As soon as RICHARD GERE pulled his teenage stepdaughter, HANNAH DUNNE, to his side, CAREY LOWELL swooped in and snatched the Diet Coke and aluminum takeout container out of her hand.

"We had to stop for food on the way over here," Mr. Gere explained.

What's the big deal? A little nosh on the red carpet never hurt anybody.

We were at the Metropolitan Pavilion for, let's get this right, Organic Elegance: An Evening of Organic Ambiance, World Music and Holistic Elegance, benefiting the Continuum Center for Health and Healing at the Beth Israel Medical Center. Somehow, we guess, the Diet Coke did not fit in.

Then again, the man who attracted most of the celebrities was the executive director of the center, DR. WOODSON C. MERRELL, or Woody to his patients. We were eager to meet a respected practitioner of alternative medicine who goes by Woody, a bit like meeting a poststructuralist literary critic named Rusty. But who are we to judge? He has needles.

"Woody, I've known him forever," Mr. Gere said. "I also took him to India a few years ago, where he met the Tibetan Community."

Ms. Lowell, wearing a low-cut plum top and pinstriped pants, interrupted. "Let's go to the oxygen bar, honey," she said.

"Oop, got to go," Mr. Gere said.

After cocktail hour - oxygen hour? air hour? - we sat at dinner with Dr. Merrell, a tall bespectacled man, as well as ED BURNS, a pregnant CHRISTY TURLINGTON, and DONNA KARAN, who is into kabbalah and also wants to go skiing soon. SARAH McLACHLAN performed, turning the crowd, and particularly Mr. Burns and Ms. Turlington, into a purée of romantic goo.

TOM FRESTON was honored with a large gold Buddha.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let us return to the red carpet and to ANDRÉ BALAZS, whom we were asking how involved he had become in Buddhism since dating UMA THURMAN.

"I pay attention to it," he said. "I went to hear the DALAI LAMA yesterday."

Did you meet him?

"I did meet him," Mr. Balazs said. "As I was leaving, we were backstage, he did something very surprising. He gave me a slap on the back, like, 'Go young man.' It was touching. I don't know why."

Mr. Balazs was leaving the party to have dinner with his father, but first he said hello to Ms. Thurman's mother, NENA VON SCHLEBRÜGGE.

Ms. von Schlebrügge, a former model, has been busy as secretary of the Tibet House (her husband, ROBERT THURMAN, is the board president). But we had had our fill of conversations about the Dalai Lama. We were more interested in Ms. von Schlebrügge's past life, namely, her marriage to TIMOTHY LEARY.

"Many years ago, for a very short period of time, but nobody seems to forget it," Ms. von Schlebrügge said.

What attracted you to Mr. Leary?

"My father was 25 years older than my mother; I was attracted to older men," she said. "My father died when I was 13. So I had a typical classical father complex. But after spending one year with Timothy Leary, I think I was permanently cured."

Do you think that he took advantage of the fact that you were so young?

"Well, he probably did, he was a physiologist," she said. "He was trained to look at people, and he did. But he was very gregarious and full of life. He was a very intelligent, fun person. He was always looking for the meaning of life. I don't know if he found it."

She spoke of her own search for the meaning of life, of her introduction to Buddhism and the questions it answered. Whereupon we brought up Mr. Balazs.

"I hear very good things about him from other people," Ms. von Schlebrügge said. "And myself, I think he is awfully nice.

What about as a son-in-law?

"I don't think my daughter is interested in getting married."

You know, the Dalai Lama did pat him on the back.

"The Lama is very psychic," she said. "It's a good sign."