The Pierre Hotel hosted some of today’s most accomplished Broadway and Hollywood heroines in plaques at the Women’s Project 24th Annual Women of Achievement Awards Gala.

New York’s social elite joined the femme fatales in what was a happy reunion for honoree Estelle Parsons and presenter Arthur Penn, who directed her Oscar-winning role in the classic Bonnie and Clyde. The quirky actress, now in her eighties, is still kicking, soon heading off on a 44-week American tour of her hit Broadway play August: Osage County. In the 90’s, Parsons played a grandmother on the TV series Rosanne. Nearly twenty years later she’s full-steam ahead—perhaps proving eighty is the new fifty?

The evening’s honoree, Lucia Hwong Gordon, composer of the Tony-award winning M. Butterfly, dazzled in one of Zang Toi’s latest gowns and Toi completed her ensemble as the ultimate accessory as he graced her arm for the evening. Lucia was presented with her award by Law and Order: SVU actor B.D. Wong, who starred in M. Butterfly.
And playwright Henry David Hwang was also among the men celebrating the achievement of the pool of honorees, which included Susan K. Reed, editor-in-Chief of O, and Susan Sobbott, president of AMEX OPEN.

After dinner, spirited guests including Cynthia and Tony Maltese, Baroness Monica von Zadora Gerlof, Bonnie Pfeiffer Evans, CeCe and Lee Black, and Marcia Levine burned up the dance floor as the DJ played late into the night. It may have been frigid outside, but Women’s Project was keeping it hot inside.