Credit: Roxxe Ireland/Marc Bryan-Brown for Newsweek Daily Beast

For the fourth annual Women in the World Summit, Tina Brown and Newsweek Daily Beast gathered remarkable women of all stripes to highlight their sisters around the globe and provide solutions to atrocities like the honor killings in Pakistan and the tens of thousands of rapes in Syria.

In her opening remarks Thursday at Lincoln Center, Brown urged everyone in attendance to take Sheryl Sandberg‘s advice a step further and “lean ON” companies and governments to do a better job at protecting and propelling women forward. Read more

Some of the most famous people in the entertainment industry were given New York City awards.

The Made in NY Awards, in its seventh year, honor individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the City’s entertainment and digital media industries.

Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement at Gracie Mansion yesterday, along with the City’s media and entertainment commissioner Katherine Oliver.

“This has been a remarkable and record-breaking year for New York City’s entertainment and digital media industries, which are vital parts of our economic diversification strategy,” Bloomberg said. “More New Yorkers than ever before are taking advantage of the opportunities within these growing industries. Congratulations to all of the honorees, who are proof-positive that when you’re Made in NY, you can make it anywhere.”

This year’s recipients have six Academy Awards between them.

Robert De Niro burst on the scene with Martin Scorsese‘s Mean Streets in 1973. A year later, he was an Oscar winner for his portrayal of Don Corleone in The Godfather Part 2. His role was completely in Italian.

Hard to pick a signature performance, but Scorsese’s Raging Bull is always atop any list. De Niro won his second Oscar, and only Best Actor trophy for the gritty boxing drama.

In 2001, in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks, De Niro and business partner Jane Rosenthal, co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival.

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The January issue of Vogue features Meryl Streep on the cover. It’s the first time she’s appeared on the magazine’s front, and during her interview with Contributing Editor Vicki Woods, Streep says, “I was joking with the ladies earlier, and I told them I was probably the oldest person ever to be on the cover of Vogue.”

That made FishbowlNY wonder: Was she? We reached out to Vogue, and they said… Maybe! Seems odd to us that they wouldn’t be able to figure it out, but a spokesperson claimed that it would be impossible to search through thousands of covers to verify that Streep was the oldest.

Well how about we just give her the title then. Yes, we’re aware that the 62-year-old actress might not want this honor, but what can we do? Facts are (sort of) facts.

We could barely keep up with the steady stream of A-listers who poured into Michael’s today. When we arrived a little before noon, there was a handful of power brokers quietly hunkering down to business over their Cobb salads in the back of the room. By the time Bravo’s latest star, designer Chris March arrived with Jennifer Geisser, the network’s senior vice president of communications, and publicist Alana McElroy, there was a palpable party vibe in the dining room.  Late arrival Harold Ford, Jr. worked the room like nobody’s business while social swans Muffie Potter Aston and Suzanne Johnson doled out air kisses like they were candy.

While it was a little hard to hear over the chattering crowd, I thoroughly enjoyed dishing with Chris, whose new show, Mad Fashion, premiered Tuesday night on Bravo. Chris, you might recall was a finalist on Project Runway. (Christian Siriano was the winner that season). His quirky couture and good natured personality ( gotta love that laugh!) made him a fan favorite. Chris tells me when Bravo’s resident boy wonder, Andy Cohen, got wind he was shopping a show around, he got in touch with Chris and insisted Bravo see it first. The deal was done in a matter of days.

Unlike most of those ubiquitous Bravolebrities, Chris isn’t into the fame game. “I didn’t do either show to get famous,” he tells me. “I did it to get to do the type of work I wanted to do.” Things have worked out pretty well on that score. On the Wednesday before the I Heart Radio concert in Las Vegas, Chris got a call from Lady Gaga’s office requesting he make something fabulous for her appearance at the show. In less than a week, he delivered the studded motorcycle cape she wore on stage. “That wouldn’t have happened without being on television.” Maybe, but the guy has definitely got it.  This is the same man who made Meryl Streep‘s last Oscar dress at his kitchen table. His secret weapon: a drama-free attitude when dealing with people who live and die for style.

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— DIANE CLEHANE

The dreary winter weather (Will it ever end?!) didn’t keep the loyalists away from Michael’s today. There were plenty of fab fashionistas and social swans in the dining room who braved the elements in inappropriate footwear to exchange air kisses and gossip about who knows what.  The usual mix of media moguls and mavens were there, too. Here’s hoping the sun and the celebrity A-List returns next week.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Marie Claire editrix Joanna Coles with actor Richard E. Grant (Gosford Park, Dracula, and the upcoming The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep) and three stylish looking folks. We  were so excited to see Richard up close and personal. (He’s blond now!) We’re dating ourselves a bit here, but he was absolutely the best Bob Cratchit ever a few years back in the TNT version of A Christmas Carol opposite another one of our favorite British actors, Patrick Stewart.

2. Literary agent Esther Newberg, enjoying soup with a handsome fellow whose face we definitely recognized but whose name escapes us.

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and Dorothy Kalins. I stopped by the table to check in with these two longtime friends. Joe couldn’t stop talking about last night’s screening at MoMa of The Restaurateur, the documentary about Danny Meyer by Dorothy’s husband Roger Sherman. The beloved museum, incidentally, is home to one of our favorite Meyer restaurants, The Modern. The screening was followed by a Q&A with Meyer and was a foodie’s delight, we hear. Speaking of food, Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys written by David Tanis, chef at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse, and edited by Dorothy was among the nominees for the 2011 James Beard Awards announced yesterday. Congrats!

4.  Mrs. Army Archerd and pals.

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— DIANE CLEHANE

We missed Harvey Keitel (who, we hear, is a pretty nice guy) by a day, but the usual suspects kept things hopping in the dining room at Michael’s today. By now, we’ve grown used to seeing Richard Belzer with his dog Bebe (pronounced Bay-Bay en Francais, in case you were wondering) in tow for his 1 pm lunches every now and again. But we did perk up when Vernon Jordan came in. Talk about presence!

I had a chance to catch up with one of my favorite regulars, ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstong who, when I first started writing this column, made it his personal mission to introduce me to as many movers and shakers as possible. The native Texan with the heart of gold just can’t help himself when it comes to do-good deeds. This afternoon he was full of fire telling me about the upcoming benefit for The Hole in The Wall Gang Camp on October 21 at Lincoln Center. Joe spent seven years as a camp counselor during the summer at the original Connecticut camp — He now proudly bears the title of ‘Mr. Ambassador’ for the organization — and can’t say enough about the kids whose lives are forever changed thanks to Paul Newman. “They make you realize what is really important, ” says Joe.

So, if you want to help continue Newman’s good works and spend an evening rubbing shoulders with Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep, Joanne Woodward and Renee Zellweger, get out those checkbooks and buy a ticket to the gala. Tell them Joe sent you …

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Self‘s Lucy Danziger and some leggy leather clad gals from L’Oreal talking ‘stress management’

2. Law & Order SVU’s Richard Belzer and David Letterman‘s band leader Paul Shaffer

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and O’s book editor Sara Nelson.

4. Leonard Lauder and a casually elegant gal who, upon greeting the cosmetic king exclaimed, “This is the high point of my week!”

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(L to R): Pat Mitchell, President and CEO, The Paley Center for Media; Debora Spar, President, Barnard College; Tina Brown, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Daily Beast; Lauren Zalaznick, President, NBCU Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks; Mark Addicks, Chief Marketing Officer, General Mills; Kim Brink, Executive Director, Advertising and Sales Promotion, Cadillac; Donna Speciale, President of Investment and Activation, MediaVest USA.

The Daily Beast‘s Tina Brown, NBC’s Lauren Zalaznick and Jeff Zucker, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi gathered among other powerful women (and men) in media and marketing this morning for Women@NBCU’s annual Power of the Purse Breakfast. This year’s event was held at New York’s Cipriani’s as part of Advertising Week and focused on “Women in Power: Marketing to the Educated Consumer.”

To reach female consumers, Brown said it was important to remember the way women think. “Men want to know what happened. Women want to know what really happened,” she said. “Women have the incredible bullshit detector about everything.”

After the session wrapped, we spoke with the media veteran about her work at The Daily Beast, which she praised for pulling in a healthy five million unique visitors a month. Brown also said she’s looking forward to several upcoming Beast events, including a conference on reviving the economy in New Orleans featuring D.C. public school chancellor Michelle Rhee, and their Women of the World event in March featuring Diane Von Furstenberg and Meryl Streep.

But Brown was still mum on where those Newsweek-Daily Beast merger rumors originated. “I’ve already said everything I have to say about that,” she said.

Follow the jump to watch video from this morning’s panel and for more photos from the event.

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John Heilemann, Joe Scarborough and Mark Halperin last night (Photo by Joseph Moran)

Last night, we went to the Time & Life Building to see best selling authors Mark Halperin of Time magazine and John Heilemann of New York chat with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough about their political book, Game Change.

In between lots of insider baseball talk about the Democratic and Republican party leaders and the 2008 election process, Heileman and Halperin revealed some interesting info about the reporting in their game-changing nonfiction tome (pun intended).

On the accuracy of quotes from off-the-record sources:

Heilemann said all the facts in the book are double and triple sourced, and the authors frequently went to those on the same side of the story to verify facts. For example, have a tip that Sarah Palin didn’t know why there are two Koreas? Ask a loyalist in her camp if it’s true. They were “extremely scrupulous,” Heilemann added.

“Important question,” Scarborough asked Halerpin. “Why are there two Koreas?”

“Variety?” Halperin said.

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Sorry, sometimes we can’t help the clever headlines: New York Women in Communications, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women in all communications disciplines, today announced the honorees for the annual Matrix Awards.

The Matrix Awards has for 30 years celebrated strong women in the field of media and communication, and on April 19 at the Waldorf Astoria, Tina Fey, Ina Garten, Sheryl Crow, Anne Keating, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Marissa Mayer and Gayle King will all become honoree Matrices. Former Matrix recipients include Barbara Walters, Meryl Streep, Annie Leibovitz, and Anna Wintour (natch).

And our favorite comedian/news anchor, Brian Williams, will be on hand to emcee.

Full press release after the jump.

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There’s something about Maureen Dowd‘s column in The New York Times yesterday that just rubs us the wrong way, but we’re having a tough time putting a finger on it.

Dowd discussed Vogue‘s Anna Wintour in light of the upcoming documentary centered on the fashion bible’s 2007 September issue. It was a chance for Dowd to really tell us something we didn’t know about Wintour. Instead, she talks about her diet, her clothes and her likeness to Meryl Streep‘s character in Devil Wears Prada. The column isn’t serious, it mocks the famously frosty editor. It seems like an unoriginal way to attack a familiar target. If she wants to criticize, can’t Dowd find something new about Wintour to pick on?

“So the question invariably arises: Behind those bangs and dark glasses, is Anna human? Or did she tie Hermes scarves together and make a daring escape from District 9 in a getaway car driven by Oscar de la Renta?”

Although many a shell-shocked assistant may have wondered the same thing, isn’t there something else the New York Times columnist could have latched on to? As the documentary, “The September Issue,” prepares to hit screens on Friday, many journalists, fashionistas and movie reviewers are focusing on Wintour (in fact, the Times ran a great story about the movie last wek) and we don’t blame Dowd for jumping on the bandwagon. Especially when she was “sitting a stiletto’s throw away” from Wintour at Graydon Carter‘s Monkey Bar after the doc’s screening at the Museum of Modern Art. But unfortunately, her attempts at humor have all been done before, namely in The Devil Wears Prada, which Dowd references more than once.

It was a chance to comment on a major New York media player, but what could have been the column equivalent of a five-inch Louboutin stiletto just ended up feeling like a well-worn pair of flats.

What do you think about Dowd’s take on Wintour? And are you as excited for “The September Issue” as we are?

The Last Empress –The New York Times