Sept. 25-Oct. 1 –At Jack LaLanne’s 90th birthday party, our friends had to physically restrain us from demanding that the exercise guru drop to the floor and give us fifty! Just when we’d gained control of ourselves, in walked David Carradine, and we breathlessly hoped a chaotic, Hong Kong-movie-style kung fu session would break out at the swanky Pierre Hotel. No such luck, but we did catch Carradine demonstrating a kick. Jack’s wife greeted Regis Philbin with a kiss, and Philbin exclaimed with a laugh, “Elaine LaLanne!” With her arm around Philbin, Elaine then turned to us and said, “He and I had a pushup contest once!” Jack LaLanne, short with a huge chest and slim waistline, said he still works out two hours per day.

Oprah Winfrey made the rounds in New York this week. On Wednesday, she presented director Jonathan Demme with an award at a Directors’ Guild of America dinner. The following evening Oprah was honored by the United Nations Association, along with Sesame Street co-founder Joan Ganz Cooney and Blackstone Group CEO Peter G. Peterson. While Oprah told us at the U.N. dinner on Thursday that she’s not interested in running for political office, she did say that she was scooting out in time to watch the first debate of the presidential race.

On Friday, Leonardo DiCaprio hosted the premiere of George Butler’s documentary, Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. In the crowd at the Asia Society were designer Donna Karan with her new, younger man, Alan Alda, Judy Collins, Richard Belzer and lots of broadcast news personalities.

In L.A. on Friday, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, John C. Reilly, Sidney Poitier and Angie Dickinson were among those at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to commemorate the centennial of Oscar-winning director George Stevens (Shane, Giant, The Diary of Anne Frank). Up the coast, Kate Winslet graced a fundraiser for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival with the premiere of her film, Finding Neverland.

With Jen Lowery in Los Angeles