True Kelly Green

You were in like Flynn last night at Michael's if your name happened to be Kelly. But even if your surname doesn't match that of the city's current police commissioner (seen at left with his wife, Veronica) the camaraderie and goodwill at the sixth-annual Kelly Gang benefit were still in plentiful supply. What started life as a whimsically named group of media mavens who enjoyed lunching together and who happened to share the last name Kelly has become a full-fledged charity. Members including novelist Tom Kelly, New York Post "Media Ink" columnist Keith Kelly, Time Inc. managing editor Jim Kelly and House Beautiful publisher Kate Kelly Smith were inspired to take their mealtime gatherings to another level when one of their own, Michael Kelly of the New Yorker, became the first journalist to die in the Iraq war, in 2003. The following year, the surviving Kellys held a buffet dinner to raise money to help put the fallen reporter's sons through college. In the time since, the Kelly Gang has contributed to a variety of worthy causes, this year's beneficiary being the Doe Fund, which campaigns to end homelessness by putting New York's neediest to work cleaning the streets of the city. The kitchen at Michael's, normally known for its salmon sashimi and hanger steak salad, stepped up to the plate with an array of Irish dishes, including (of course) corned beef and cabbage. We'd expect nothing less from a restaurant owner whose last name is McCarty.

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