Exhausted Gala Glitter

At the shiny vault of Montage Deer Valley, the so‑called Mingle & Jingle masqueraded as a philanthropic soirée lifted from the set of a Wes Anderson costume catalogue. The Cerulean‑glazed lobby, pressed‑in teal T‑shirts, and an unremarkable drip of Don Weller's pastel equine stills promised. Jason Hewlett, still‑clinching his local celebrity, oversaw restless bidders in a crowd whose stiff stateliness chipped at the velvet rope. The celebrity shortlist was a tragicomic cast: veteran councilor Megan McKenna with a stay at Newpark, a handful of donors with medals of honor, and a single panel of buyers for a $12,000 horse‑painting. While the Montage March‑led a flickering brass compass, the event's people traffic was nothing on the scale of Sundance's people‑traffic (traffic, we note, was a minor inconvenience compared to parking on the mountain). Verdict: Send a check but stay home.