Stars illuminate Celtics' Garden party

Only one game into the Celtics' playoff season and the wattage in the stands at TD Banknorth Garden has already been kicked up a notch. While "Ashcliffe" star Leonardo DiCaprio enjoyed the game Sunday with his girlfriend, supermodel Bar Refaeli, and some relatives, Donnie Wahlberg took in the game with longtime season ticket holder Mike Rotondi. Several members of the Red Sox roster sat courtside, including Mike Lowell, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, and Kevin Youkilis.

He didn't have a chance of winning, but cyclist Lance Armstrong (right) drew some of the loudest cheers yesterday throughout the 26.2 miles of his first Boston Marathon.

The cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France winner, who ran to raise money for his foundation, seemed happy to reach the finish line. He got there in 2 hours, 50 minutes and 58 seconds - better than the three-hour finish he was hoping for.

While the Red Sox finished their holiday weekend sweep of the Texas Rangers, pitcher Curt Schilling's wife, Shonda, finished the marathon in under five hours, having run for the fourth time to raise money for the Shade Foundation. Outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury's girlfriend, Kelsey Hawkins (who finished in just over five hours), and Mike Timlin's wife, Dawn (who ran the course in less than 4 1/2 hours), both ran on behalf of the Angel Fund, which supports ALS research.

Also among the notable local runners: former acting governor Jane Swift, who finished in just under five hours and raised more than $10,000 for Children's Hospital Boston.

As the race continued into the early afternoon, Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi arrived at the Lenox Hotel and began asking about the 50 or so runners on his Tedy's Team, who ran to raise money for the American Stroke Association. With his wife, Heidi, never far away, Bruschi was followed by an NFL film crew as he kept a watchful eye over the finish line from the Lenox's new presidential suite on the second floor.

Up on the roof of the Boylston Street hotel near the finish line, we spotted the hotel's owner, Roger Saunders, his wife, Norma, and a large contingent of their family. Also taking in the spectacular views were Boston artist and designer Anja Kola, event planner Susan Callendar, legal eagle Richard Glovsky, and real estate consultant Alison Drescher. Singer James Taylor was supposed to stop by, too, if he could get through the teeming crowds.

Meanwhile, across Boylston, PR princess Marlo Fogelman made the most of her third-story office space by hosting what is becoming one of the hotter Marathon Monday invites. Among those at Fogelman's office were developer Mark Goldweitz and his wife, Joyce; Cartier biggie Cedric Tonello and his wife, Thanh; PR maven Doris Yaffe; restaurateurs Garrett Harker and Patrick Lee; chef Anthony Susi; Salon Capri's Nicholas Penna, who was keeping an eye out for his wife, Amy, who ran the marathon; Mary Chiochios of the Massachusetts Film Bureau; and cinematographer Terrence Hayes, whose local credits include Dave McLaughlin's "On Broadway."

US Army Private First Class Sean Bannon may still be recovering from the combat injuries that earned him a Purple Heart, but he had no difficulty getting the ball across the plate as he threw out the ceremonial first pitch to kick off yesterday morning's game at Fenway Park. Bannon grew up in Somerville, attended the Prospect Hill Academy high school, and now calls Winthrop home. A lifelong Red Sox fan, he met the world champs when they toured Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington in February. Bannon asked fellow Purple Heart recipient Senator John Kerry to join him in throwing out the first pitch.

Writer/director Judd Apatow, whose credits include "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," will receive the Screenwriter's Tribute Award at the Nantucket Film Festival in June. Meg Ryan, a summer regular on Martha's Vineyard, will be the annual film gathering's first recipient of the Compass Rose Acting Tribute Award, established to honor actors who inspire writers to create roles for them. The four-day fest will open with Brad Anderson's "Transsiberian" and close with "The Wackness," which stars Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, and Mary-Kate Olsen.

Boston's literati gathered Sunday night to raise money for the Boston Public Library, but the real star of the "Literary Lights Dinner" was ousted library chief Bernard Margolis, who got a five-minute standing ovation from the black-tie garbed attendees. (Margolis was forced out late last year after clashing with Mayor Tom Menino, who drew the ire of the keynote speaker, the Rev. Peter Gomes. Without mentioning Menino by name, the Harvard professor and minister warned that the BPL was in danger of becoming "a minor bureaucratic sinkhole.") The eight "Lights" celebrated at the swanky gala were authors Geraldine Brooks, Stephen Carter, Frances FitzGerald, Richard Ford, Tony Horwitz, P.J. O'Rourke, Gordon Wood, and the late David Halberstam. Others attending included novelist Tom Perrotta and New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, both presenters, Lewis's wife, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, and several financial wizards including Peter Lynch, Tom Stemberg, and John Spooner, a former Literary Light.

Tony-winning actress Andrea Martin will kick things off next month when the Elliot Norton Awards present the Prize for Sustained Excellence to the Huntington Theatre Company's outgoing artistic director Nicholas Martin. The two have worked together in Boston and New York several times but are not related. The Norton awards - the Emmys of Boston theater - will be handed out on May 12 at Harvard's Sanders Theatre.

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