Lunch at Michael's: Manolo Blahnik, Regis Philbin and a Maria Bartiromo-Jane Pauley Tag-Team

We're in a rush today -- to the tents, to fashion shows, to scribble down our observations of said shows -- so this won't be much of an intro, but where do the fashion flock eat during Fashion Week? Do they scarf power bars in their Town Cars between shows? Do they send assistants to order $15 salads from Bryant Park's 'Wichcraft kiosks? All the fashion world had to show for itself was Manolo Blahnik, which will have to be enough. Table 1: It was all-William Morris all-the-time today, with CEO Jim Wiatt and a deputy holding down the table for the entire lunch hour in order to have lunch -- separately --- with CNBC''s Maria Bartiromo (fresh off her Success party last night -- when does she find time to work?) and Jane Pauley. Are they both clients? Well, it was a bit too public of a place to be poaching, wasn't it? And besides, Pauley has publicly said she has no plans to go back on the air... which, come to think of it, might have been the point of that meeting. 2: Time Warner corporate PR chief Ed Adler with Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman. Did Friedman call for an emergency lunch in light of yesterday's announcement that Time Inc. would sell off most of its niche-ier titles? Nope. He just got lucky -- this was their regular meet-aand-greet. They dropped by the bar afterward (where we were lunching with the Rosen Group's Zachary Hooper) to help us scout the rest of the room. 3. Joe Armstrong, lunching with a woman whose back was to us the entire afternoon. 4. Holding down the corner table today was Hearst Magzines president Cathie Black (they missed you at the Bill Blass show yesterday, Cathie) and a woman who was identified as a college friend, i.e. a civilian. 5. Is Henry Schleiff at last planning his post-Court TV career move? He was here with both Regis Philbin and legendary TV producer (and legendarily bad NBC chief) Fred Silverman. 6. IAC vice president Moshe Koyfman presided over the group lunching here. 7. At last, our streak of spotting Manolo Blahnik president George Malkemus without seeing the man himself comes to an end: Manolo Blahnik, there in the flesh, was lunching with George and Style.com's Candy Pratts Price. 8. A blast from Time Warner's past: former HBO chief Michael Fuchs, lunching with an unidentified woman. 9. Movie producer Beverly Camhe's table. 11. Playboy CEO Christie Hefner, whose stock is in a world of hurt these days, in no small part because the company's domestic TV operations are taking a beatings, was here commiserating with a man who feels her pain: MTV Networks' John Sykes. 12. Old chums and quasi-regular lunchmates Jesse Kornbluth, Wendy Goldberg, and Marshall Cohen. 15. Taking a breather from the run-up to the Ralph Lauren runway show(s) this Friday were de facto Polo PR chiefs Jim Abernathy and Nancy Murray. 17. Avenue founder and regular's regular Judy Price. 18. EpiCom Media's Lou Korman. 20. Dateline executive producer David Corvo. 21. Entertainment attorney Jordan Ringel. 22. Steven Swig. 23. David Poltrack, the EVP of research and planning at CBS. 24. Allen & Co.'s John Josephson might have a claim to be the coolest media i-banker ever: he's a co-owner in Downtown Records, the label that's home to Gnarls Barkley. And next up: the soundtrack to HBO's Entourage. 25. Robert Halmi (although we're not sure which one -- Junior or Senior?). Either way, the Halmi in question today is a co-owner of the Hallmark Channel... 27. Jamie Niven, the impeccably dressed Sotheby's auctioneer and son of the even more impeccably dressed David Niven, was here with Dominick Dunne 28. We caught Stu Zakim and Michael Caruso on their way out today. "As you might imagine, we discussed..." he said, trailing off. Discussed what? Your mutual former employer Jann Wenner, perhaps? Now there's an inexhaustible lunch topic. Spotted on his way to the garden: James LaForce of the PR firm LaForce + Stevens, looking no worse for the wear despite navigating both hordes of ladies-who-lunch and hordes of drag queens (not to mention Paris Hilton) the day before at the Bill Blass and Heatherette fashion shows. Please send any and all correct spellings, additions, and what-have-you to Greg AT mediabistro Dot Com AND FishbowlNY AT mediabistro Dot Com. Map of Michael's

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Lunch at Michael's: Manolo Blahnik, Regis Philbin and a Maria Bartiromo-Jane Pauley Tag-Team

Greg

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