Lunch: An Elton John Lovefest!
— DIANE CLEHANE
What a difference a day makes. Had we kept our weekly Wednesday lunch date, we’d have missed running into Elton John and his partner David Furnish at Michael’s today. The two gents couldn’t have been more sporting as they gave us a big hello right before they rushed to air kiss Barbara Walters, who was joining ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and a whole host of luminaries at Table One to celebrate tonight’s Broadway opening of Billy Elliot. The tireless Elton wrote the score (in two weeks!) and is “excited and thrilled” to bring the show to New York City. Now getting back to Ms. Walters — so determined was she to get to the lovefest that she hoofed it over to 55th on foot after her town car got a flat tire. Quelle horreur! “I haven’t seen you in so long,” cooed Elton to the TV News grand dame. Seems Babs missed seeing Elton the other night because she was detained on the Intrepid (don’t get the wrong idea — she was on the board and had to attend the fancy relaunch soiree). “I’m probably the only one who could say I couldn’t see you because I was on the Intrepid,” she joked. Yup.
Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:
1. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong with pals Elton John (the two go back to Joe’s days as publisher of Rolling Stone), David Furnish, Barbara Walters and Gayle King. Stephen Daldry (who directed the the film version of Billy Elliot), Ben Stiller and wife Christine Taylor rounded out the star-studded table.
2. Wayne Kabak and two distinguished gents
3. Martha Stewart Omnimedia honcho Charles Koppelman and public relations maven Susan Blond
4. Ron Myers and an attractive gal we didn’t recognize
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Original post by DCypher