The business-lunch crowd was beginning to trickle in around 12:30 p.m. on a recent afternoon at El Rio Grande, the Murray Hill restaurant where the gossip columnist Liz Smith is a regular (she lives upstairs). Ms. Smith, who is 85, has been writing gossip for nearly 32 years, and recently helped start a Web site for women over 40 that is, perhaps, where the mothers of the saucy lasses of the women’s blog Jezebel might hang out online. The site, Wowowow.com, stands for Women on the Web, and Ms. Smith’s partners in the venture read like a Who’s Who of the well preserved and the powerful: advertising guru Mary Wells; Joni Evans, who used to be the president of Simon & Schuster; Lesley Stahl, the 60 Minutes reporter; and Peggy Noonan, the conservative columnist.  read more »

The New York Social Diary reports today that Michael's had a good day yesterday. It was “hopping” with the likes of Joe Armstrong, who ate with a freshly-shorn Paula Zahn; Dominick Dunne, who was sitting with Chuck Pfeiffer and Taki Theodoracopulos; West-Coasters Mike Medavoy and Nikki Haskell; and Diana Taylor and Barbara Walters. Deep breath! And that’s not the half of it; more bold-faced names and a few pictures after clicking on the link below.

David Patrick Columbia also writes today that the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s 14th annual “Living Landmarks Gala,” emceed by Liz Smith, was “a great show.” The event honored John Whitehead, Jessye Norman, Gerry Schoenfeld, Mica Ertegun, Oscar de la Renta and Lauren Bacall. Of Ms. Smith’s hosting prowess, Mr. Columbia explains: “It’s her party and she conducts it in her brilliant citified down-home manner so that everyone feels welcome, has a lot of fun and a lot of laughs.” The New York Post writer co-hosted the event with Barry Diller, Diane von Furstenberg and Howard Rubenstein, while Peter Duchin entertained the guests with his music. With some 550 people at Tuesday’s fete, the Landmarks Conservancy raked in a reported $750,000.

Landmarks Remembered [NYSD]

And in today's Newsday, Barron's fantasy comes true. In the round-up of his re-election contest with a challenger named John Whitehead, the paper runs a photo of the other John Whitehead -- former Goldman Sachs chief, Reagan deputy secretary of state, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Chairman, and a man Liz Smith (in Newsday!) once called "chairman of the establishment."