Thursday, August 1, 2013. Beautiful weather in New York. Temperatures in the high 80s but not humid. Breezy by the river.
It was Wednesday. I went to Michael’s to lunch with Norah Lawlor who has her own public relations firm, Lawlor Media Group. Norah is Canada born and bred. She is tall with a commanding presence but a steadfast humility about her. She got into the business, fresh out of university about the same time that I came back to New York from Los Angeles, about twenty years ago. In that time she’s built a strong business dealing in charity events, beauty, hospitality and retail. She’s a Capricorn. They keep busy.
Michael’s was its a-clattering Wednesday self.Herb Siegel was at his regular table 5 with his son Bill Siegel and another guest. Right next to him, Vartan Gregorian was lunching with the Ambassador to Afghanistan; next door was Gerry Byrne, Vice Chair of Penske Media with Maryann Halford, finance and digital media consultant; Simone Levinson was with our Deputy Mayor Patti Harris; CNBC’sRon Insana; Harold Holzer, Senior VP at the Metropolitan Museum, occupied Table One which looked liked a powwow of a working (delicious) lunch. Interiors-interiors, Steven Stolman of Scalamandre with Tristan Butterfield of Kohler. (Steven was featured in this past Friday’s HOUSE interview); tabloid impresario David Pecker with David Zinczenko publisher of his newly re-launched Men’s Fitness, along with Diane Clehane. Clehane’s lunches are interviews and she’s assiduous in getting her story which is published later in the afternoon on mediabistro.com. Next to them, Micky Ateyeh and guests. Nearby: Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel, brother of Rahm, the Mayor of Chicago, with David Zaslav, prez of the Discovery Channel; Chris Meigher of Quest with Lesley Stevens of LaForce and Stevens public relations. Moving around the room, Jack Kliger of TV Guide; Bobby Friedman the guy who had lunch with Leo DiCaprio a couple of weeks ago; the irrepressible Jason Binn, publisher of DuJour; Stu Zakim of Bridge Strategic (PR) with Mike Berman (bermanmeansbusiness.com); Diane Whiteley of Entertainment Weekly; Webster Stone, Nick Verbitsky of United Stations; Elizabeth Watson; Pamela Mohn; Tom Goodman of Goodman Media; Scott Marden; David Sanford and Lewis Stein who just married after 44 years together; Shane Glass of Hearst and dozens more who escaped my eye.
There’s nothing listed on the Social Calendar right now and so there’s time to read. I mentioned the “My Lunches with Orson; Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles” edited by Peter Biskind. I started it over the weekend, having read a taste of it in New York magazine a month ago. I love this book. It’s a great antidote to all the heavy stuff around us, and it’s two very smart men talking about their lives and their world.
I grew up hearing that Orson Welles was a genius, a boy wonder in the movie business. I didn’t know what that meant except my mother told me that back in the '30s he had a weekly show on the radio (The Mercury Theatre) that was very popular. One night he did a show depicting an invasion from Mars. It was so believable that millions of Americans listening in went into a panic that we’d been invaded by Martians.
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