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Shakespeare in the Park is a storied New York rite of summer, and the Public Theater’s annual gala on opening night is always quite a scene.

At this year’s fete, we’d like to have been a fly buzzing around Table 26 where multi-talented mates Steve Martin and Mike Nichols were holding court. Martin, in trademark fedora - this one in two-tone straw for summer - and The Graduate director Nichols are on either side of Martin’s adorable New Yorker scribe wife Anne Stringfield.

In this snap Nichols looks as if he’s putting over a particularly toothsome bon mot — perhaps something about gentlemen who fail to remove their hats during dinner.