Are Danes and Dancy the New Tinz and Topper?

The actress Claire Danes was born in New York, raised in the neighborhood of Soho by a textile designer and a photographer (she attended Dalton), and now resides in the same neighborhood, in a loft with fiancé Hugh Dancy. In other words, she never really signed up for that whole Hollywood lifestyle.

Nor was Ms. Danes ever much part of "the scene" in Manhattan. Sure, she attended the Zac Posen show every season, as well as Cinema Society screenings and the annual Costume Institute gala. But after spending most of the winter-awards-show season on the West Coast, Ms. Danes and Mr. Dancy seemed to return to New York this year with a purpose: to get out there, make new friends, and become one of those New York society couples that somehow manage to pull of the perfect publicity concoction of being simultaneously “press-shy” and … constantly present. (See: Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker; Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard; etc..)

A search on society photographer Patrick McMullan's Web site showed that the couple has been out at Manhattan functions at least once a week since mid-spring. On May 4, they attended the "Model as Muse" gala at the Met. The very next night the couple showed up at Time magazine's Most Influential People party. Then it was time for the American Ballet Theatre gala, where they danced alongside Caryn and Jeff Zucker and Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. On June 2, during a benefit at the Longchamp store on Madison Avenue, they mingled with socialite Emma Snowden Jones and model Maggie Rizer.

As June progressed, the couple made their presence known in the Hamptons at the Montauk Yacht Club where they read together from Jay McInerney's new short-story collection, How It Ended, and Ms. Danes, wearing a pristine white pantsuit, threw her legs up in the air and performed a dramatic dip while dancing with actor James Garner.

Recently, the actress attended the CFDA awards with Narciso Rodriguez as her date, where she announced that the designer is already at work on her wedding dress.

Click through for brief slideshow of the couple's recent society outings.