Beatle mania at the ballet

The world's great ballet houses are accustomed to cheers, shouts of, "Bravo", even standing ovations. Rock star-groupie screams? Not so much.

But all bets are off when there's a Beatle in the house.

So, there were genuine screams of adulation at New York City Ballet's fall gala on Thursday, not just at the red-carpet arrivals, but also from some of the designer gown-clad patrons in the theater, who craned their necks to get a good view of the ballet's composer: Sir Paul McCartney himself.