kressley, Lost’s Michael Emerson, and Patti LuPone, who performed torch songs in between cocktails and dinner in the ship’s Off Broadway–size theater. But the biggest star was the ship: almost incomprehensibly tall, long, and fancy, with dozens of restaurants and bar, six pools, a Canyon Ranch Spa, a planetarium (a planetarium!), and a mini-mall of luxe stores like Hermès, Chopard, and H. Stern. “I think I could shop my way through QM2,” Carson Kressley said over a cocktail.
