June 26-July 2 – After adroitly avoiding the horse droppings at the Ziegfeld Theater at Monday’s King Arthur premiere, we cantered a few blocks to the Directors’ Guild of America, where Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were trotting out Before Sunset. Open All Night’s International Congeniality Award goes to the British, since those Arthurian candidates were all open and chatty, while the American and French Sunset contingents were downright surly. (The stunning 35-year-old French actress Delpy gave the beauteous 19-year-old Brit Keira Knightley serious competition in the looks department. Next time, we’ll definitely add a bathing suit competition to our awards program.)

Meanwhile, that day in Beverly Hills, Rick James and Bootsy Collins tied for our Sartorial Understatement award at the ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Music Awards. (We’re definitely not adding a bathing suit competition to this contest.)

Back in New York earlier that day, Gloria Estefan said, “I quit!” even before Donald Trump could yell, “You’re fired!” The Miami-based superstar launched her “Live and Re-Wrapped” concert tour by announcing that it would be her last. We hope Gloria’s family likes when she sings in the shower, because she wants to spend more time with them. We never did manage to find out what the heck The Donald had to do with it.

Busy week for Howard Stern, who publicly bashed the Bush administration regarding recent controversies surrounding his radio program. We accompanied Stern down to the garage after a press conference at Infinity Broadcasting, where he dissed FCC chairman Michael K. Powell. “How did this guy get the job? He’s Colin Powell’s brother”, Stern said, and then railed against Bush policies some more. Stern did take a breather on Thursday, hitting a party at Whiskey Park celebrating his girlfriend Beth Ostrosky’s August cover of FHM magazine.

That radio-friendly music greeting midtown morning commuters on Friday was Clay Aiken crooning in Bryant Park on Good Morning America.

With Jen Lowery in Los Angeles