Professor Alain Puisieux, Jane Fonda – All photos Lieba Nesis
“One never notices what has been done: one can only see what remains to be done,” said Polish-born physicist and chemist Marie Curie whose Legacy Gala took place Tuesday, November 19th, 2024, at the Rainbow Room at 30 Rockefeller Plaza with cocktails beginning at 6:30 PM.
Close to two hundred guests joined to help raise money for the Marie Curie Legacy Initiative which includes a $15 million Chemical Biology of Cancer Research Center located in the heart of Paris of which $13 million has been collected.
Guy Martin
Attempting to get a photo with icon and multiple time cancer survivor Jane Fonda was equally challenging as excited guests surrounded the 86-year-old legend. Unlike Fonda who was effectively treated, Curie died in 1934 at the age of 66 of aplastic anemia due to chemical exposure in the course of her pioneering research leading to the groundbreaking discovery of polonium and radium.
Rainbow Room
As the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win it in two different scientific fields, physics and chemistry, Curie’s indelible mark can be felt on nearly every street and park in France bearing her name.
Sana Sabbagh
During World War I Curie developed mobile radiography units to provide X-ray services in field hospitals and was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris. Fonda has similarly won two coveted awards called the Oscars in acting and continues to pave the way in climate activism and human rights while forging ahead with her career- completing four movies in the last year alone.
Cyril Karaoglan & Christine Schwarzman
Additional pioneering female dinner attendees included designer Tory Burch and husband Pierre-Yves Roussel, Broadway producer Christine Schwarzman and Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal. These accomplished ladies were deep in conversation with legendary author Walter Isaacson whose rarefied appearance had the audience gasping with delight.
Dr. Robert Montgomery
The $1,500 per ticket cost was well worth the fact-filled evening as illustrious cancer researchers Steven Le Gouill, and Alain Puisieux discussed some of the exciting therapies on the horizon. Chief Medical Correspondent for CBS News, Jon LaPook, emceed the evening with a combination of vast medical knowledge and a hint of show biz pizzazz informing the guests of some groundbreaking remedies that can be used across multiple cancers.
Tory Burch & husband Pierre Yves Roussel
The evening featured the normally publicity shy Pierre Yves Roussel, the husband and CEO of Tory Burch, who heroically detailed his 11 year old son’s battle with brain cancer seven years ago. He credited the Curie Hospital for saving his son’s life by making proton therapy available after completing two emergency brain surgeries.
Patricia and Roger Silverstein
As the first time Yves has told his heartbreaking story in public the decision was made to help parents facing the same tragic predicament. Raising money for this cutting edge research is more pivotal than ever as auctioneer Rachel Orkin Ramey goaded the audience into purchasing two Chateau Margaux magnums for $10,000, and a premium trip to Paris for $8,000 which includes a dinner at three star Michelin chef Guy Martin’s Le Grand Vefour.
Anne Li, Susan Gutfreund & Peter Thomas Roth
The highlight of the evening, aside from the spectacular dessert, was Jane Fonda’s tearful and emphatic concluding speech, in which she detailed her own battle with breast cancer and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma attributing it to the “toxic soup of chemicals we live in.”
Cathy & Walter Issacson
Fonda inquired as to why 40 percent of the population has cancer, attributing it to the climate crisis with “a lot of folks getting rich by giving us cancer.” The indefatigable Fonda joked she will imminently be visiting France’s Institute Curie, as she was jealous of Angelina Jolie’s comprehensive 2019 tour.
Jean Shafiroff & Jane Fonda
As Fonda gets ready to receive the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award in February it seems likely a Jane Fonda Legacy Gala might be somewhere on the horizon.
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