Rue McClanahan told another in which a drunken Bea succinctly speaks her mind about Betty White using only one word that begins with the same letter as canary. The incredible Angela Lansbury, an octogenarian who moves with the coltish fluidity of a sixteen year old, opened the celebration by wonderfully belting out the song from Mame that was Bea Arthur's big solo, The Man in the Moon is a Lady.

I also had a chat with Buck Hollywood from "What the Buck", caught up with old friend Michael Wilson who is Executive Director of the Hartford Stage Company, traded beauty secrets with Coco Peru and met a very handsome young man named Eric Garcia who plays piano and sings several nights a week at Chez Josephine on 42nd Street, the location of the after-party where I got the picture of Anne Meara seated across the table from Norman Lear. We will go back there soon to, um, hear the boy sing.

The big good news announced at the celebration by Executive Director Carl Siciliano is that the Ali Forney Center is naming its first housing facility the "Bea Arthur Residence". For that reason, it would have also been appropriate had Angela sung yet another song from Mame, Saint Brigit Deliver Us. Come on, you theater and movie queens. You know it by heart, but can you hit those notes at the end? I can, and the remarkable Angela Lansbury still can.

Here are some stellar pics: