Atlantic City, NJ, September 27-28, 2008 – Paris Hilton and boyfriend, musician Benji Madden, hit club mur.mur at the Borgata Casino and Spa in Atlantic City over the weekend.  Paris wore vintage clothing, but her accessories were all her own, literally: her handbag was from her own line, and we could tell because it said “Paris Hilton” all over it, kind of like those LVs on Louis Vuitton bags.  Paris’ gold metallic shoes were also from her own line.

Our favorite accessory, however, was worn by the club’s staffers: “Paris for President” pins! 

Paris and Benji were inseparable, holding hands constantly – even while Benji was spinning in the club’s DJ booth.  No dancing on tables for Paris, and our spies say that the newly demure heiress stuck to drinking water and Diet Coke.

Photos: Tom Briglia

New York, September 24-26, 2008 – While world leaders were in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, Bill Clinton took advantage of the opportunity to bulk up the guest list for his Clinton Global Initiative, which was going on at the same time at a Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan.  World political leaders from Clinton to Al Gore to Shimon Perez to Tony Blair to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to wannabe leaders like Sarah Palin called attention to global problems at the CGI. 

But unlike the U.N. Assembly, celebrities like Drew Barrymore and Matt Damon also lent their voices to Clinton’s “Call to Action”.  George H.W. Bush joked that he had trouble getting in, so he told them at the door that he knows Bono, who was, indeed, inside, and was quite smitten with Queen Rania of Jordan.  Lance Armstrong answered the question of the week when he spoke about having met French President Nicolas Sarkozy: “I met his wife – that’s what everyone asks me,” Armstrong quipped about the popular Carla Bruni. 

Clinton even had the pull to attract business leaders like Bill Gates and T. Boone Pickens – at the same time that Wall Street was in the throes of its biggest meltdown in history. 

New York, September 23-26, 2008 – Carla Bruni stole the show at the 63rd United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.  With most of the world’s leaders gathered at U.N. headquarters, all eyes were on France’s glamorous and sophisticated First Lady.  Nicolas Sarkozy spoke only in French while at the U.N.; the only phrase he uttered in English was: "Ladies first", when he was taking questions from a group of jostling journalists.

That same day, when Sarkozy and Bruni got stuck in traffic on their way to the Waldorf-Astoria, they hopped out of their car and walked to the hotel, where the French president received an award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.  Their security team must have loved that! 

The other big surprise at the U.N. Assembly was that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seemed to be having a blast.  He was friendly and joked with journalists, who began to refer to him as “I’m a dinner jacket”, and was something of a chick magnet, with women asking him to pose for photos.  Of course, Ahmadinejad’s good mood didn’t stop him from railing against the U.S., but we’ll leave that topic to political blogs.

New York, September 18, 2008 – Warner threw a blowout party to launch the Sex and the City: The Movie DVD.  We're talking big - an entire block of Fifth Avenue was closed off, the New York Public Library was swathed in pink lights, the entrances guarded by models on stilts wearing 12-foot-tall replicas of Carrie’s wedding dress!  (These were not real Vivienne Westwood; more of a homage to the designer’s dress that appeared in the movie.) 

Attendees walked a pink carpet, and inside the library was more pink lighting, Chanel couches and coffee tables embedded with plasma-screen TVs.  The invitation read: “The Party That Never Was” – and you know what that means if you saw the movie.

Sarah Jessica Parker said shooting the DVD extras in a room at the Waldorf with director Michael Patrick King was bittersweet, since it was the last SATC-related item she’d be doing.  That is, unless they do another movie, which hasn’t yet been decided. 

“Mr. Big” Chris Noth did not attend the party – maybe he couldn’t face the very place where he broke Carrie’s heart?  Kristin Davis wasn’t there either, but Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall, Evan Handler, Willie Garson, Mario Cantone and Lynn Cohen, who plays Magda, represented.  Sarah Jessica Parker arrived last, and looked positively regal in Alexander McQueen.