I was joined today by Forbes‘ new editor, Randall Lane. In his new position, Randall is presiding over familiar territory to him: the lives of the ridiculously rich and ambitious. In a previous life, he was the editor of Trader Monthly which chronicled the age of excess of the Wall Streeter of days gone by.  That experience later provided plenty of fodder for his book, The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade When Wall Street Went Insane. In the interim, he’s been an editor at large for Newsweek and written for The Daily Beast. Having worked with him years ago when he was the editor in chief on the startup Justice, which covered the hot trials and legal issues of the day, I was thrilled when I heard he’d gotten the top job at Forbes back in September.

Randall first worked at Forbes fresh out of college in the nineties and spent six years “chasing rich people” and working on the franchise’s venerated power lists which required (and still do) hundreds of hours of research and manpower. “In some ways, it feels like I never left,” he tells me.

Since taking the helm, Randall has been on a mission to make the book more visually exciting with interesting photography (the arresting cover image of Bill Gates in the “World’s 70 Most Powerful People” issue is a winner), fresh design elements courtesy of the Brooklyn-based shop Athletics, a livelier front of book section and more in-depth profiles on people the Forbes reader wants to know about.  Exhibit A: The cover story in the November 7 issue on Dropbox’s Drew Houston, the 28 year-old mogul who turned down Steve Jobs and is now worth $600 million which drew one million hits on Forbes.com.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

— DIANE CLEHANE

I knew I was in for an interesting afternoon when I saw ’80s icon Joan Collins and former Yankee skipper Joe Torre arrive at Michael’s within minutes of each other. Where else would you possibly expect to run into two icons at the opposite ends of the pop cultural spectrum at lunch in Manhattan? The funny thing was barely anyone noticed. The  crowd was much too busy trying to figure out what all the media moguls were discussing at their tables. Sorry to disappoint, but I can’t read lips so I’m not much help on that front. However, I can report these captains of industry barely took a breath between bites and there were a lot of points being made with forks in the air.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Discovery ID’s head honcho Henry Schleiff, holding court with four important-looking folks

2. Joan Collins, husband Percy Gibson and an unidentified preppie. The Dynasty star was in full diva mode as she sauntered to her table peering out at the crowd from beneath the brim of her gray cowboy hat. Alexis Carrington lives!

3.  For a minute we thought Bono might be stopping by when we heard manager Paul McGuinness had reserved the table, but it turned out his guests were two folks who definitely were not members of U2.

4. Mike Ovitz, talking a blue streak while his lunch date spent much of the time listening with his arms crossed. Whatever could that body language mean?

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

See, New York is so badass, we need the weekend to recover from the week. Suck it, Hollywood!

The table-by-table breakdown:

1: Tom Brokaw, looking very Tom Brokaw-like, with George Stevens.

2: David Patrick Columbia with Jen Goodkind and Jayne Chase of “‘The Fashionable Life,’ WGCH in Greenwich, 1490 on your AM dial.”

3: Mayor of Michael’s Joe Armstrong and Men’s Health‘s Dave Zinczenko, who were in an uncharacteristically serious-looking discussion, pausing often to meet and greet passersby.

4: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

5: Allen & Co. fortune heir Terry Kramer and her son-in-law.

6: Lunch at Michael’s regulars Peter Rogers (happy birthday!), Alex Hitz, Bill Rondina, Tom Fallon and Brooke Hayward Duchin.

7: Joan Rivers, long-time agent Billy Sammeth and always-affable VH1 Best Week Ever producer Fred Graver.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.