Los Angeles, September 20 – Premiere magazine really knows how to pull them in. Their 12th annual Women in Hollywood gala, which was for the first time a dinner rather than a luncheon, was chock full of the hottest women in show business. Reese Witherspoon, Laura Linney, Lindsay Lohan, Maggie Grace and the lovely Rachel Weisz all congregated at the Beverly Hilton. There were a few men, husbands and whatnot, superfluously wandering around the party. The gala, honoring “icons”, will be televised October 2 on AMC, but the big question is, will they air the bit when Oscar-winner Charlize Theron kissed Shirley MacLaine’s behind?

New York, September 19 – Bon Jovi popped the cherry on the new Nokia Theatre Times Square with a multi-media launch event for their new album, Have a Nice Day. The rockers are the first band to perform at the new venue, and the concert was broadcast live to millions via AOL, XM Satellite Radio and also on movie screens in 50 U.S. markets.

The Nokia Theatre is set to officially open in October, but Bon Jovi swooped in with their record release concert, and fans took in the show in this relatively intimate space that holds around 2,000. We spotted Jay-Z and Beyonce at a table on the balcony, bopping to the music.

Los Angeles, September 17-18 – The “we’re all good friends” façade continues to crack on Wisteria Lane. As has been widely reported, Teri Hatcher failed to join her Desperate Housewives cast-mates in the Emmy Awards pressroom. And the previous night at L.A. Confidential’s party for cover girl Hatcher, Eva Longoria arrived late, and stood waiting, in full view at the end of the red carpet, until Teri had climbed into her car and driven off, before strolling in and posing for photos.

Otherwise, this year’s prime-time Emmy Awards was considered a hit, with ratings up, dresses sharp and a much smaller dose of reality television “stars” present. Reality queen Paula Abdul brought her handsome new boyfriend, Dante Spencer.

We asked Lost’s Evangeline Lilly where she had been earlier in the week when we ventured all the way to Hawaii for the season premiere. “Oh, I was working late that night”, she replied. The Lost ladies also mentioned that they were thrilled to go to the Emmys because they got to clean up and wear dresses.

Ben Affleck skipped the red carpet, showing up later to join his glowingly preggers wife, Jennifer Garner, for the show.

September 11-17 – We went all the way to Hawaii, but instead of grass skirts, we got to wear garbage bags. It rained so hard in this paradise, that we had to cover ourselves all available plastic. Fortunately, we weren’t actually on vacation, but were there on a promotional jaunt for ABC’s hit series, Lost. The rain was so bad that by the time we hit the beach for a cast photo shoot, it was dark. Oh, and pretty ladies Evangeline Lilly and Yunjin Kim were off somewhere, filming. Hawaii is lovely.

Back east in Hollywood, Johnny Depp was honored with a hand-and-foot print ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. The sun was shining, Johnny showed up and we didn’t have to fly thousands of miles to get there.

Even further east, we found Courteney Cox at the New York fashion shows, although she didn’t actually go to one, but rather appeared as the spokesperson for upscale skincare line Kinerase. After a brief press conference, Courteney and husband David Arquette were whisked into the W Lounge, the private retreat behind the scenes at the fashion shows, where we pestered, er, we mean, hung out with, celebs like Eva Longoria, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, Paris Hilton and others all during Fashion Week.

Also in New York, another brand we can’t afford, Cartier, invited Rosario Dawson, Rachel Weisz and Kirsten Dunst to a party launching its new jewelry line, Caresse d'Orchidées. And Marc Anthony sang at a benefit for nonprofit org. Wall Street Rising. He was introduced by his wife, Jennifer Lopez, to a crowd that included Tara Reid, Thalia and Tommy Mottola, Sarah Ferguson and designer Roberto Cavalli.

New York, September 16 – The Fashion Week battle of the divas was less contentious than expected. In fact, it was downright cozy with Naomi Campbell working the catwalk at Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. show, and Gwen prominently plopped in the front row at Naomi’s hurricane relief benefit show.

If you haven’t been paying attention, or actually have a life, pop queen Gwen Stefani planned to bring New York Fashion Week to a spectacular finish by showing her first collection. Naomi Campbell later upstaged her, scheduling a hurricane relief fashion show benefit one hour after Gwen's.

Stefani’s extravaganza drew a music crowd, including Lenny Kravitz, Scott Weiland and Faith Hill. The show opened with four models stepping out of bouncing, California-style low rider classic cars, right there on the stage, and ended with Stefani herself taking a spin down the runway. The lighting was off, and there was a lot of griping in Italian and French from the photo riser.

But you can tell that Stefani is a fashion novice. She made the ultimate fashionista faux pas, showing up at Naomi’s show wearing the same outfit she’d just been photographed in earlier.

At Naomi’s Fashion for Relief, the models were the big names - Beyonce was a surprise, and the crowd roared as Kelly Osbourne, Nicole Richie and other celebs appeared, and everyone laughed when Naomi pulled Diddy out of his seat and dragged him, protesting, down the runway.

But where was Lindsay Lohan? The actress was originally announced as one of the models; later press releases had Lohan “involved” in the benefit, but sadly, she wasn't there when the show finally began an hour and a half late.

Toronto, September 9-14 – Some of us put on our helmets and charged into the battlefields of the Toronto Film Festival.

Jake Gyllenhaal is festival darling with two films on the docket, Proof and Brokeback Mountain. He turned up everywhere solo, while his longtime girlfriend, Kirsten Dunst, stoked the rumor mill, about town on the arm of her Elizabethtown costar Orlando Bloom. Jake did drag Kirsten along to the premiere of Bee Season; his mom, Naomi Foner, wrote the screenplay.

Oscar-winning director Ang Lee had to phone in his regrets to the Brokeback Mountain press conference, because he had to fly back to Venice to pick up the Golden Lion, the best-film award at that festival. The film’s stars remained in Toronto with us. It is amusing that Heath Ledger played Jake Gyllenhaal’s lover, and ended up impregnating costar Michelle Williams in real life.

Robert Downey, Jr. showed us his new wedding band, just two weeks after marrying producer Susan Levin. We cannot, however, explain his shaggy hairdo or Jackie O-style sunglasses, although the press conference was first thing in the morning after the previous night’s premiere and party for his movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Paparazzi-hater Cameron Diaz snapped at - who else – photographers during the press conference for her latest, In Her Shoes. She didn’t grab any cameras, and her complaints had no effect, because everyone in the room was invited press, and happily continued clicking away the whole time. Keanu Reeves had a much smarter and quieter solution at his Thumbsucker presser, simply laying his head down on the table so you couldn’t see his face. Keanu took a look at Charlize Theron’s new film, North Country. Madonna perked up the screening of her husband Guy Ritchie’s Revolver.

Naturally, while we so looked forward to escaping to the crisp, cool Canadian air, a New York-style roaster of a heat wave embraced Toronto during our stay.

Photos: Joy E. Scheller, LFI

New York, September 14 – What a head for business Sean Combs has. At the Bryant Park Grill to unveil the limited edition pink camisole he designed to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Diddy called cosmetics queen Evelyn Lauder his muse. She laughed, abashed. Sadly, Estee Lauder spokesmodel Elizabeth Hurley did not model the new camisole for the crowd at the cocktail party. Nor did singer Ciara, who, we realized after seeing her at close range, is gorgeous.

With fashion shows in full swing just next door, the shindig drew quite a crowd of journalists, including a German television crew whose overzealous anchorwoman had to be physically removed by security. While said anchorwoman’s aggressive antics were amusing, her wearing a fur wrap in the 90 degree/90% humidity soupy weather was positively amazing.

New York, September 12 – Heather Mills McCartney sure knows how to dig up the deals! Who would have guessed that J. Crew sells fur!

Oh, wait, Heather and her large group of sign-wielding friends weren’t shopping at a midtown Manhattan J. Crew store on Monday, they were protesting the retailer’s use of fur. Police were even called.

Heather told us that they spoke to J. Crew about the issue earlier, but the company has now stopped responding to PETA’s calls and inquiries. She further went on to say that “Cindy Crawford sold her soul”, because the onetime PETA spokesperson will apparently appear in a fur ad campaign. But Heather truly showed her bravery and commitment by declaring loudly that Naomi Campbell also sold her soul. Now that’s dangerous.