— DIANE CLEHANE

On the menu at Michael’s today: a tasty stew of media mavens and moguls with a heaping helping of famous faces on the side. We could barely keep up with the goings-on in the dining room, since every other minute there was some boldface name heading to the Garden Room for CNN’s lunch to celebrate Christiane Amanpour‘s new show. We spied Gayle King, Cynthia McFadden, Joni Evans, Gloria Steinem, and Harry Evans among the scribes invited to cover the soiree. (Nice to see you, Steve Krakauer!) Our own TVNewser Kevin Allocca editor was there, too.

I was lunching today with Carrie Kania, senior vice president and publisher of It Books and Harper Perennial. It Books, HarperCollins’ hip new imprint, is tapping into the zeitgeist with a fall list brimming with of-the-moment tomes including Twitter Wit (Who knew so many people could write such witty Tweets?) and the just released I Love Your Style by the uber stylish Amanda Brooks. “I love the book because it shows how fashion evolves,” Carrie told me. I Love Your Style is full of fabulous images of timeless style icons like Jackie Kennedy, Ali McGraw and Charlotte Rampling as well as today’s trendsetters like Natalie Portman. It’s also got plenty of great ideas and tips on how to identify and develop a style that’s truly one’s own. Carrie is just as passionate about the classics on Harper Perennial’s backlist. “So many 13 and 14 year-old girls have not read The Bell Jar; I want to help them find it.” Seems like Carrie is on a mission to get everyone she can excited about publishing: she’s also teaching the New York University graduate course ‘Introduction to Publishing.’ Says Carrie of her gig that spends eights weeks focused on books and another eight on magazines: “I take the students through every step from acquisition to marketing. The mentoring I got early on was invaluable to me, and I want to help people like that. There is no better business to be in.”

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. My good friend, public relations maven Lisa Linden (Happy Belated Birthday!) and her partner, Steven Alschuler — their firm, Linden, Alschuler & Kaplan works with plenty of Gotham’s movers and shakers in real estate, government and philanthropy, in case you didn’t know — with former senator Nick Spano and his colleague from Empire Strategic Planning, Perry Ochacher.

2. Most of the ‘Imber Gang’: Dr. Gerald Imber, Jerry Della Femina and Andy Bergman. Where were Jeff Greenfield and Michael Kramer?

3. Diane Sokolow and a formidable-looking fellow we didn’t recognize

4. Producer Bill Haber and television legend Norman Lear

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“The speech that he gave this morning in Egypt was just flabbergasting. And of course as always he’s being greeted by 80 percent of the media as another gift from the Messiah,” said Ziegler, who is currently touring the country with his film “Media Malpractice” about the 2008 presidential election.

Ziegler also spoke his mind about this week’s in depth profile of Obama on NBC. “Monica Lewinsky never dreamed of doing to Bill Clinton some of the things that Brian Williams did to Barack Obama during that two-part special in the Oval Office,” he said. “Virtually everything the man does is seen in rainbows and flowers and puppy dogs. Even when something negative happens the press goes out of its way to differentiate the government from Obama.”

Ziegler also spoke about his film and the warm reception is has received, plans for upcoming projects, his take on Katie Couric‘s interview of Sarah Palin and whether he says outrageous things to gain notoriety. “I don’t edit myself or censor myself for fear of what the reaction might be,” he explained.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Also, the panel discusses what qualifies someone as a journalist (hint: it has something to do with sourcing). The event was hosted by the Center for Publishing at NYU featuring David Carr, Liz Smith, Judge Napolitano of Fox News, Jim Kelly of Time, and Sherrese Smith of the Washington Post and moderated by Arthur R. Miller. Part four is after the jump and you can watch the entire thing here. And it’s definitely worth a watch, and not only because it puts David Carr and Liz Smith in the same room.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.