New York, May 20-26, 2006 – You didn’t really expect celebrities to stay at home and pack for the Hamptons last week, did you? We mingled with some famous folks before they all decamped to their summer outposts, and here are a few loose ends from the week leading up to summer 2006.

West Point grads heard from President Bush, but the engineering nerds at Cooper Union got tips from future first husband Bill Clinton. Marrying a brilliant lawyer, like Bill did, is a great career move.

Geeks and democrats also got together on Thursday, when Wired magazine sponsored a panel discussion on Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Seriously, the global warming documentary could be a summer blockbuster. Don’t forget that Gore invented that Internet thing, and that’s gotten huge, from what we hear.

Chris Rock was in Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan, smoking cigarettes in scenes for the movie I Think I Love My Wife. It was outdoors, people, outdoors, and it’s just a movie, but no doubt, every anti-smoking site will now link to this. They’ll all hate Chris.

Denis Leary rode a fire engine to the season premiere of his hit show, Rescue Me, where some reporter was asking about first jobs. Leary ticked off a slew of what he called lousy jobs, from washing dishes to cutting meat, while trying to make it in show business. He said he only got his first credit card at age 33. Co-star Tatum O’Neal said her first job was her Oscar-winning role in Paper Moon, at age ten.

The Longchamps boutique opening party on Tuesday was star-studded – Lucy Liu, Eva Mendes, Isabella Rossellini and Susan Sarandon with her dog and her daughter, Eva Amurri, all checked out the new Soho digs. The party was so packed you could barely move, and we know Uma Thurman loves sweaty parties. It was a bit overwhelming for pregnant Maggie Gyllenhaal, who took a seat, and whose eyes were drooping.