A Night for the TIME 100

By James Kelly/Managing Editor

If you read our latest selection of the world's 100 most influential people two weeks ago, you know how eclectic the list is. So you would not have been surprised at who turned out last week when we held a dinner in New York City for the TIME 100. Juanes, the Colombian rock star, opened the evening, Jon Stewart delivered an exceptionally witty monologue, and then the glorious Melissa Etheridge brought the guests to their feet with her set, culminating in the Janis Joplin classic Me and Bobby McGee. More than 50 influentials attended, and several of them--Bill Belichick, Martha Stewart, the architect Santiago Calatrava, the Dutch women's-rights advocate Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Indian superstar Aishwarya Rai and Eliot Spitzer--toasted those who had influenced them.

To read about the TIME 100, please visit TIME.com As you can see from encounters like the one between Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang and Vanguard founder John Bogle (the names in red are influentials), folks enjoyed meeting one another.

James Kelly, Managing Editor