TV Journos—Walters, Zahn, Bartiromo—Descend on Four Seasons

"Money Honey" Maria Bartiromo was here last week with a gentleman. It must have been a very serious conversation because they were talking intensely; maybe it was about the future of her workplace, the New York Stock Exchange.

TV journalism's orginal glamour girl, Barbara Walters, also stopped by for lunch this week, bringing Mrs. Rudy Giuliani along as her guest.

To complete the newsroom triumvirate, Paula Zahn came in on Monday with another woman and sat at a back corner table of the Grill.

Paul Fribourg lunched with Tom Hill on the other side of the room. The two men were interrupted toward the end of their lunch by Larry Fink and Donald Drapkin, who were on their way out after dining together. The four men shared jokes and hearty handshakes and hugs.

Steve Forbes was also here on Monday, eating at the back corner booth with John Angelo, the owner of the Orioles, and Dolly Lenz and her son.

On Monday morning, we had a highly classified breakfast meeting with a big government player who addressed the New York financial community. You should have seen the Secret Service for this guy, oh my goodness! It was a great meeting; the essence was that this country is on the right track, but I can't say any more than that, I've been sworn to secrecy! Can you imagine?

Nick Pileggi and Nora Ephron came for dinner one night last week with another couple. They come quite often and told me, "The food was so good last time that we had to come back!" I was very excited.

It was a slow week because of the school vacations and the Oscars; a lot of people went to Los Angeles. Mike Ovitz came on Monday for lunch, but he must have been exhausted; he must have flown back that morning.

The prince has been coming every day. He came at 2 p.m. on Monday wearing a navy overcoat with thick black fur trim and had a choice between three tables, including his usual corner banquet, but chose the middle table because they hadn't finished clearing the dishes from Donald Marron's lunch, which had just finished at the corner booth. The prince ordered Puntarella salad and raisin rolls for the entire week to make sure they would be available.

Agnes Gund, in a coral jacket, left right as the prince arrived.

We're working on the new spring menu; we'll probably debut it in the next two weeks. We're all looking forward to the changing of trees and uniforms. The spring uniforms have pale pink neckties, and we change the trees in the Pool Room to Cherry Blossoms. Very sexy!