New & Noteworthy: Celebs and sequins at IAC dinner

By Eileen Murphy

The Irish Arts Center’s annual benefit went ahead as planned last Friday night at the venerable New York Athletic Club. The mood was festive, but thoughts of the recent terrorist attacks were on everyone’s mind, as Cathie Ryan movingly sang the Irish and American national anthems.

This was one of those rare events where celebrities mingled freely with the regular guests; the first person we spotted was Liam Neeson, chatting amiably with a trio of starry-eyed fans. After checking in with actress and IAC volunteer Jacqueline Kealey — we headed off to the loo to make sure we didn’t have lipstick on our teeth before starting to mingle.

Followed a long-haired woman in a green suit into the ladies room, and spread out a bunch of cosmetics on the ledge in front of the mirror. Just as we were touching up some eyeshadow, a man with a walkie-talkie came in, walked over to the sink and started washing his hands.

Unisex bathrooms at the NYAC? we thought. Talk about progress.

We turned to see if the other woman though this was strange, but she was busy at the urinal. Hey — how could we see the urinal? What the heck kind of unisex bath . . .

Quickly, it dawned on us that the lady in the corner was really a man with long black hair and a taupe suit. The guy with the walkie-talkie was snickering as we frantically shoved makeup into our handbag and beat a hasty retreat.

In the actual ladies room, we applied more lipstick and turned a critical eye on our new jacket — a black-beaded and silver-sequined garment that had looked O. in the store, but now made us feel like Siegfried and Roy’s little sister. Really, all we needed was a blond pompadour and a whip. But it was too late to change, so out into the fray . . .

Upstairs, Gabriel Byrne chatted with the evening’s honoree, Niall Toibin. Ran into the IAC’s executive director, Pauline Turley, who looked stunning in a black halter-necked gown.

“I can’t believe the turnout,” she said happily.

As luck would have it, we wound up sitting next to the guy with the long hair. He was unimpressed when we related our story to the rest of the table. Ooops.

After dinner, the fund-raising auction began. Bidding was fierce on a script from the movie “Michael Collins,” signed by Liam Neeson. Hotelier John Fitzpatrick paid more than $2,000 for the item, which will look nice in the Fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel’s Liam Neeson penthouse suite.

Michael Flatley’s sequined “Lord of the Dance” jacket drew a couple of thousand dollars as well, as did a walk-on role in “Sex and the City.” The same woman bought both, and was rewarded with a big smooch from “Sex” star — make that, sexy star — Chris Noth.

As we headed out into the night, we could hear the bidding going fast and furious for a walk-on role in “Law and Order,” which was ultimately bought by IAC Artistic Director/film actor Neal Jones. Then it was down to Penn Station in a cab, where we finally shed the annoying jacket, and changed into a sweater, much to the cabbie’s delight. Relax, buddy, we wanted to say — there’s a tank top underneath. But hey, shouldn’t everyone have a story to tell?

A chip off the old block

Irish screen legend Richard Harris has a hard-earned and, by all accounts, well-deserved reputation as a tough old SOB. But even the 70-year-old irresistible force knows enough to buckle under when he meets an immovable object — in this case, his granddaughter Ella. We hear that the precocious child read her grandpa the riot act when she heard that he’d refused to appear in the upcoming Harry Potter movie.

The film’s producers were desperate to sign Harris to play the pivotal role of Professor Dumbledore, master of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harris, who had not read the books, thanked them for their interest but politely turned them down.

“They kept offering me the part and raising the salary every time they called,” laughed Harris during a speech at the Toronto Film festival. The reason: he didn’t want to be “roped in” for any sequels.

Sounds reasonable enough to us. But Ella was having none of it.

“Papa, I hear you are not going to do the Harry Potter movie,” she told the startled septugenarian.

“[But] if you don’t play Dumbledore, I will never speak to you again!” she threatened.

Harris saw the invisible handwriting on the mystical wall (or whatever) and did what he had to do.

“I agreed I would do the movie,” he said. And the sequels, too, if he knows what’s good for him. Just ask Ella.

Minnie’s break with Brolin

Minnie Driver’s circle of friends just got a little smaller.

The actress, who has been doing a line with actor Josh Brolin — son of James (is that “double a”?) Brolin and stepson of Barbra Streisand — reportedly broke off the 5 1/2-month engagement.

In recent months, the gossip mills have reported that Min and the MIL (that’s mother-in-law, silly) have not been seeing eye-to-eye on wedding preparations. We hear that the British beauty had her heart set on a Vera Wang dress for her march down the aisle, but Babs was pushing a design by her best friend, Donna Karan — and she could get it for her wholesale (ba-dum-bum!) And so on, and so on.

The New York Post’s Neal Travis hints that while Barbra isn’t too upset to see the back of Minnie, hubby James is sorry to see her go.

“He thought Minnie was a sweetie,” wrote Travis. Yeah, but consider his frame of reference.

Why celebs should be seen and not heard

We’ve never understood the appeal of the various Baldwin brothers. We’ll admit that Alec was rather dishy in “Working Girl,” but that was a long time ago. The other, less attractive siblings appeared in a slew of forgettable movies, presumably when producers couldn’t afford Alec.

But we’re getting off the subject, which is that Alec has apparently appeared in one too many action movies. Baldwin, who starred in “The Hunt for Red October” as well as the recent — and laughably bad- “Pearl Harbor,” announced that he’s not happy about being in Los Angeles to film “Path to War” for HBO. Even if it does give him the opportunity to spend time with his daughter Ireland.

“There’s that weird part of me that thinks if New York gets bombed again, I want to be here,” he told the New York Post. “I’d rather die getting bombed in a New York bombing than live some kind of shallow life somewhere else.”

Groovy, baby!

Just when we thought Pierce Brosnan couldn’t get any cooler comes word that the suave Irish smoothie will star alongside Mike Meyers in the upcoming Austin Powers movie, “Goldmember.”

Brosnan, who has single-handedly revived the James Bond franchise over the last few years, will join Irish pop cutie Samantha Mumba, Heather Graham and Michael Caine, according to London’s Daily Express. The characters will join forces to defeat Dr. Evil and a bunch of other hilarious baddies.

There’s no word on what kind of paycheck Pierce will collect, but we’re betting that it’ll be at least one meeeelllion dollars. (Sorry — couldn’t resist.)