New York, April 21, 2009 - Vanity Fair again kicked off the Tribeca Film Festival with a dinner at the State Supreme Courthouse in lower Manhattan.  VF editor Graydon Carter has been busy opening his new restaurant, Monkey Bar, which he insists is not going after the Michael’s crowd.  “We’re just going after people with jobs at this point,” Carter quipped.

Carter played host, along with Robert De Niro and Ron Perelman, to a crowd of New York and Hollywood power brokers.  Christopher Walken, Regis Philbin, Larry David, Diane von Furstenberg, architect Richard Meier and CBS chief Les Moonves and his wife Julie Chen were among those schmoozing and talking film at the party.  Bono bounded up the stairs and quickly melted into the crowd. 

Kanye West chatted with Spike Lee in one quiet corner during pre-dinner cocktails, and we found Fran Lebowitz and Andre Leon Talley conferring in another.  Debra Messing insists that festival founder De Niro is not intimidating. I was at a very small dinner at someone’s home, he was charming and approachable,” Messing said.  Her Starter Wife co-star Chris Diamantopoulos has also met De Niro, and he agrees. “I didn’t find him scary; I found him actually very, very shy,” he said. 

We’ll take their word for it.