Lunch at Michael's: First Day of School

All the kids are back at their regular tables (except for VF's Michael Wolff!). The "Mayor of Michael's Joe Armstrong on 3, David Patrick Columbia on 8, David Hirshey on 15. Let the games begin! Tables in no particular order. We did not fact-check the names. Please send spelling errors to LaurelT AT mediabistro dot com. Table 1: Wearing a black suit and white blouse, Rose Marie Bravo, who left the presidency of Saks Fifth Avenue to head up Burberry was with, [we believe] one Jon Josephson or the head of PR for Estee Lauder. One or the other. 2: Former Beatles PR guru Peter Brown, the very same Brown whose name appears in the Beatles song, The Ballad of John and Yoko. History lesson: Brown has always been in the music industry. He started out working with John Reed, when Reed was Elton John's manager. He now spends his time "keeping people's names out of the news," according to one in the know. He was dining today with the new head of Carnegie Hall. 3: Julian Schnabel, er, no someone who looks like him, a bear of a man wearing a camel jacket, with a mustache and beard. He's at Joe Armstrong's regular table, with Joe, and they're no doubt talking about House Beautiful. 4: Barbara Walters, with Diana Taylor (Bloomberg's girlfriend). 5: Lee Eisenberg, the former editor-in-chief of Esquire Magazine was with ICM Lit Agent Esther Newburg. [A little birdie later writes: "Eisenberg has a book coming out soon agented by Newberg. It's entitled `The Number,' and it's about how much money you need in life in order to eat at Michael's and beyond..."] 6: Ron Silver look alike, with Bob Freedman and Steven Haft. 17: Mitchell Fink, former Daily News gossip columnist with Gerry Byrne (formerly of Variety). 29: Carlos Lamadrid, publisher of Men's Journal (which, we are told "has officially been turned around. Men's Journal will be up over 100 pages in '05 compared to last year...."). Lamadrid was with Simon & Schuster author Michael Korda. 23: NATAS' Peter O. Price with two guests, One woman with long dark hair and an acqua blouse and another, a blonde in a green sweater. We couldn't tell which was which, but we are assured that one of them was Ms. Selig, with Touchstone Pictures and the other was Gwen Thomas, executive VP of Buena Vista TV, fresh in from LA. 26: Bill Gubbins, formerly of Ohio, but living in Nashville now and running Country Weekly mag. He is in town for the Country Music Awards (nominations were today), which is happening in NY for the first time in years. Stu Zakim , head of Corp Communications at AMI, joined him. Later at 26: Tim McDarrah, the News Editor of Us Weekly (and former Page Six reporter) was at this table with an equally gregarious guy. 28: Central Talent Booking's Joanna Jordan was there today looking naughty as ever in an innocent white blouse and blue jean skirt. She was with Suzy Berkowitz, former Leslee Dart Assistant (long ago), who now does PR for AOL, among others. They were discussing Suzy's upcoming nuptials. Congrats, Suzy! (Yesterday, Joanna dined with Marlo Thomas at Michael's). 24: MPA's Nina Link and Howard Polskin were pow-wowing with Ad Age media reporter Nat Ives (formerly of the Times). Nina was in a cream An Ren blouse. Nat was wearing a check shirt. 22: We were here with Juli-anne Whitney, from Freud Communications. They're putting on some audacious 20-city screening of a new Discovery Channel 9-11 documentary tonight (Wednesday). Check it out on mb's Events Page. 25: Daily News Editor in Chief Michael Cooke, (AKA "Cookie Monster," according to Keith Kelly), was with another Daily News gal, Joanna Falk, and Cathleen Falsani, from the Chicago Sun-Times. Falsani is working on a book (The God Factor) about the spirituality of famous folks. It's a series of 32 profiles. White wine in hand, they were all bringing back the liquid lunch. 27: Republican Political Consultant Ed Rollins sporting a red power tie, was with two very attractive blondes who seemed very DC -- one was in a pin-striped suit -- and another gent gent. No doubt strategizing Bush's post-Hurricane spin. Seen, back room: John Mack.... 15: Harper Collins' David Hirshey, with our very own Rachel Sklar and ESPN Book's Michael Solomon, who we had a phone crush on very very long ago when we were freelancing. Copies of "Now I Can Die in Peace" were passed around the table like hors d'oeuvres before lunch. [A birdie later writes: "Michael Solomon... always appreciates any woman who remembers a ten year old phone crush." 16: Washington Post Columnist Tina Brown was with Ed Victor, the uber London agent was right near Hirshey (we hear he was emailing Hirshey a 600-page manuscript!). He was accompanied by Carol Victor, his wife. 11: Sherry Lansing, former head of Paramount, with another woman, Ann Siegel (sp?). Barbara Walters stopped over to chat before she left. 14: Looking dignified and austere in his dark blue suit, light blue shirt, LOEW's Jonathan Tisch, visited Table 16 (Tina's table) before sitting down to lunch with sister Laurie. Seen: Stanley Schuman, head of the media practice at Allen & Co. 20: Candy Pratts Price with another woman who we didn't recognize. 8: New York Social Diary's David Patrick Columbia with author Michael Gross. Gross was wearing a pale blue striped shirt with white pants. 7: Playboy's hotter-than-hot eic, Chris Napolitano, with a blonde chick from his company. He claims she's a librarian. We don't believe him though. They both had the shrimp. 21: Two fellows, one with an acqua tie, the other with a pink shirt and dark suit. 19: Simone Levitt, the widow of the man who created the suburbs, Levittown. In black and white stripes, dining with a woman in a silk turban. Seen: The Paris Review's hunky Philip Gourevitch with his board members in the back room. IF you were at Michael's today (or any day) and would like to report in, or correct the record, please email LaurelT AT mediabistro.com Map of Michael's

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Lunch at Michael's: First Day of School

Lunch at Michael's: All the kids are back at their regular tables.

Laurel

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