Sean Penn, Ben Stiller Take the A List Downtown

So where did Jake Gyllenhaal head on Monday night after the Paul Newman tribute? Spies say Gyllenhaal headed downtown to the Mercer Hotel. It’s the same place where Catherine Deneuve her daughter, Chiara Mastroianni, went after the former’s tribute across Lincoln Center plaza for the Film Society. Mother and daughter ran into Gyllenhaal, who had a table in the bar lobby with Sean Penn, Ben Stiller and Kanye West, among others. The Mercer is again the hot spot late at night, topping the Waverly Inn. Stars are looking for hangouts. New York has not been this hangout free in years. Long gone are the days of places like Moomba, Bungalow 8, Lot 61, the original Bowery Bar, Nell’s (back in the day), Studio 54, or even famous Elaine’s. The city is ripe for a hot spot, that’s for sure. Meantime, Google chief Eric Schmidt was spotted in the audience at the Rainforest Foundation concert at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday with a comely blonde companion. He didn’t attend the dinner later at the Pierre Hotel or go backstage during intermission with Sting, Bill Clinton, and Meryl Streep…Celebrating milestones: tonight, Sirio Maccione, famous owner of the famous Le Cirque, celebrates his 80th birthday with a gala at the restaurant…Record biz legend Clive Davis had his 80th last night at the River Cafe in Brooklyn with friends and family including superstar Aretha Franklin…Whit Stillman’s “Damsels in Distress” opens tomorrow. It has a very respectable 79% on Rotten Tomatoes. I loved it in Toronto. But it had a stealth, miserable premiere in New York and lacks any kind of marketing campaign. Toss it in with “Friends with Kids,” another film that woulda, coulda. They’ll be great rentals.