We were in a very bookish mood today (after all, the biggest Book Publishing expo this side of Frankfurt, BEA, just ended last weekend), and so was the crowd at Michael's, from our reckoning at TABLE 12. You see, awhile ago, we proposed that Wednesday be "Take A Laurel To Lunch Day" and someone took us up on the offer finally! Our lucky winner was Jack Romanos, CEO of Simon & Schuster, who was utterly charming, handsome and delightful. [We were not paid to say this, but he did buy lunch :)]

Here's the list:

Table 1: A huge cast of characters from CBS, whom we were told after the fact was the entire cast of 48 Hours with executive producer Susan Zirinsky. Ten folks in all.

2: Tom Brokaw with Sports Illustrated editor in chief Terry McDonell. Jeff Greenfield and his entire table (Table 16) came by as they were departing to pay homage to Brokaw.

3: Oscar de la Renta with two people.

4: Neil Sedaka, in a brown camel jacket, with a pastel-striped shirt. He was dining with a guy about his size with bushy eyebrows in a dark grey suit and blue shirt. The non-Neil fellow paid.
2nd Seating: Head-turning blonde PR babe Chris Taylor, with what looked like twin models. They were Taylor's assistant Ashley Stachowsi to lunch along with regally-named Sessa Von Richthofen.

5: Woman in a crazy purple quilted jacket, with a guy in a gray jacket.
2nd Seating: Walter Sabo, President of Sabo Media (they consult to Sirius among others), Carol Hanley and Bruce Supovitz, both of Arbitron. Makes some sense.

6: Gorgeous Jonathan Capehart, well turned out, as always, in a dark suit and pastel checked shirt. With Patrick Murphy, celebrating his birthday. He is head of the retail and fashion desk at the NYC EDC (Economic Development Corp.). Plus magazine consultant Tony Hoyt. (Murphy and Hoyt were also wearing pastel checked shirts!!). Also at table was Mary Murphy, fresh from BEA as well, and still directing her documentary.

7: couldn't see over there. Looked like Lou Cana. Was it you, Lou?

8: Henry Schleiff (formerly of Court TV), with a hot-shot guy who wore his sunglasses for at least 5 minutes after sitting down before realizing that he wasn't that guy.

9: Conde Nast's uber-powerful (and yet utterly unpretentious) communications chief, Maurie Perl, wearing a crisp, spring-like white cotton jacket. She was with her dear friend Sandy Fisher, who's a culture vulture in the New York opera world. Beverly Sills, watch out! He runs the Tucker Foundation and helps put together the MET Gala. He does great tie, too. Richard James ties, from Savile Row.

11: High-energy media guru and author Kay Koplovitz with a guy in a dark suit, who was very animated around her. Probably has a crush or something...

12: Our table. We were with the hilarious and oh-so-humble Jack Romanos, ceo of Simon & Schuster, as well as his guest, Literary Agent (and the person who first brought Romanos to work at S&S back in the day) Paul "youbettergetmynameright" Fedorko, of Trident Group. We thought we were going to witness the inner workings of an exciting book deal (if we heard correctly, Jack is best known for doing the Lee Iacocca book and launching that whole wave of multi-million selling hardcovers in the 1980's), but instead it was all kinds of party and BEA gossip. "Did you hear Joni Evans might start another company?" "Hey, I was at the Lynn Cheney party, where did you go that night?" "18 Seconds just sold to Paramount, but no one in the UK has jumped on it yet. What's up with that?"

14: Hearst's big gun in a soft wrapping Cathie Black, with the editor of House Beautiful Stephen Drucker, fresh off his own "house" redesign. Call it House Re-Beautiful. He was wearing a brown suit with this gorgeous pale blue plaid pattern and a green tie.

15: Jerry Byrne, of Quill Foundation fame, with Tad Smith, ceo of Reed Business. We hear that Tad is a huge (and we mean huge) supporter of Quill's Literacy program.

16: CNN's Jeff Greenfield with a gaggle of three very similar-looking guys, who all said hello to Brokaw on their way back.

17: Author/scribe Myrna Blyth, looking very put together in a grey suit and blue striped shirt. The woman she was with was wearing an orange jacket.

18: Entertainment lawyer Alan Grubman, in a green pullover sweater and former Conde Nast honcho-turned-tell-all-author Steve Florio. What could these guys be hatching up now? They both looked very happy when they left. Florio tried to chat up Cathie Black, "How's the new building?" "We're not there yet," she replied.
2nd Seating: Ad Age and MPA took over this table and added a whole new vibe. Seen: Jonah Bloom, Nat Ives, Ellen Oppenheim, Howard Polskin and Nina Link. Wonder what they're hatching up?

22: Stunningly-coiffed Robbie Myers, eic of Elle Magazine, with two other women.

23: Niche media's Jason Oliver Nixon, in Etro, with George Kolasa and Jo-Di Moore, both of Karl Lagerfeld (marketing and advertising departments, natch). Moore was wearing her boss's clothing. That doesn't sound right, but you catch my drift.

24: Howard Sloan Koller recruit-a-trons, Ed Koller (in Hermes bow-tie and matching pocket-chief) and Karen Danziger (in pink Jacquard jacket). They were dining with an jumble of interesting folks: David Amone, of Golf Digest, Bob Cohen, CEO of LPI media and Maer Roshan, looking handsome as all get-all in a blue shirt, brown tie and dark suit.

28: Ever-dashing Tim Arango, of the Post, in Hugo Boss and Rockaway Jeans, with Patrick Reilly, comm chief at Sirius.

29: Times media business god Richard Siklos, also dashing in a grey suit, with hot-shot Ed Adler, comm chief of Time Warner, in Brooks Brothers. Siklos is about to have a baby boy. When we asked his name, he said it was "tbd" or "tba" -- well, when you decide between the two, let us know!