Lunch: Moguls, Mavens and a Vampire Primer
— DIANE CLEHANE
Had we stopped by on Monday we would have seen Anjelica Huston (Love you on Medium!) Oh well. This week Hollywood on the Hudson was strictly a downtown affair as it seems all those Tinseltown types were staying busy downtown with the Tribeca Film Festival. Today’s crowd at Michael’s was the usual mix of movers and shakers with one MIA mogul (Welcome back, Ron!) resurfacing after an extended absence.
I was joined at the bar by my long time pal Kathryn Leigh Scott who was in town from Los Angeles on her way to London. Kathryn and I met back when I doing a piece for TV Guide about NBC’s short-lived nighttime version of the ABC daytime cult classic Dark Shadows created by the late, great Dan Curtis back in the (gasp!) sixties and early seventies. I might be dating myself a bit, but I was totally obsessed with the show — and its lead actress, none other than Kathryn — when I was an impressionable youngster who rushed home every day from school to watch the gothic soap that introduced vampires and werewolves and other creatures that went bump in the night to a generation of fans.
These days the absolutely ageless Kathryn, having sold her incredibly successful imprint Pomegranate Press which published countless tomes on Dark Shadows and other pop cultural touchstones, is concentrating her considerable talents on writing fiction. Her first novel, Murder in Primetime, was a hit and now she’s hard at work on her next thriller. But Dark Shadows remains a big part of her busy life. Tomorrow she departs for the UK to do three new recordings of new material based on the show for Big Picture. The project is timed to DS’s 40th (!) anniversary.
Kathryn has also sent none other than Johnny Depp the complete collection of her DS books as primer for him to study as he prepares to sink his teeth into the role of vampire Barnabas Collins for the feature film version of the show. Turns out Johnny is a long time fan — something Kathryn first discovered when she worked with the Oscar nominee on 21 Jump Street back in his teen idol days. “To have everything come full circle and see Johnny do this is marvelous!” We can’t wait!
I was happy to introduce Kathryn to my pal People’s East Coast news editor Liz McNeil, who was lunching with staff writer Nina Burleigh (another rabid Dark Shadows fan!) and attorney Suzanne Kimberly Bracker. Turns our Suzanne is something of an expert on celeb divorces. Who could these gals have been talking about over lunch? The list is long, don’t you think? Talk about great dish!
Here’s a rundown on today’s crowd:
1. The Imber Gang: Gerry Imber, Jerry Della Femina, Jeff Greenfield and the gang. Just asking, but is Fox News’ Monica Crawley breaking into this ole boys’ network. This is the second time we’ve spotted the blonde beauty lunching with these formidable fellows…
2. Peter Brown and, we’re told, a lady “ambassador” of some import.
3. Hallmark honcho Henry Schleiff and some imposing looking fellows.
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Original post by Dashiell Bennett