Lunch at Michael's: Eisner, Zucker, Glazer, Susan Lyne And A Few Magazine Folks For Good Measure

We had our blinders on during the short walk to Michael's, as we typically do, when a snippet of conversation from the ladies strolling ahead floated back to us. "...and this site called 'Fishbowl' is there on Wednesdays and posts a huge list of everyone who was there," Alexandra Trower was telling her lunchdate, whom we gathered from further research was a Wall Street Journal reporter in town from Atlanta. "How weird!" her companion replied, and we can't bring ourselves to disagree. Here's today's installment, Alexandra. We hope you enjoy it. Table 1: Michael Eisner was holding court in the bay window with what looked to be a table for five or six, most of which was comprised of bespectacled men in sober suits. He still has enough clout, it seems, that John Huey made it a point to drop by a say hello. [Update:] He was with USA Today's David Lieberman and Laura Petrecca, along with Dan Klores publicist Robert Zimmerman. 2. Time managing editor Rick Stengel, lunching with uber-regular Peter Brown. 3. The Mayor's table, as always. Joe Armstrong's guest today was Men's Health editor Dave Zinczenko, who must have felt right at home with the high TV turnout today. 4. No Perelman + Michael Eisner - Eisner's large party = low heat at Table 4. Just William Morris agent Owen Laster and what looked to be his friends and possibly family. 5. And you shall spot them by their hair (or lack thereof): balding NBC Universal Television Group chief Jeff Zucker with reliably spiky-haired super-producer Brian Glazer, who upon his arrival confessed his amazement at how quickly and how smoothly the service at Michael's moves. 6. Sitting with her back to Eisner (which is generally not a wise move), was Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO Susan Lyne, along with author Kati Marton, who bided her time before Lyne's arrival performing a little grassroots PR work for her new book, "The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler And Changed The World." 7. A quartet of suits, but your guess to their identities would be as good as ours. 8. The inimitable David Patrick Columbia, no doubt with another of his society friends. 9. Fashion designer Steven Stolman. 14. John Huey, ensconced along the wall. 15. American Express Publishing CEO Ed Kelly, who's had an atypically busy couple of months replacing Travel + Leisure publisher Ellen Asmodeo with Food & Wine's Julie McGowan just ahead of the magazine's 35th Anniversary. 17. The New York Times business editor/writer Lorne Manly, lunching with Vanity Fair's David Friend. 23. Michael's mainstay Tony Hoyt, who was withHallmark Magazine editor-in-chief Lisa Benenson. Don Welsh and protegÃ© Jake Hill arrived later for the second seating. 25 & 26. Former CondÃ© Nast president Steve Florio, who, as you may recall (but most likely have already forgotten), retired/was pushed out a few years ago with a bum ticker and declining powers and then nearly sold a borderline backstabbing memoir about what he'd learned from managing grown men with nicknames like "Mad Dog" and "Mr. Big." In any case, we hadn't seen him since, and now he looks about a decade younger sans mustache and 20 pounds, give or take. He isn't quite up to speed on CondÃ© politics anymore, either; when he bumped into Wired Media publishing director Drew Schutte at the door, he asked "What's it like to be the publisher of Wired these days?" "I'm not," Schutte replied, "he is," pointing to new publisher Jay Lauf. Florio was at 25; Schutte and Lauf were lunching with Media Industry Newsletter's Steve Cohn at 26. 28. BizBash CEO David Adler. 29. Bank of America spokeswoman Alexandra Trower with her friend from Atlanta, Valerie. (See above.) Also seen, but not at a specific table: Worth founder Randy Jones; New York Daily News gossip George Rush, and being led to the back, the godfather of this column, Kurt Andersen. Please send any and all correct spellings, additions, and what-have-you to FishbowlNY AT mediabistro Dot Com. Map of Michael's

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Lunch at Michael's: Eisner, Zucker, Glazer, Susan Lyne And A Few Magazine Folks For Good Measure

Greg

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