reporter: Miguel Dominguez
text: Champagne Joy and friends
Since going Metastatic Stage 4 Breast Cancer, Champagne Joy has been overwhelmed by crushing medical costs. So, on July 23rd at the very intimate lounge "No. 8", her dear friend Mira Sorvino organized a fundraiser with live music, an auction, both live and silent…and best of all, a champagne party!
Live Auction items included:
"It will get better or we will get better at it." This is what I tell women as they enter #Cancerland and here I am, once again, telling myself."
"First there was cancer. Then there was metastatic cancer. Now there is a new cancer. Over the weekend I was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma in addition to my ongoing battle with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer. Just when you think you’ve got to the acceptance part of the grief cycle, WHAM!, you’re back at the beginning, taking new tests and learning a new language of disease and medicine."
"I will start down the road of a series of clarifying tests and immediate treatment (chemo and surgery) for this new disease I’m fighting. You know you’re in trouble when your oncologist calls you and says, “How much can one person take?!"
"But, can you imagine, if I beat all of it? Or if I were to instead die falling down the stairs on the way to treatment? What I never get better at is believing that I’m damned to this and nothing more. In April, we went to the Hot Pink Party and en route to meeting Elton John that night, I cried and cried, sad that it was my last big party. Yet, here I am, riddled with cancer, but alive in July and going to a huger party in no more than 55 hours from now!"
text: Champagne Joy and friends
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| Mira Sorvino and Champagne Joy |
Since going Metastatic Stage 4 Breast Cancer, Champagne Joy has been overwhelmed by crushing medical costs. So, on July 23rd at the very intimate lounge "No. 8", her dear friend Mira Sorvino organized a fundraiser with live music, an auction, both live and silent…and best of all, a champagne party!
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| Mira and Champagne with Interior Designer Iris Dankner, Founder of Holiday House, a Show House organization that benefits The breast Cancer Research Foundation |
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| Barbara Schorr, Gina Drayton Ludlow, Cindy Citrone, Denise Daniels Biagi, Alan O, Iris Dankner, #Cancerland's Heidi Price Taylor |
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| Michael Green, here with Mira, was the auctioneer |
Live Auction items included:
A week in a Paris Apartment on Ile de La Cité, with views of the Seine, the Pont Neuf, and the Louvre
A Private Sailboat Cruise for 2-6 guests along the Long Island Sound, with cocktails, champagne, and hors d'oeuvres
Mira shows off her Dad's contribution to the worthy cause: lunch with a portrait of the auction winner drawn by Paul
A Walk-On Part in the sit-com
'Anger Management'
Autographed Guitars: Tim Morello's Red Stratocaster from 'Rage against the Machine' and Bob Trujillo's Fender Bass from 'Metallica'
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| Notorious YSL model Samuel de Cubber presented the auction items |
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| Jason Binn, Host of the evening, clowning around with Mira and Champagne |
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| Jazzman Gary Negbaur with the Joy Love Orchestra: Dor Heled, Uri Seelig, Joanna Sternberg |
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| Hoda Dodd, Lyndon Campbell, and Hadley King |
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| The Champ with hubby Michael Hall to her right |
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| Elle Murphy and Lori Fagan of Ellela Cosmetics |
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| Marcie Blaser, Grace Speare, Hamida Belkadi, Angete Garnier, and Zehie Belkadi |
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| Tobi and Brian Pecker |
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| Maggi Kaeser, Champagne, Denise Biagi, and Heidi Taylor |
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| Luana Ayres-Walter with son Blake, and Inaam Rahman |
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| Laurel Pell with Davida and Richard Rothberg |
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| Michelle Vecchio with Al DeFraio |
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| "FlintFace" band members |
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| Maria and Caterina Campagna with name shy friend to the left |
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| Michele Vecchio with Sue Russo |
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| Actor/Producer David Juskow |
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| Hadley King, Andrew Stein, Hada Dodd, and Alan O |
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| Bill Sorvino Sr., Roberta Sorvino, Fran Strauss-Baxter, Jack Baxter, Rene Devlin-Weiss. With mobile: Paul Snatchko |
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| Jason, Mira, Champagne, and Nick Loeb |
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| Cabaret Chanteuse Lauren Fox with Joanna Sternberg on Guitar |
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| Shelby Saunders & Edie Saunders |
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| Actor/Director/Writer Michael Shershenovich, whose latests output is 'SKID ROW' |
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| Michael Ignazzi |
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| Amy Sacco and Miles Chamley-Watson |
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| Deborah Martin and Gregory Allan Cramer, both contributing designers at the 2013 Holiday House Show House, being captured by Rio Hamilton for his blog "Mon Oncle" |
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| Iris, Rio Hamilton, and Champagne |
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| The Champ with Gerald Farrell |
"It will get better or we will get better at it." This is what I tell women as they enter #Cancerland and here I am, once again, telling myself."
"First there was cancer. Then there was metastatic cancer. Now there is a new cancer. Over the weekend I was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma in addition to my ongoing battle with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer. Just when you think you’ve got to the acceptance part of the grief cycle, WHAM!, you’re back at the beginning, taking new tests and learning a new language of disease and medicine."
"I will start down the road of a series of clarifying tests and immediate treatment (chemo and surgery) for this new disease I’m fighting. You know you’re in trouble when your oncologist calls you and says, “How much can one person take?!"
"But, can you imagine, if I beat all of it? Or if I were to instead die falling down the stairs on the way to treatment? What I never get better at is believing that I’m damned to this and nothing more. In April, we went to the Hot Pink Party and en route to meeting Elton John that night, I cried and cried, sad that it was my last big party. Yet, here I am, riddled with cancer, but alive in July and going to a huger party in no more than 55 hours from now!"
"And then it got worse. More bad news after the PET Scan. Another crackly cell to cell call from the oncologist while I’m again at a loud restaurant to say the cancer is spreading and treatment is failing. I’m losing the battle. My mind races. My stomach drops. The panic tries to take me before even the cancer can. Every thought is a killer. I can’t get the replay audio out of my head, my dying friend asking me yesterday if I’ve thought of exactly where I want to be when I die and the sound of my crying mother exclaiming, “I refuse to believe this is the end!” I try to get the Yoga meditation thing to kick in. I can hear my Master, Chrissy’s voice on a loop, “I’m breathing in. I’m breathing out” but she’s got competition today and now I am looking for the bottle of Valium instead. No one can drown out Grace’s angry and devastated plea to God to save her daughter."
"So we’ll troop back up to Connecticut and look at all the new and larger tumors on the screen and hear about all the soon-to-be-experienced side effects of the next phase of new radical chemo, but I can’t help feeling that urgency of my own voice in my head screaming "I don’t want to die!" It’s time to go full tilt. I’ve got to finally crack the code on the Tibetan medicine doctor (let it ring twice, hang up, let it ring three times, walk up 5 flights of stairs, then knock and leave, she’ll call you 3 days later at 2 am) and the still-elusive hemp oil (who wants a free flight to Colorado in exchange for a little drug smuggling?)"
Contact & Links:
http://www.facebook.com/champagne.joy
http://www.facebook.com/cancerlandchampagne
https://twitter.com/champagne_joy
http://instagram.com/champagnejoy
http://champagnejoy.tumblr.com/
"So we’ll troop back up to Connecticut and look at all the new and larger tumors on the screen and hear about all the soon-to-be-experienced side effects of the next phase of new radical chemo, but I can’t help feeling that urgency of my own voice in my head screaming "I don’t want to die!" It’s time to go full tilt. I’ve got to finally crack the code on the Tibetan medicine doctor (let it ring twice, hang up, let it ring three times, walk up 5 flights of stairs, then knock and leave, she’ll call you 3 days later at 2 am) and the still-elusive hemp oil (who wants a free flight to Colorado in exchange for a little drug smuggling?)"
—Champagne Joy
http://www.facebook.com/champagne.joy
http://www.facebook.com/cancerlandchampagne
https://twitter.com/champagne_joy
http://instagram.com/champagnejoy
http://champagnejoy.tumblr.com/
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