By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Thursday, March 29, 2007

Once a first lady, always a first lady. Tuesday's fourth annual National Alzheimer's Gala featured a trio of golden girls (natural or expensive highlights) who teamed up for the mega-buck fundraiser. "All these beautiful blondes," said philanthropist George Vradenburg, who co-chaired the fundraiser with wife Trish.

One: Hillary Clinton, who breezed into the VIP reception at the Grand Hyatt to scoop up an award, with Sen. Susan Collins, for her work on behalf of a cure.

Two: Actress Jean Smart, who acquired millions of new fans as whacked-out, drugged-up first lady Martha Logan on "24" (loved when she stabbed her TV husband with a fruit knife this season). "He annoyed me," sniffed Smart in character, then said she bets every first couple has private tiffs. "I'm sure Laura has given George holy hell -- in Crawford."

Three: Miss America 1971 and former first lady of Kentucky Phyllis George, who is mulling a run herself for governor of the state. "Never say never," she told us. "It's something that has always been in my blood." George was accompanied by her daughter, Channel 8 reporter Pamela Brown -- the two are genetically incapable of taking a bad picture. (No, life isn't fair.)

Smart's father and George's mother died of Alzheimer's, which is why they joined the bipartisan crowd of 700, which included Eunice and Bobby Shriver, Newt Gingrich, ABC's Terry Moran, and Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, daughter of Rita Hayworth -- almost all have family members who are living with the disease. The gala raised a record $2.5 million, including a pledge drive during the party that netted $1.4 million dedicated for researchers.

A cancer book -- normally it's a hard sell, they say. But Bernadine Healy, whose "Living Time: Faith and Facts to Transform Your Cancer Journey" came out this week, has found herself in huge demand by the TV news bookers. In the days after Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow disclosed their new bouts with the disease, Healy -- the former chief of NIH and the American Red Cross, and a brain tumor survivor herself -- has been one of the few pundits with an optimistic message.

"With cancer, more than any other disease, there's a tendency to rapidly hang the crepe," the doctor said. But the scary stats are based on thousands of cases. "If there's a bell-shaped curve, why not assume you'll do better than the average?"

Healy's book started as a column in U.S. News and World Report, where she's worked for four years; Tuesday night, she was toasted by the mag's new editor, Brian Kelly, and colleagues at Sonoma wine bar. She told us later she thinks Edwards is "ahead of everyone else in terms of what she's learned" about cancer -- and blasted the commentators who predict the worst. "It's violating some kind of etiquette, assuming she's going to die. It's cruel, at the very least."