Nine days earlier, Gayle King had been pilloried online as a Marie Antoinette like figure for asking critics of her 11-minute spaceflight “have you been?” and suggesting they can’t have a conversation about it until they have. But on Thursday evening, she walked the red carpet at the Time 100 Gala, her head held high and her green dress shimmering.

“I can’t complain,” Ms. King said at 7:30 p.m., standing on the 16th floor of the building that was previously known as the Time Warner Center, but is now called the Deutsche Bank Center. “My life is wonderful.”

To her left was one of the night’s honorees, David Muir, an ABC News anchor whose bosses recently paid President Trump $15 million to settle a defamation suit he filed against the company.

To her right was the designer Georgina Chapman, whose ex-husband Harvey Weinstein was back on trial this week over sexual assault allegations. Ms. Chapman was attending the gala with her current boyfriend, the actor Adrien Brody, who was being honored at the event.