New-ish Palm Beach resident Sylvester Stallone stepped into the Wayback Machine earlier this month when he returned to Philadelphia and its Museum of Art ― you know, the place with all the steps ― as the city created a day to celebrate Stallone’s “Rocky.”
From now on, every Dec. 3 ― the day “Rocky” was released to U.S. audiences nearly 50 years ago ― will be “Rocky” Day, an official city holiday in Philadelphia.
Stallone addressed his fans as “real-life Rockys.”
“All of you, believe it or not, are real-life Rockys. You live your life on your own terms. You try to do the best you can, and you keep punching.”
The crowd of thousands gathered in the cold rain reportedly included hundreds dressed as Rocky.
We’re hoping it was the hoodie-and-skully bundled-up Rocky and not the shirtless boxing trunks Rocky. Because, you know, they would all be down w ith pneumonia right about now.
The best guest … Well, somebody had a good time at philanthropist Lois Pope’s party celebrating her donation of yet another state-of-the-art ambulance to Magen David Adom.
The guest left the party and the next morning called the local Magen David Adom office to donate $500,000 for another ambulance.
The generous guest insisted on remaining nameless. When asked who it was, hostess Pope professed that she had no clue. “All I know is that it was a man.”
Well, that narrows it down.
Still, waaaay better than a thank-you note, right?
Write stuff …Bestselling author Michael Gross, who was back in town for a signing of his new book, “Flight of the WASP,” was the guest of honor at an intimate post-signing dinner hosted at Swifty’s by his longtime friend Laurie Bodor.
Gross, who chatted easily with everybody, told guests he found himself with a new identity when he was scanning Amazon, checking on his book’s progress, when he found himself described as a “cultural anthropologist.”
“And all these years I thought I was an author,” he said, “only to discover that I’m an anthropologist.”
Gross told guests that he was happy to be back in Palm Beach and said that although the town has changed externally, it was still small-town warm on the inside.
Really, we would have argued that point, but by then we were on our third glass of champers and didn’t want to take a chance on standing up.
There: Gigi and Harry Benson, Nick and Molly Mele, Somers and Johnathan Farkas, Earle Mack, Tatiana and Campion Platt, Christine and Gene Pressman, George Jousma, and then a bunch more who migrated from surrounding tables and turned an intimate dinner party into a full-on bash.
Not that we’re complaining.