Not that the Tribeca Film Festival needs an extra dose of glamour. But industry types like Matthew Modine have come to appreciate the star-studded dinner that a certain French house throws every year. "This feels like a Chanel party because it's a lot of cool people," the actor and short-film director noted last night, scanning Balthazar's model-packed dining room for the likes of Ron Howard, Rupert Friend, and Sophia Loren.

The latter, who'd arrived early, was being solicitously attended to by festival cofounder Robert De Niro. The official guests of honor, though, were the artists who'd donated works of theirs as festival prizes—one lucky filmmaker, for example, will be taking home a Modine C-print of Stanley Kubrick's director's chair.

Waiters pushed through with fruits de mer and steak frites. Mickey Sumner, who's serving on the festival jury for Best New Narrative Director, joined a table with Harley Viera-Newton and Lily Aldridge. Cat Power was seated with fellow chanteuse Sophie Auster, who had improvised a safety-pin fix for her Chanel suspenders.

Tory Burch has been working on a book to be released this fall and was happy to have a break. "This is the perfect environment," the designer decided. "Big, open, lots of mirrors, and the lighting is pretty good"—something the movie people, no doubt, appreciated as much as the fashionistas.

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The spring gala season can be a long march for the social set, one black-tie gala after another, but every year New Yorkers for Children's Fool's Fête provides a bit of relief: The dresses are shorter, the colors are brighter, the evening's program is by comparison more concise, and the thirty-sixth-floor ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental gives a great view of Central Park's just-bloomed trees.

It was just the occasion for which philanthropist Gillian Miniter had been saving her Ralph Rucci sequin cocktail dress: "Usually Ralph is pretty covered up, but not this one—va-va-voom!" Leandra Medine dramatically introduced her Max Mara dress, "Do note the cascade of orchids down my left breast."

The crowd last night did feel that NYFC's cause was one worth dressing up for—and worth fighting for, apparently, as two women went head-to-head over some handbags in the silent auction. Said one bidder: "If she thinks she's walking away with that Prada, she's the real fool tonight."

After the dust had settled, guests took their seats for dinner. The keynote speaker was a student recipient of the organization's scholarships, telling the room that, "In eighth grade I was valedictorian, and I had to give a speech to a huge crowd. But tonight I'm a bit more nervous…I never thought I would belong in such an elegant crowd as this." When the student announced that she will be graduating this year from John Jay College of Criminal Justice because of NYFC's generosity, the room erupted in applause. Emma Roberts told Style.com: "All kids deserve a fair shot. Everybody needs that, no matter who you are."

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How do you persuade the world's top two tennis players to take to the court outside their hectic schedules? It's easy when you're Natalia Vodianova. The persuasive supermodel and philanthropist invited a group of her closest friends and supporters of her charity, the Naked Heart Foundation, to witness a private match between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the NHF on Saturday. Due to injury, Djokovic had to sit out at the last minute, which was unfortunate because he gave Vodianova the idea in the first place.

The story began at last July's Love Ball, when the current world No. 2 Djokovic bid on a lot for a tennis lesson with the world No. 1 Rafael Nadal, much to the room's delight. "The bidding had started to stagnate around 70,000 euros, but then suddenly Novak stood up and shouted, '100,000!'" Vodianova remembered. "It was a magical moment. Everyone just screamed with surprise." His bid prompted auctioneer James Corden to propose turning the match into doubles, which led to the winning bid from Alexander Medvedev, commissioner of the Kontinental Hockey League, and, nine months later, to a tennis match and a celebratory cocktail at the palatial home of the Lavazza family, high in the hills above Monaco.

Nadal took his rival's move in good humor. "I thought it was great when I heard he bid for it! It was good fun, and I'm very happy to support Natalia and her foundation." But the road to glory isn't always smooth, as any tennis champ will tell you. "Last night I began to have a very bad feeling," said a pregnant Vodianova—so pregnant, in fact, that her doctor had made the journey from Paris with her in case of emergency. "You know that feeling where something is badly wrong? And then I got a call early in the morning, saying that Novak had injured himself. Of course I had a small panic attack! And I was absolutely heartbroken by it, but then this morning we found a very noble replacement for Novak in Mikhail Youzhny."

Youzhny and Medvedev vied against Nadal and a friend of Medvedev's for an hour, to applause from guests including Princess Charlene of Monaco, Pierre Casiraghi, Antoine Arnault, Lucy Yeomans, and Djokovic himself, who came by to wish the players well before the match. "Novak did say, 'When I am better, I will come back and play,' but there is nothing he can do right now. There's not much a tennis player can do without his right hand!" Vodianova sighed courtside after Nadal's side triumphed over Youzhny's. "But maybe they can meet again—we can repeat the match here next year with Novak and turn this into an annual event!"

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