– DIANE CLEHANE

The sweltering heat (wasn’t it just snowing last week?) didn’t keep the regulars away from Michael’s today. The dining room was jam packed with authors, agents and media mavens all deep in conversation about who knows what. From the looks of things, the power lunch crowd here is gearing up for a busy season of neworking that has to be crammed into a four-day work week now that those summer cottages are open.  Oh, the pressure!

I was thrilled to join Vi Huse and Kira Semler for lunch today. I met them almost five years ago when I first started covering the scene at Michael’s and was fascinated by these two attractive, fun loving gals who always seemed to have a grand old time at their monthly champagne lunch (and always ate dessert!). Turns out these two good friends have been keeping their Michael’s lunch date with each other for over ten years! “This is only the second time we’ve sat in the dining room,” Vi told me.  “We always sit at the bar and it’s just become our spot.”

Today, the three of us sat with the big kids in the dining room to celebrate Vi’s 23 years as owner of Kerygma, a gallery in Ridgewood, New Jersey specializing in contemporary American art. Vi just retired yesterday but tells me she will continue to work with artists like Peter Fiore, Gerald Doudera, David Lee and Jane Owen online. Kira, a jewelry aficionado and freelance bookeeper, was one of Vi’s first clients and the gals have been fast friends ever since. Cheers!

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Mary Higgins Clark, Carolyn Reidy and a table full of pals. The indefatigable 83-year-old author was the subject of a glowing profile in The Wall Street Journal last month which chronicled her success: she’s sold 100 million books in the U.S. alone, and all 42 of her novels have been best-sellers. With I’ll Walk Alone, released in April, she’s keeping her winning streak going. We’re in awe.

2. Michael Holtzman (Peter Brown’s VP and right hand man, so we’re told.)

3. Joan Tisch, Candace Leeds and Marcia Stein

4. The always distinguished Stan Shuman

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Maybe John McCain should have checked his donor list before deciding to cast Paris Hilton in his latest attack ad on Barack Obama. It seems that Paris’s mother Kathy Hilton has donated thousands to McCain and she was none to pleased to see her daughter used as McCain’s worst-case scenario for where this country might be headed under a Obama presidency. So displeased, in fact, that she took it straight to HuffPo (or maybe “The HuffPo” in McCain terminology).

I’ve been asked again and again for my response to the now infamous McCain celebrity ad. I actually have three responses. It is a complete waste of the money John McCain’s contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country’s time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States.

And it’s the gift of song … no, sorry, voice. Oh, hell, let Barbara Walters explain her coup:

On Sunday at 3 p.m., Paris Hilton phoned me collect from jail. Prisoners must call collect.

The unusual conversation came about because Kathy Hilton, Paris’ mother, had phoned me, and while we were talking, Paris called on the other line. When she heard I was talking to her mother, she said she’d like to talk to me herself.

She sounded tired but totally aware of what she was saying. “How are you?” I asked.

Paris answered, “I’m hanging in there.” But she declared, “I feel as if I’m a different person. I’ve dropped my appeal. I don’t want to cause any more problems.”

I asked what happened in the jail that led to her being released or reassigned to her home. She said she had not been wailing, sobbing or screaming as had been described.

“But,” she said, “I was not eating or sleeping. I was severely depressed and felt as if I was in a cage. I was not myself. It was a horrible experience.”

And you know what that means: An exclusive for Walters’ Sirius satelite radio show!

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