And so they’ve kept coming to Elaine’s all weekend to pay respects. And have dinner. Elaine wouldn’t like it if someone didn’t eat.
Saturday night: Charlie Rose came in with Arianna Huffington. The room was very crowded. Oft heard: “Who are all these people?”
Sunday night: Fuller than Saturday. Gay Talese at a table of New York Times types. Michelle Phillips, of Mamas and Papas fame, also of “Knots Landing,” still an incredible beauty, reminisced about coming into Elaine’s in the 70s with Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. (Boy, to have been a fly on the wall then!)
Robert Altman‘s eternally elegant widow, Kathryn, came in with Sally Kellerman, who’s doing her cabaret show on Monday night at the Metropolitan Room on West 18th St. Kellerman, of course, played Hot Lips Houlihan in Altman’s “MASH” circa 1969. Famed choreographer Pat Burch was there with husband Bill Becker, of Janus Films.
Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein took a table in the back. Chris Noth huddled with buddies Steve Walter and Josh Gaspero, preparing their new Cutting Room for East 32nd St.
Scattered about: legendary photographer Harry Benson, mystery author Carol Higgins Clark, Yankees photographer Jessica Burstein, Elaine’s stalwart manager Diane Becker. The waiters are soldiering on, missing their leader.
Elaine, they’re coming in droves. But I’ll bet you know that.
