October 8 - 10 – Small film screenings are the new black this fall. Catherine Zeta-Jones was a no-show, but her costar George Clooney hosted a screening of their Intolerable Cruelty for Sam Rockwell, John Turturro, Illeana Douglas and others.

Young star Katie Holmes worked the red carpet with back-to-back premieres/screenings/whatevers. On Wednesday, her film Pieces of April debuted on the Lower East Side, followed by an after party at Lansky Lounge. The next night was The Singing Detective, in which Holmes stars with Robert Downey, Jr. Downey brought two friends, one of whom confided at the after party at Capitale that he didn’t like the movie too much.

And Gwyneth Paltrow and her mother, Blythe Danner were in Tribeca for a private screening of Sylvia, their upcoming flick about suicidal poet Sylvia Plath.

December 8 – Classy British luxury goods emporium Asprey held a party to mark the opening of its 20,000 square foot, Norman Foster-designed Fifth Avenue flagship. Famous and rich folks sipping champagne and eyeing the merchandise included Uma Thurman, Natasha Richardson, Sigourney Weaver, Diane von Furstenberg, Vera Wang, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Anna Wintour and socialites galore. Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, wore a gigantic Asprey diamond necklace. 18-year-old British actress Keira Knightley (Bend it Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean, Love Actually) is the new spokesperson for Asprey, and is Entertainment Weekly’s #1-ranked breakout movie star for 2003.

We went from posh to politics, hitting the last of the day's several fundraisers for Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean. Performers tweaking hot buttons were Rob Reiner, Sandra Bernhardt, John Leguizamo (“My mother told me she wanted to have an abortion, but she was too late. I was in college already.”), lesbian comic Judy Gold (“My partner Sharon and I have been together for 18 years. If she was critically ill in the hospital, I probably wouldn’t even visit her.”), plus rock bands and Broadway stars. Howard Dean came late, and had to be up early the next morning, when he received Al Gore’s endorsement.

December 4 – Aw, how sweet; Playboy bunnies visiting an army installation. Iraq? Afghanistan? Nope, this was in New York City, and the buxom babes weren’t entertaining the troops. For Playboy magazine’s 50th anniversary party at the Lexington Avenue armory, Hugh Hefner enlisted folks like hip-hoppers Tweet, Ashanti and Ja Rule, Patty Hearst, living Barbie doll Pamela Anderson, fashion designer Nicole Miller, actresses Gina Gershon and Lara Flynn Boyle (in town at the same time as ex love Jack Nicholson, whose new movie premiered the previous night), bigmouth baseball player John Rocker, racecar legend Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and, of course, lots of curvy women. Alas, there is no Playboy mansion in Manhattan, and those army folks are kind of stingy when it comes to amenities - we couldn’t find a hot tub, swimming pool or orgy room.

December 2-3 – Japan is the new black in Hollywood this season, with three major films - Lost in Translation, Kill Bill and now The Last Samurai – set in the land of sushi. Last Samurai screenwriter Marshall Herskovitz joked at the premiere, “Sofia Coppola, Quentin Tarantino and I had dinner two years ago and decided on a Japanese theme. No, it’s just the zeitgeist.” Tom Cruise told us he trained for a year, plus spent eight months working with swords to do the fight scenes. Herskovitz bragged, “There’s one sequence in the movie where he [Crusie] makes 37 moves continuously without a cut. We surrounded ourselves with people of such skill and such ability that nobody got hurt. We just made it look that way.” Cruise flew in from L.A. on the redeye, and did not attend the screening’s after party at Barney’s – he went to Greenwich Village at 8 P.M. to tape a segment of Inside the Actors Studio, with James Lipton.

Cut to the next night, same time, same place (the Zeigfeld), next movie: Something’s Gotta Give. Jack Nicholson in sunglasses, Frances McDormand with no makeup and hair in pigtails, Diane Keaton and Amanda Peet both elegantly dressed, Keanu Reeves not there. How did director Nancy Meyers attract three Oscar winners? “I think they all wanted to work with each other. Once I got one, it encouraged the others.”

After the premiere we hitched a ride on Santa’s sleigh over to Rockefeller Center for the Christmas tree lighting, where NBC stars hosted performances by Harry Connick, Jr., Ashanti, Nick Lachey, Enrique Iglesias and Gloria Estefan. Professional skaters whirled around the ice rink in front of the Brian Setzer Orchestra, decked out in leopard-print jackets and Santa hats.

December 2 – The crowd at the landmark Lever House to celebrate Ferrari’s fiftieth year in the U.S. was heavier on big money than on big stars – “They invited people who can actually buy the cars”, one wag said. Alex von Furstenberg, son of Diane, stepson of billionaire Barry Diller; Jamie Johnson, the Johnson & Johnson heir who directed that rich kids documentary Born Rich; and rebel with a trust fund Patricia Hearst schmoozed with Italians like Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo. But the real stars here were the cars. While drooling over a gleaming navy blue 1966 four-seat Ferrari, one of only fifty of that model produced, a middle-aged woman said to us, “This is the cutest car here”. We agreed. “It’s mine”, she said. “Do you actually use it?” we asked. “Sure, we love it. The kids can sit in the back seat”, she said, and introduced us to her adolescent daughter. Ferrari’s new model was also at the party, but strictly off limits to the press – they don’t want photos appearing before it hits showrooms mid-January.

December 1 – The benefit at Lincoln Center was called “Music has Power”, and somebody at the beneficiary, The Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, sure has power. The organization drew Gwyneth Paltrow to host, her boyfriend, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Moby, Kevin Bacon and brother Michael Bacon, Vanessa Cartlon, Marvin Hamlisch and Metropolitan Opera soprano Korliss Uecker to perform. Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart, pianist/conductor Lorin Hollander and developer of percussion products Remo Belli were honored for their contributions to music and wellness. (We didn’t actually find out how these gents contributed to wellness, but we’ll take their word for it.) On the wellness note, we wondered if all that makeup Gwyneth had on was good for the baby, freshly reported to be in her oven.

Around the corner on Columbus Circle, the quietly elegant new Mandarin Oriental Hotel opened at the almost-completed Time Warner Center (rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?) Listening to Billy Joel tickling the ivories and circulating among the $975 private spa rooms, $12,600 per night Presidential suite and 35th-floor views were John Leguizamo, Isabella Rossellini, Denise Rich, architects I.M. Pei and Calvin Tsao, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, artist Leroy Neiman and Gina Lollobrigida(!?!). By evening’s end we were tired, but couldn’t scrape up the dough for that Presidential suite, the priciest in New York.