Lunch at Michael's



The adorable Laurel Touby of FishbowlNY assesses the talent in the room at Michael's the media hotspot. Not much star power yesterday (no Barbara Walters or Barry Diller), but some sparkles. According to FishbowlNY:

"6: The testosterone version of Ladies Who Lunch, these guys used to meet every week in the Green Room at Trattoria dell'Arte. Now, they're here! TV's Joel Siegel, advertising king-pin Jerry Della Femina, CNN's Jeff Greenfield, Gerry Imber and other men d'un certain age."

Only among the pasty-faced Chattering Classes could a table manned by Joel Siegel and Jeff Greenfield be construed as having testosterone. In any other vocation either one would have their lunch money purloined by a working-class alpha male.



(image via NYsocialdiary)

"... 8: New York Social Diary's David Patrick Columbia with a bevy of babes. [A little birdie told us: DPC was with Marcia Vickers of Fortune Magazine, Silda Spitzer (wife of Eliot) and Maggie Jones of Children For Children (a non-profit created by Silda Spitzer.]

".. 11: Second seating: Josh Howard, formerly of 60 Minutes, now with CNBC, with Mary Murphy, also formerly of CBS News. Mary is currently directing a documentary. Josh is now a VP at CNBC."

Mary Murphy, you'll remember, resigned over RatherGate. In these polarized times that event makes her a martyr to the Left, and a pincusion for the Right.

".. 15: Glamour's Cindi Leive in a really hot-looking black and gold-beige suit by Alberto Ferretti. She was joined by David Plotz (sp?) and Jacob Weisberg, of Slate.

".. 17: Smooth operator (hey, he's on EW's 'Power List'!) Jack Romanos, president and ceo of Simon & Schuster, with Avin Mark Domnitz, ceo of the American Booksellers Association.

".. 18: Will Schenk (sp?) with Carlos Lamadrid, publisher of Jane, formerly publisher Men's Journal. Word is Jann Wenner tried to get Carlos back for Rolling Stone, but to no avail."

Does Rolling Stone Magazine even still exist? We stopped reading it years ago, when the formerly hard-partying periodical took over Washington Square Park for a "Family Day" picnic (leaving, ironically, the Hunter Thompsonish Million Marijuana March effectively homeless).

".. 21: Peter Herbst, editor-in-chief of Premiere and hot-shot exec at Hachette. Who was he with??"

More media crack-cocaine here.