Lunch at Michael's: Joan Collins, In Black, Natch

It was a fun day today. At the bar. Not. We were supposed to join David Patrick Columbia at Table 8 (his regular table), but at the very last second he cancelled because he had a surprise visit by none other than Joan Collins. Oh well, we can't blame him. So, we brought our new Secret Weapon to lunch, Dylan Stableford, who we shamelessly pilfered from FOLIO: magazine to beef up our news coverage. Here's who got tables today: Table 1: Outre Men's Fitness EIC Neal Boulton and crew. He was dressed-to-impress in a dark brown leather bomber jacket and jeans. His Table-1-meriting guest was none other than country music legend-to-be Billy Currington, a hot-looking curly haired dude, at least as far as we could tell from the back of his head. Also present, Amber Williams, director of artist & media relations at Billy's label, Mercury & MCA Records; Ryan somethingorother, Billy's tour manager, also studly and dude-looking; and tall stunning blonde Desiree Gallas, special projects editor at Men's Fitness. They just selected Billy as one of the "25 Fittest Men," and we can see why. 2: Peter Brown, Nancy Murray (head of Global Communications for Ralph Lauren) and another woman. 3: Mayor of Michael's Joe Armstrong, back from the boonies, with his Boot Flower Pot mascot. His guest was Dorothy Kalins, exec editor of Newsweek. They last had lunch on October 5th. And we're still waiting for our first date with Joe. 4: Gil Schwartz, with the cute guy from MTV (who said "hello, Laurel," as he was leaving) who's name is escaping us right now and someone else. Help, Gil! 5: Diana Taylor and Barbara Walters. 6: Joan Jakobson, Lorraine Boyle, Lisa Bernbach, Barbara Liberman and Suzanne Maas (widow of the late writer Peter Maas). 7: George Malkemus, with a bevy of Manolo Blahnik babes. 8: New York Social Diary's David Patrick Columbia with Joan Collins looking devilish in all black wool, a thick, tufty fur cap and a gigantic glittering diamond cross. She was accompanied by her husband of five years, Percy Gibson. We ran into Joan in the ladies room and said, "What a cool outfit you're wearing." She looked down, ran her fingers over the fabric and quipped: "Actually, it's quite hot." 9: Cindy Lewis, publisher of Hearst's Shop Etc. and someone. 11: Time's Ed Adler with PR guy Steve Rubenstein. 12: The New Yorker's Lou Cona with a guy in a pinstriped jacket and jeans and someone else. 14: Peter Wolf with Beverly Sills! She was in a camel-colored top. 15: Randy Jones, looking very smooth in his pinstriped suit and slicked back mane. Who was he with today? Anyone's guess. 16: Author Pamela Keogh with Hearst's Deb Shriver and another chick, who we heard was Wendy Whitehurst (sp?). 17: Seating one: Peter Rogers and someone. Seating two: Freddie Freedman and the former ambassador to somewhere. 18: Dapper Court TV CEO Henry Schleiff (we like him, we really do), with Tom Fontana of OZ fame. Quite a bit of table-hopping on the way out. Jerry della Femina went over to Schleiff. Schleiff went to say hi to Bev Sills (table 14), then over to Bernbach (Table 6). Jerry said hi to Mayor Joe (Table 3). Joel Siegal went over to Barbara Walters. It was one big table crush for awhile there. 19: Lucy Danziger, but with whom? 21: Judy Price with Ralph Destino, former head of Cartier. Now, what is he up to? 22: Laurie Rhodes (sp?) with VERY cute Lloyd Boston, who appears a lot on the Today Show talking about fashon, and a woman in blue velvet pants. 23: Keith Kelly in deep conversation with Seventeen magazine's uber multi-media diva Atoosa Rubenstein wearing a ripped-at-the-neck-on-purpose black Lanvin number and a Tracy Reese necklace to cover (accentuate?) the tear. 24: Debbie Bancroft, with fab gams in a little black dress and fishnet stockings, slingback high heels (Manolos?) was with George Farias and Bettina Zilkha. 25: First seating: Gerald Byrne, head of Parade magazine (who we mistakenly took for Ed Rollins last week. Sorry, Gerry. Sorry, Ed!). Second Seating: the LeFrak Family, sans Francine. 26: Elizabeth Spiers, looking very sexy in her red and black plaid tartan skirt. She's our former EIC, so we can say that about her. She's about to set DealBreaker.com upon the world; she was with Jonathan Wald. 27: Gerald Imber, with famed ad guy Jerry della Femina, TV guy Joel Siegal, former Newsweek columnist Michael Kramer and a plastic surgeon. 28: Marjorie Brayman of HarperCollins with Bob Mecoy, agent. 29: David who? 30: Paul Wilmott. Back room sightings: Patrick McEnroe, John's bro, who's also big in tennis. He was with Richard Eder (sp?). 37: Allyn Magrino with someone else. 47: Central Talent Booking's adorable Joanna Jordan with the guy from XM, Nathaniel Brown. He was way sexy, even if we couldn't remember him from our initial meeting at the Core Club. Sorry, Nate. 54: Paul Healey (sp?) [A little birdie told us the following were also in the back room: "Jonathan Capehart and a ravishing blond, Patrick Murphy and Jim Farah from Corcoran Group, and Richard Anderman and a distinguished looking lady"] 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: Joan Collins, In Black, Natch

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