Better than Ezra

TriBeCa Nightclub Duane Park was sizzling last evening, with tasteful stripteases by Pandora, (pictured left) and Amber Ray and the trumpet sounds and ivory ticklings of a special Saturday-night cabaret act. (The restaurant recently began offering performances on select Saturdays to meet the great demand for weekend shows.) Among the patrons enjoying the night were banker Daniel Ezra and his wife, Lizzie da Trindade-Asher, who gathered more than two dozen of their closest friends on the occasion of Daniel's birthday. Many members of this very international crowd had traveled quite a distance to wish Daniel well, including from as far afield as Sweden. Another couple jetted in from Puerto Rico. After all the songs were sung and cigars had been passed around, the party people decamped to Kiss & Fly, where a little of both took place. The night finally wrapped near sunrise. All in all, a birthday to remember.

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Expert Opinion

Talk about a brain trust. There was an expert for every conundrum at Whiskey Park last night, where the ever-charming Samantha Ettus, with the support of ForbesLife magazine, launched her latest book, The Experts Guide to Doing Things Faster. Having trouble getting pregnant? There was Lisa Masterson, of TV's The Doctors. Not the best judge of character? If you were able to pin down former Army interrogator Greg Hartley, he was there to tell you how to read the body language of others. Do you know the best ways to make someone feel good or (conversely) how to politely exit a conversation? No? Well, if you're feeling the need to brush-up in one of these areas, you're probably wishing you were at Samantha's party, too. But fear not, because all of this wisdom (and more) is found in the book—natch. And you don't need to be a speed reader to make your way through it. With quick in-the-know tips from Richard Branson, Barbara Corcoran, Colin Cowie, Gunnar Peterson, Graham Hill, Sally Hershberger and even New York Insider's Thomas P. Farley, among others, the table-top tome is jam-packed with pithy and engaging must-dos. One word of advice...don't start reading it before bed and still expect to nod off. It's far too scintillating to make you drowsy. But if you do have problems in that department, see Chapter 41, by Dr. Michael Breus. His contribution? "How to Fall Asleep."

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