— DIANE CLEHANE

They were dishing like it was 1999 today at Michael’s where it was SRO at the bar and in the lounge and filled with movers and shakers of every stripe in the dining room. I got a serious case of whiplash trying to keep track of it all. Between keeping an eye on Anna Wintour, who seemed to swoon over Vivi Nevo‘s every word, and watching Brian Williams and Universal honcho Ron Meyer tuck into their lunch with unbridled gusto, I found the scene even more fascinating than usual. Another intriguing phenomenon was the steady stream of suits that poured into the restaurant until it nearly overflowed. Was there a noontime shuttle from Brooks Brothers? Or perhaps, in some circles, the expense account in making a comeback. Here’s hoping…

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. A casually clad Charlie Rose, who explained why he was wearing Chuck Taylors with his pinstripe suit: “I worked out earlier this morning.” The PBS talk show host was with two mystery guests.

2. Anna Wintour and Vivi Nevo. The Vogue editrix seemed completely enraptured by the Israeli venture capitalist. Whatever could have made her smile so much?

3. Hollywood casting agent Bonnie Timmermann with Law & Order SVU star Richard Belzer and literary agent David Vigliano. Belzer entertained his pals throughout lunch by reading stories aloud from a pile of old issues of Star magazine. I’m thinking Richard is considering writing a book based on some tabloid tales. Sounds interesting.

4. Glued to his Blackberry throughout the first half of lunch, a tie-less Harvey Weinstein with James Neaderlander and another business type. The group all gave Bonnie Timmermann a big ‘hello.’

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— DIANE CLEHANE

We heard we missed quite a scene yesterday when the dining room was filled with the likes of dirty joke diva Sarah Silverman, Pedro Almodovar, Harvey Weinstein and his oh-so-fashionable wife, designer Georgina Chapman, Ron Perelman and a long list of other movers and shakers. But there were plenty of fabulous folks to chat with today, so I made the rounds before they got down to business over their Cobb salads.

I was delighted to see ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong, who had been across the pond enjoying some time in London and missing from his regular perch at Michael’s for several weeks. He’s right back into the swing of things, having been at Sunday night’s Tony Awards to see his friend Sir Elton John, who wrote the music for 10-time award winner Billy Elliot celebrate with the cast on their big night. Monday night Joe attended the benefit for Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp hosted by Julia Roberts, Robert Redford and some other A-listers. “We raised $2.5 million,” reports Joe, who volunteers at the camp every summer. “It’s great to see all of Paul’s work is still going strong.” Joe was lunching today with the charming — and funny — Harold Ford, Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council who moonlights as a news analyst for MSNBC.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. The ‘Imber Gang’: Dr. Gerald Imber, Jerry Della Femina, Jeff Greenfield and Andy Bergman.

2. A dapper duo: Nielsen Business Media’s Gerry Byrne and Henry Schleiff. I stopped by Gerry’s table to catch up since we last crossed paths at Showtime’s party for Nurse Jackie and its star, Edie Falco. Coincidentally, Gerry, who is one of the greatest guys in the business, is getting a ‘Made in New York’ Award from the mayor’s office next Monday night and his fellow honoree is none other than Edie. Small world.

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and Harold Ford, Jr.

4. Stan Shuman with another gent we didn’t recognize…

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— DIANE CLEHANE

Maybe it was because it finally stopped raining for five minutes, but the power-lunchers were out in force today at Michael’s. There was a crowd gathering in the lounge before noon waiting for tables. Of course, most of the regulars breezed in at their appointed hours, making sure they had plenty of time for glad-handing before settling in for some serious dish. Harvey Weinstein and Barry Diller did their fair share of hand shaking before getting down to business at separate tables.

I was lunching today with public relations powerhouse Lisa Linden and Tom O’Brien, president and general manager of WNBC. Tom had plenty to talk about, since these days it seems you can’t go anywhere without an NBC star beaming out from a TV set in a growing number of spots. Look for that to continue, says Tom. With the newscasts on WNBC-TV, the fledgling lifestyle channel New York Nonstop (now in 5 million homes), NBCNewYork.com and Taxi TV (in 5,500 cabs and growing), “We have the ability to get our content out across multiple platforms and reach people at any time of the day,” says Tom. Now the network has gone underground with their latest digital out-of-home effort, NBC in Transit, with video of news and NBC Universal entertainment programming broadcast on PATH trains between NYC and New Jersey. “We’re excited about this new way to reach an audience who isn’t waiting for news. It’s another great way for keeping people informed.” Coming soon: more televisions on the platform in Newark. Stay tuned…

I told Tom I have a particular soft spot for those adorable spots with Jimmy Fallon and that cuddly bear cub that seem to be playing in every taxi I’m in. “He’s doing very well,” reports Tom, who says Conan O’Brien‘s new show is set to debut June 1 and there will be an announcement about Jay Leno‘s new primetime show in two weeks. We’re all ears…

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. The ‘Imber Gang’: Dr. Gerald Imber, Jerry Della Femina, Michael Kramer and Andy Bergman

2. My new pal Susan Silver, Abby Ellin of The New York Times and Judy Twersky

3. Andrew Stein and a mystery gent…

4. Barry Diller and an unidentified young fellow. Here’s a fun fact: Barry is a mogul on the move. I happened to catch him suiting up for a quick getaway after lunch as he slipped into a windbreaker and donned a helmet and sunglasses before revving up his Vespa and disappearing into midtown traffic.

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Last night’s Glamour Women of the Year Awards ceremony held at Carnegie Hall was a rare thing — interesting and inspiring all at the same time (and how often can you say that?!) We’ve all heard more than once in the last twelve months that regardless of the outcome of this election this year has been all about the woman. And last night’s line-up of recipients, which included Condoleezza Rice, Tyra Banks, Maureen Chiquet (the woman who heads Chanel is from Missouri!), Kara Walker, Nicole Kidman, the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Jane Goodall, Najood Ali (the 10 yr old Yemen girl who convinced the courts to give her a divorce from her adult husband), and Hillary Clinton (two standing ovations) was an excellent representation of just that. Also perhaps a reflection of the magazine’s pull, particularly in these tough times (Condi Rice said she’s been reading since she was twelve). Also, Cindi Leive rocked the most amazing shoes of the night, just saying.

The star-studded event lived up to its glamour moniker (we joked on our way in that security was so tight it felt like the secret service was in the building…turns out they were!) and most of the recipients attended the packed dinner at the Essex House afterward — we spotted Nicole Kidman front and center with hubby Keith Urban, tiny Kate Bosworth floating about, and Harvey Weinstein “dropping in” on our way out. Later this twitter from Julia Allison turned us almost entirely green with envy. After the jump more highlights from the night as well as some vid of Hillary’s, Condi’s, and Tyra’s speeches (all of them mention their mothers). [UPDATE: The video is now working!]

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Rupert Murdoch may be losing a millions dollars a day this year, but he’s not alone! Harvey Weinstein managed to lose a million dollars in just a few minutes yesterday. Here’s what happened.

The other day the inimitable Nikki Finke wrote a piece, purportedly based on an email she’d seen from Scott Rudin, accusing Weinstein of badgering both Sydney Pollack on his deathbed and Anthony Minghella‘s widow shortly after his death over the release date of the upcoming The Reader. Weinstein denied the charges. Rudin denied sending the email. Weinstein said if Finke could produce the email he would give $1 million to charity. Oh yeah? Said Finke.

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— DIANE CLEHANE

With the dog days of summer upon us, the usual suspects at Michael’s are soldiering on over their Cobb salads until it’s time to take off those last few weeks of the month to the Hamptons, Nantucket or some other sun-filled spot far from the madding crowd. In the meantime, the random celebrity sighting is keeping things interesting. Word of illusionist JB Benn‘s sleight of hand tricks that kept the crowd bedazzled last week must have gotten around the magician’s union because my spies told me that David Blaine walked in without a reservation yesterday and was bending quarters for everybody’s amusement. Just thought you’d like to know.

I was lunching today with publishing powerhouse turned Internet entrepreneur Joni Evans, whose five-month old site Wowowow.com is going great guns. Joni, who is wow’s CEO, launched the site with pals Liz Smith, Peggy Noonan, Mary Wells and Lesley Stahl for “self-assured women who are a bit too old to care what everybody thinks.” This month, Joni kicked off “The Book Party” with Judith Martin (Miss Manners) reading a collection of the classics. “It’s been incredibly well-received,” she says, and plans are in the works to expand the vertical in all sorts of interesting ways. And that’s not all — Joni tells me in the not-so-distant future the site will introduce a new fashion maven into the mix to cover style and a health vertical ‘Medicine Ball.’ The site’s content is popping up on MSN.com, Fox.com and Yahoo’s Shine. For more dish about Joni and her newfound career, check out her interview with me for our “So What Do You Do?” series coming next month …

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Charlie Rose and an unidentifed young blonde gal

2. Peter Brown

3. Jonathan Tisch and John Sykes

4. Michael Fuchs and Peggy Siegal

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Portfolio has launched a new blog called “Playas.” Do you need to know more than that? Playas? Apparently it’s the early nineties? Anyway, the blog will “bring you the thoughts and insights of some of the brightest minds in business,” and will be “guest edited by celebrities and executives.” This week it’s Harvey Weinstein, future posters will include Playboy Enterprises CEO Christie Heffner, author Bob Rice, and Ford Models CEO John Caplan. Thus far, Weinstein’s “thoughts and insights” pertain mostly to the virtues of Harvey Weinstein, be they in the independent film or musical form. We’re shocked, too.

We all know “notable” New Yorkers never get tired of hearing about themselves, much as the blogosphere never tires of writing about them. To that end, Gawker is reporting that Cityfile, the brainchild of Remy Stern, has gone live. According to the site, Cityfile aims to be a “guide to the most notable and influential New Yorkers, more than 2,100 people divided into 27 industry categories. The editorial content on the site, which was assembled by a talented team of writers, editors and researchers, is updated regularly.” It’s also home to a blog, Dailyfile, . In case you’re wondering, as far as Cityfile is concerned, there are currently 2109 “notables” residing in New York; at the moment Harvey Weinstein is the “most viewed” media entry.

Contributions are welcome in the form of comments and readers will also be allowed to rate people and upload photos. It appears that not only will entries sometimes include real estate purchase prices and “messy” histories, they may also contain actual current addresses(!). So basically, it’s sort of like Gawker Stalker meets the bathroom wall for the Waverly Inn set.

Last year, Harvey Weinstein‘s book division at Miramax scored a mini-coup with the Spy magazine anthology. We just received the renamed Weinstein Books debut fall catalog, and … well, let’s put it this way: When the cornerstone of your catalog is a Chris Elliott spoof of Jon Krakauer called Into Hot Air, you’re not exactly sitting on a Da Vinci Code.

The inaugural list, in fact, includes just five books: Elliott’s Into Hot Air, Vincent Lam‘s Bloodletting & Miracle Cures, Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet recipes from Padma Lakshmi (Bravo’s Top Chef), Adrienne Kress‘ Alex and the Ironic Gentleman (a sort of Lemony Snicket meets Alice In Wonderland) and Jack Stalwart, an adventure series for nine-year-olds.

But that didn’t stop Rob Weisbach, president and CEO of Weinstein Books, from issuing a dramatic mission statement:

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America Ferrera and John Mayer

It’s arguably the most exclusive magazine party of the year. (Graydon Carter‘s Vanity’s Fair Oscar party perhaps being the other.) John Edwards mingled with John Mayer. Sir Richard Branson (just back from dogsledding in Alaska) commandeered the corner of the bar like a Virgin spaceship, and allowed Henry Kissinger to ride co-pilot. Craigslist’s Craig Newmark chatted up Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick walked through the cocktail hour unrecognized. Michael J. Fox, too, virtually unnoticed, chatted with Elizabeth Vargas near the glass window overlooking Central Park. Arianna Huffington was noticed. (Line uttered in every pre-dinner conversation: “Is that someone? It looks like someone, I don’t know … do you?”)

Time Warner execs — like Richard Parsons and Jeffrey Bewkes — buzzed along the edges as the usual media-on-media action (including Ad Age‘s Nat Ives, WWD‘s Stephanie Smith, Jossip’s David Hauslaib, New York mag’s Jesse Oxfeld, Gawker’s Lockhart Steele and Doree Shafrir, ETP’s Rachel Sklar, Glynnis MacNicol, Julia Allison, Radar‘s Jeff Bercovici, NYO‘s Michael Calderone) made nice use of the open bar.

But as much firepower as there was at last night’s Time 100 party at Jazz at Lincoln Center, just 36 of the 100 to make 2007′s “most influential people in the world” list made it, and there were plenty of notable no-shows: No Obama. No Borat. No Queen of England. Rosie. No Leo. No Gore. No Timberlake. No Tyra.

But impassioned speeches — delivered over dinner by Elizabeth Edwards, Brian Williams, Bloomberg (with an ode to late Boston Celtics’ exec Red Auerbach — huh?) Branson and others — and a three-song set by Mayer more than made up for the relative lack of A-listers.

Others spotted during cocktail hour: Cate Blanchett, Mayor Bloomberg, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, Simon Fuller, Charlie Rose, Tina Fey, Mario Cuomo, Martha Stewart, Brian Grazer, Gayle King (no Oprah), Matt Lauer, Chris Matthews, Brian Williams, Ziyi Zhang, Police Commisioner Ray Kelly, Suzanne Vega, Harvey Weinstein, David Lauren and Lauren Bush.

FishbowlNY’s Coverage Of Last Year’s Time 100: