Bookworms Unite

(NEW YORK) The library might not be the first place one thinks of as the site for a festive dance party, but that's just what happened last night--after the librarians were honored, that is. The New York Public Library celebrated its annual Library Lions Benefit, which honored author Annie Proulx, Eloise illustrator Hilary Knight, and outstanding librarians David Smith and Julia Chang. Book-loving attendees gathered in their black-tie finest for cocktails pre-dinner, where the evening's emcee John Lithgow mingled among guests like Billy Crudup, Oscar de la Renta (a co-chair of the evening), Barbara Walters, and Rachel Roy.

Leighton Meester was one of the younger Lions in attendance. "When I was growing up in the city, we used to come here all the time. I was supposed to come to this event last year but for some reason I couldn't, I guess I was working really late. But this year, we're good! I'm here!" The Gossip Girl, who clung tight to boyfriend Sebastian Stan, almost didn't make it this year, either--but because of wardrobe issues rather than work. "You know when you're just not in the mood, and then you get a dress and you think, 'Actually...'" she laughed of her bow-topped Prabal Gurung frock. "I met Prabal and I was like, 'Can I eat you?' He's really sweet."

Of course, being in a library, Meester indulged in her own bookish tendencies. "I just read The Road Less Traveled. I'm obsessed with that book. I really love it. I love Love in the Time of Cholera, and I really love David Sedaris and Chuck Palahniuk."
EMILY GYBEN