THE WOMEN YOU WANT TO SIT NEXT TO

Beef Wellington is tough enough without some bore chewing your ear off. Lets face it, dinner parties are hard work, and a good hostess needs an infallible reserve of entertaining guests to oil the social vinaigrette. Those invited to an A-list event are expected to sing for their supper. But as metropolitan life gets more and more competitive, there's always the risk that one diner will grandstand, hogging the spotlight and anesthetizing all. So every hostess has her ace in the hole—those foolproof women who will deftly rescue a table from the snoremonger C.E.O. and fight off conversational takeovers.

Vanity Fair has scoured the little black books of the black-tie set to find the women everyone wants to sit next to. Smart women, subtle women. Controversial women, charming women. Witty, well-informed, even wacky women. With this list, no one at your dinner parties will ever switch place cards again.

Every hostess has her ace in the hole—those foolproof women who will deftly rescue a table from the snoremonger.

No one at your parties will switch place cards again.

JANE AMSTERDAM

ANNE BASS

HILDEGARD BEHRENS

JOAN BINGHAM

SUSAN BRINKLEY

JOAN JULIET BUCK

JESSICA CATTO

SUSAN CHEEVER

MARCELLE CLEMENTS

CHARLOTTE CURTIS

JANET DE CORDOVA

BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN

MARY ANNE DOLAN

NORA EPHRON

SUZANNE FARRELL

LUCY FISHER

ANNIE FLANDERS

NANCY FRIDAY

ELLEN FUTTER

VERONICA GENG

CLIO GOLDSMITH

JUDITH GREEN

SUSAN GUTFREUND

ELIZABETH HARDWICK

PAMELA HARRIMAN

TERESA HEINZ

JANE HITCHCOCK

FREDERICKA HUNTER

JUDITH IVEY

KATHARINE JOHNSON

DONNA KARAN

NANCY KISSINGER

MARY WELLS LAWRENCE

FRAN LEBOWITZ

AMY LEVIN

PRINCESS MARINA OF GREECE

MERRILL MARKOE

ALICE MASON

ALICE MAYHEW

CAMILLA MCGRATH

AILEEN MEHLE

ELEANOR MONDALE

MAURA MOYNIHAN

LYNN NESBIT

PAT NEWCOMB

LESLIE NEWMAN

EDNA O'BRIEN

SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

JENNIFER PHILLIPS

SARAH PILLSBURY

CINDY PRITZKER

PAIGE RENSE

PATRICIA RYAN

LOUISA SAROFIM

ALEXANDRA SCHOENBURG

MAUREEN SMITH

OLYMPIA SNOWE

DR. MIRIAM STOPPARD

GERALDINE STUTZ

ROSE STYRON

CAROL RYAN VICTOR

WENDY WASSERSTEIN

SIGOURNEY WEAVER

HELEN WHITNEY

CRISTINA ZILKHA

Smart women, subtle women. Controversial women, charming women.