HughE Dillon: D.A. Seth Williams Gets All Wild West

Plus: Dancers, partiers and bull riders at the Children's Crisis Treatment Center's Roundup, and Real New Jersey Housewife Teresa Giudice creates a scene at the Center City Borders

I high-tailed it over to the Loews Hotel for the 11th annual Children’s Crisis Treatment Center Roundup on Friday night, which was co-chaired by Jim & Natalie Hennessy and Amanda & Ken Schwenke, with honorary chair D.A. Seth Williams. The Roundup encourages guests to trade in their usual event ballgowns and tuxedos for blue jeans and cowboy boots, and I think it makes for a great time.

They provide the cowboy hats, kerchiefs and even your own sheriff’s badge. ABOVE: Husband and wife team Sarah and Justin Messina do the honors as guests enter the hoedown.

Every year the theme is cowboy, but every year the room is decorated differently. This year, the dance floor was on the far end of the room. To me, the feng shui seems better with it on the right side of the room. Sharon Moore, of Moore Events, created a clean look with simple wooden chairs, a rustic fence and a statue of a horse.

I always love checking out the silent auction items to see what interesting and adventurous items are up for grabs. Jaime Pearlstine tells me that the silent auction committee made calls and collected items from all over the Delaware Valley. I saw a children’s toy chest, an Anna Sui dress, a Jimmy Choo bag, a grill, and a safari to Africa. The item I was trying to win was Lady Gaga tickets in a club box for her September 15th concert at Wachovia. It went for $550 to some lucky soul who didn’t get sweaty palms when the bidding got that high. Proceeds from the silent auction generated about $30,000.

ABOVE: Sharon Moore and Jaime Perlstein, CCTC’s director of development operations.

Did I mention the bull? It was a ranch after all.  The mechanical bull was a big hit. ABOVE: Kerry O’Connor, director of marketing at Magee Rehabilitation.

No matter how good of a rider you were, there was only one way to get off.

ABOVE: CBS 3’s medical specialist Stephanie Stahl revving up to get her dance on.

ABOVE: Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and DA Seth Williams get their groove on. Others spotted at the Roundup: a solo Joe Weiss, who told me that his wife Sharon Pinkenson was off traveling, Dr. Adriana Torres, Tony Valdes (chief executive director of CCTC), Josh Heller, Stephanie Kuo, Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez, Sonita Williams (Seth Williams’s wife, who’s a might fine dancer herself), and Janine and Albert Simmons (I recently covered his 50th birthday).

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Maybe Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice was busy screaming at one of her neighbors, as she was nearly two hours late for the signing of her new book Skinny Italian at Borders Center City. But that didn’t bother her fans; a devoted bunch, they didn’t even want to talk about their idol’s newly filed bankruptcy claim stating she is $9 million in debt.


Ironic, since she is on a reality TV show and it seems that everything she does in private is our business. OK. I confess I have never seen the show, but I did watch a few clips on YouTube last night, and the show is over-the-top drama. More drama than two socialites fighting for the crown of “Dancing with the Philadelphia’s Stars” trophy. (Pictured above: Justine D’Urso patiently waiting.)

Let’s talk about her fans: Nearly 500About 200 women and eight guys waited in line in the somewhat stuffy Center City Borders as the air-con was on the blink. Some arrived nearly three hours before the start of her signing. Some from as far as Bridgeport, WV—a five-hour drive for mother-daughter duo Angela and Brittany Elliott.

ABOVE: First in line, Noelle Ciara, mom Ann Marie and friend Bobby Howard. They came from Baltimore and arrived at 3 p.m. The trio gathers each week to watch the reality show. 

ABOVE: Baby Hannah with mom Jennifer Richman.

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