1. 106 | THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER | 04.24.15 ILLUSTRATION BY Steve Brodner
SHORTLY AFTER MICHAEL MCCARTY
opened Michael’s restaurant in Santa
Monica in 1979 — establishing himself, at
age 25, as one of the pioneers of California
cuisine — he set his sights on New York.
He reckoned that if his Hollywood clien-
tele would schlep to what was then the
relative wilderness of Santa Monica for his
hospitality, they would seek him out on
their business trips east.
“I wanted a place in Midtown with a
garden, a fraternal twin to Santa Monica,”
says the restaurateur. He found the space
quickly. But it took almost 10 years of
negotiations before the owner of the Italian
restaurant then at 24 W. 55th St. agreed
to turn over the keys.
McCarty, who trained at Le Cordon
Bleu in Paris, brought California light to
the space — white walls and colorful art
by David Hockney, Helen Frankenthaler
and his artist wife, Kim McCarty. The
menu offered a similar aesthetic. “Michael
did something that, at the time, was
kind of brilliant,” says chef-author Ruth
Reichl, who was the first to acknowledge
McCarty’s talents in a 1978 piece for New
West magazine. “He understood that
the three-martini lunch was over and
that people wanted to eat light food.”
The New York branch of Michael’s
opened in the fall of 1989 and was an
instant hit. “All of my Hollywood clien-
tele had their New York offices nearby,”
McCarty says. Talent agents and book
editors all came. Bicoastal A-listers
Barry Diller, David Geffen and former
CAA chief Michael Ovitz joined media
powers that included New York magazine
founder Clay Felker and NBC Nightly News
anchor Tom Brokaw. Actress Gretchen
Mol worked the coat-check room before
she was discovered.
Now, in its 26th year, Michael’s remains
a hangout where unions and alliances —
personal and professional — are made:
Today’s Al Roker had his first date with
his future wife, ABC News correspondent
Deborah Roberts, at lunch in 1994, and
Irving Azoff and Madison Square Garden
executive chairman James Dolan hatched
the partnership there that would spawn
Azoff MSG Entertainment in 2013. (“We
were sitting at Table 1,” says Azoff.)
“What happens here affects what goes
on out there,” says lunch maitre d’ Lore’al
Sherman, who notes that Bill and Hillary
Clinton, then-Sen. Barack Obama and
Sarah Palin have been through the doors.
And every other week, McCarty, 62,
still flies in from his home in Malibu to
preside — with a booming voice and a
bone-crushing handshake — over one of
New York’s last media fishbowls, where
the websites Mediabistro (via “Lunch”
columnist Diane Clehane) and New York
Social Diary monitor who’s in the restau-
rant every Wednesday — the day to lunch
at Michael’s if one seeks to be counted
among the power elite.
CLIVE DAVIS, CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, SONY
MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT My history goes
26 NYC VIPs,
1 Power Spot,
Endless TalesMICHAEL’S is where Diller and Azoff don’t speak, an estranged
Clinton and Stephanopoulos made peace (sort of), Hoda found
Kathie Lee, and Roger Ailes goes ‘to annoy liberals.’ As the
epicenter of Manhattan’s elite turns 26, its dazzling, dizzying
array of diners deliver an oral history worth every bite
By Frank DiGiacomo
The unassuming
West 55th Street
entrance.
S

2. www.thr.com | THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER | 107
EXTERIOR:MATTHEWSALACUSE.
back to the original restaurant in Santa
Monica. It was the early years of Arista,
and I needed a place to hold special
dinners and celebrations. Michael’s was
beautiful and hip at the same time. I
urged Michael to open in Manhattan.
BARRY DILLER, CHAIRMAN, IAC CORP. I’ve
known Michael since he was in L.A. I went
to his restaurant there in, like, truly the
Stone Age. And I’ve gone to Michael’s for,
I don’t know, 300 years. It stays the same,
which is a compliment.
MICHAEL MCCARTY The fundamental idea
of this restaurant today is the same as it
was then: It’s the mix.
GIL SCHWARTZ, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS
OFFICER, CBS It was the nexus of publish-
ing people, television people, agents and
assorted bullshit artists. Remarkably,
the same people are frequenting it today.
TOM BROKAW, NBC NEWS SPECIAL
CORRESPONDENT Michael is the ultimate
Irishman. He knows everybody by first
name right off the bat and comes bounc-
ing around the room. He’s the Toots Shor
of his generation, albeit a lot more refined.
LORE’AL SHERMAN Michael will read
every single newspaper so that if one of
his customers is in the news, he can
say congratulations.
KATIE COURIC, YAHOO GLOBAL NEWS ANCHOR
It’s a cross between a peacock farm and a
high-school cafeteria. It’s so New York.
BONNIE HAMMER, CHAIRMAN, NBCUNIVERSAL
CABLE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP It’s always
fun to see who’s dining with whom. Having
lunch there with a friend from a rival
company is the surest way to get the gossip
mill going.
DAVID PATRICK COLUMBIA, FOUNDER AND
EDITOR, NEW YORK SOCIAL DIARY The front
room is where the really good tables are.
MCCARTY Our garden room in the back
has a whole set of clientele that only wants
to eat there. They’re primarily big finance
and big art world.
MARTIN BANDIER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, SONY/
ATV PUBLISHING I haven’t done business
deals there primarily because there are too
many people there who are in the same
business. It’s not a place to make a secret
deal. The next day it would be announced
in the trades or in the newspapers.
TOM WOLFE, AUTHOR I’ve been there a total
of two times, and what I remember is that
the meal was of no interest that I could
see. There are certain places in New York
where people mainly watch each other. It
was that way at Michael’s.
ROGER AILES, PRESIDENT, FOX NEWS
CHANNEL About three times a year, I’ll go
to Michael’s so I can irritate liberals.
MICHAEL KEATON, ACTOR I enjoy going
because I’m a news junkie. It’s one of the
last places where journalists hang out,
and everyone there is about as up to speed
with what’s going on as you can get.
MARIA SHRIVER, NBC NEWS SPECIAL CORRE-
SPONDENT I usually can find someone that
The lunchtime cast
of characters includes
(clockwise from top
center) Clinton,
Couric, Kotb, Brokaw,
Hammer and Diller,
all stage-managed by
Michael’s owner
McCarty (with bottle).

3. 108 | THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER | 04.24.15 PHOTOGRAPHED BY Matthew Salacuse
I know there, and the food is clean: great
roasted chicken, great fries, iced tea.
ESTHERNEWBERG,PARTNERANDCO-HEADOF
ICM PARTNERS’ NEW YORK OFFICE I espe-
cially like their seasonal things — the tiny
scallops are wonderful.
COURIC I took John F. Kennedy Jr. to
breakfast there. I could barely eat because
he was so gorgeous.
NEWBERG They charge for bread! It used to
be $3 a roll. Now it’s $5 for the basket. After
I pointed it out to [author and former
sex-crimes prosecutor] Linda Fairstein,
she walked in one day with a white
napkin over her arm and a giant basket of
bread and started serving the restaurant.
SHERMAN In 1995, when the verdict for
the O.J. Simpson trial was announced, we
weren’t connected to the Internet in the
way we are now. We found about it from
someone who came in and had been watch-
ing CNN. The maitre d’ at the time got a
piece of paper and wrote “NOT GUILTY”
in big letters and went from table to
table. People were eating their Cobb sal-
ads, and I’ll never forget their faces.
SHRIVER Tom Brokaw, Charlie Rose and a
group of men used to meet, and they’d
bring a mystery guest. And one time, I was
the mystery guest, which I liked because
I was the only girl at the table.
SHERMAN The Ladies Who Lunch [see
photo, this page] have been coming since
the 1990s.
LYNN SHERR, AUTHOR AND FORMER 20/20
CORRESPONDENT We do not call ourselves
that. We call it a ladies’ lunch.
ANNA QUINDLEN, AUTHOR, FORMER NEW
YORK TIMES OP-ED COLUMNIST Actually, we
refer to one another as Smart Bitches
Consuming Protein.
NEWBERG We’ve been going once a
month for 23 years. There are nine of us.
It started because [60 Minutes corre-
spondent] Lesley Stahl and I went to
Wheaton College [in Massachusetts]
together. She loves ladies’ lunches, and
when she first got to 60 Minutes, she
said we should each pick people that we
didn’t know but would like to know and
invite them to lunch.
SCHWARTZ Michael’s is very loyal to
people who are loyal to it.
STEVE MILLINGTON, GENERAL MANAGER,
MICHAEL’S Bianca Jagger came in with
a guy one afternoon. We were very busy,
and so they waited at the bar. David
Patrick Columbia came in. So I motion
David to his table — he sits at Table 8 and
this is where he sits three times a week
for 15 years now — and Bianca saw this
and she and the guy she was with came
over and sat down. I said, “Listen, you’ve
got to get up now.” She said, “You are not
going to make me.” I said, “Yes, I am.
You have to be patient.” She said, “We’re
never coming back.” And I said, “I’m sorry
for that, but that’s just the way it goes.”
COLUMBIA When I started the New York
Social Diary website in 2000, I was going
to Michael’s practically five days a week
looking for stuff to write. It was then that
I realized that Wednesday was the day
to go there. So, every Wednesday, I began
posting a list of who was dining.
LAUREL TOUBY, FOUNDER, MEDIABISTRO
I did the first column [on who lunches at
Michael’s] in 2005. I didn’t know any-
body. So I brought someone who did. I
mapped out the tables and named who
was there. Eventually, publicists would
email me to say, “So-and-so is going to
Michael’s tomorrow.”
MICHAEL WOLFF, COLUMNIST, USA TODAY AND
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER If you have lost
a job or endured any kind of humiliation
in the business, the thing you want to do is
show up at Michael’s the next day. It shows
that you are still standing.
JOE ARMSTRONG, FORMER PUBLISHER, NEW
YORK MAGAZINE Robin Williams decided
to do a national tour that included his
Carnegie Hall debut on March 27, 2002.
He and I had done a bunch of charity
work in the 1980s and had become friends.
So I said, “Robin, when you play Carnegie
Hall, I would love to give you a lunch
at Michael’s. He said, “Why don’t you get
Bill Clinton and why don’t you get Billy
Crystal and then whomever else you want.”
WOLFF I was scheduled to have lunch
with [former Clinton adviser] George
Stephanopoulos [that day], and I got
a call from Lore’al. She said, “I just want
you to know that President Clinton is
going to be in, too.” I thought, “Oh, yes,
of course. They don’t speak.”
ARMSTRONG Stephanopoulos wrote All
Too Human, which was critical of the
Clintons, and they considered it a real
attack because Bill was still in office.
WOLFF I got off the phone and thought,
“Boy, this is going to be great. I’ve got
to call George.” But then I thought, “If
I call George, he won’t go.” So I called
a bunch of people to confer with them
about what I should do. And, of course,
they all immediately made reservations.
And then I called George. He said, “Oh
shit. I’ve got to call you back.” When he
did, he said, “OK, let’s do it. I’ve got to
face this sometime.”
ARMSTRONG When I walked into Michael’s,
they showed me where Stephanopoulos
was sitting, and while I’m reseating the
table so Clinton doesn’t have to stare at
MOST POPULAR
DISHES
▲Michael’s Classic
Cobb, with Maytag blue
cheese and bacon
lardons, is a favorite
of Alec Baldwin
and Maria Bartiromo.
David Zaslav and Jeff
Bewkes go for MLM’s
Roasted Half Chicken
with tarragon jus.
Dutch white asparagus
with fava beans,
English peas, morels,
prosciutto and
Parmesan beurre blanc,
enjoyed by Ron Meyer
and Michael Douglas.

4. www.thr.com | THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER | 109
ON-SETGROOMINGBYSUSANDONOGHUEATENNISINC.
The ladies’ lunch group
includes (from left)
Quindlen, Fairstein,
author and
philanthropist Jurate
Kazickas, Newberg,
Stahl, American
Museum of Natural
History president Ellen
Futter, corporate
governance consultant
Faye Wattleton and
Sherr; they were
photographed March 23.
Not pictured: federal
judge Kimba Wood.
him, Robin [Williams] comes in. I
said, “Don’t talk to me for a minute, I’m
trying to figure this out.” So Robin
goes over and stands in the middle of the
waiters with a napkin on his arm. Near
the end of lunch, I see Stephanopoulos
get up. He comes over and stands
by Clinton. And Clinton looks up and
says, “Oh, hi, George,” but he does
not stand up. George says, “Nice to see
you.” And Clinton didn’t say anything.
Stephanopoulos says, “I just want
you to know that I got married,” and
Clinton says, “Well, good for you. Are you
happy?” George says, “Yes, I’m happy,”
and Clinton says, “OK, well, good to see
you.” We had journalists [Diane Sawyer
and Liz Smith] at the table, but we
acted like it didn’t happen. And Clinton
acted like it didn’t happen.
MCCARTY After Joe brought in that
table, we christened him “The Mayor
of Michael’s.”
HARVEY WEINSTEIN, CO-CHAIRMAN, THE
WEINSTEIN CO. President Clinton told me
that if we won best picture for The King’s
Speech, he was going to take me to lunch.
He loves the competitiveness of the
whole Oscar campaign. If you want an
analyst for any campaign, he’s your guy.
I said, ‘Listen, you’ve got to
get up now.’ She said,
‘You are not going to make me.’
Millington, on removing Bianca Jagger from a table she had commandeered from a regular
He can size up the field in five minutes.
So, when we won, I said, “You choose the
place,” and he said, “Michael’s.”
BOB SCHIEFFER, FACE THE NATION
MODERATOR When Katie Couric was
named CBS Evening News anchor in 2006
[replacing interim anchor Schieffer],
everybody wanted to make sure that she
[felt] welcome at CBS because it can be
a closed society. I thought that the best
way to do that was to take her to Michael’s.
Unbeknownst to anybody, I called my
friend Lloyd Grove at the New York Daily
News and said, “If you happen to be in
Michael’s, you might find an interesting
couple sitting at the corner table.” Sure
enough, he showed up, and I actually
brought her a carnation corsage like the
ones at a high-school prom. We had a
great time, and the next day in the Daily
News, there was a picture of Bob and Katie,
old buddies having lunch.
HODA KOTB, CO-HOST, TODAY Kathie Lee &
Hoda exists because of Michael’s. One day
[in late 2007] I was having lunch there
with a producer who was working on the
fourth hour of the Today show, and we
saw Kathie Lee at a table. And we needed
a guest co-host. So we thought we’d go
over and schmooze her and be cool. And
then we asked Kath, “Well, what are you
doing a week from Wednesday?”
KATHIE LEE GIFFORD, CO-HOST, TODAY They
ambushed me.
KOTB She said, “I’ll let you know.” And a
week or so later, she came on as a guest co-
host. It was a great hour of television, and
when it was over, the head honchos from
NBC, who don’t leave the ivory tower very
often, came across the street to talk to
Kathie. And when she was leaving, I said,
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
LESLIE MOONVES, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CBS
CORP. In I think it was 2009, I had lunch
with [late] 60 Minutes correspondent Mike
Wallace, who was 89 or 90. I wanted to
thank him for all he had done for CBS.
We’re having a nice talk, and I’m about
to pay the bill, and he said, “Don’t you
have something you want to tell me?”
And I said, “No.” He said, “I thought you
were calling me here to fire me.” I said,
“Mike! You were at CBS for your entire life.
You’re here for as long as you want to be.”
MILLINGTON George Lucas and Mellody
Hobson dated here for a long time; Elvis
Costello and Diana Krall, too. One time,
she and Elvis’ mother joined him. It was
Elvis’ birthday. I sang “Happy Birthday”
to him, and Elvis’ mother brought him

5. 110 | THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER | 04.24.15
JACKMAN,COSTAS,KOTB,HERRERA:EVANAGOSTINI/INVISION/AP.SARANDON,BURNETT:AMYSUSSMAN/INVISION/AP.LUCAS,KRALL:JIMICELESTE/PATRICKMCMULLAN.COMVIAAPIMAGES.BUFFET,WEAVER,GIFFORD:CHARLESSYKES/INVISION/AP.KEATON:JONATHANSHORT/
INVISION/AP.COSTELLO:JORDANSTRAUSS/INVISION/AP.MOONVES:JOHNSHEARER/INVISION/AP.BLANK:TODDWILLIAMSON/INVISION/AP.SIMON:IBL/REX/REXUSA.POSEN:ANDYKROPA/INVISION/AP.KING:SCOTTROTH/INVISION/AP.WOLFE:WILLRAGOZZINO/BFANYC.COM.
a lovely silver tea set from England.
IRVINGAZOFF,CHAIRMANANDCEO,AZOFFMSG
ENTERTAINMENT Shortly after Barry Diller
ceased being chairman at Live Nation [in
2010, after reportedly clashing with other
board members, including Azoff], we
were seated back to back. I was prepared
to be a gentleman, but of course he got
through the entire hour and a half with-
out making eye contact and managed to
escape the restaurant.
DILLER Except for a brief, unpleasant inter-
lude, I’ve managed to ignore Irving Azoff
for most of my life.
ROBYN WOLF, DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL
EVENTS, MICHAEL’S During awards season
in 2014, Paramount held a luncheon
for its nominated films. We had Martin
Scorsese and Leo DiCaprio in the room
Scoring the Best Seats at Lunchtime
(Hint: They’re Closer to the Street)
Longtime customers often are given priority over celebrities when it comes to getting the coveted tables (like Table 1, where Bill Clinton, Michael Keaton and
Warren Buffett have dined) in the front of the house. Just don’t get stuck at one of the less desirable tables toward the back. Here’s where the power regulars perch
for The Wolf of Wall Street. In the middle of
lunch, a handler tells me they need to get
DiCaprio and Scorsese together privately
because they’re going to be presenting at
an awards show and they have to discuss
what they’re going to do. I have nowhere
to put them, so I offer to take them to our
offices in the basement, which are liter-
ally next to the steam room. So I’m taking
them downstairs and I’m yelling at Marty
to be careful because there are these metal
lips on each step so no one falls. And he’s
a shuffler. I finally put them in the office,
and I can hear them giggling. The two of
them are like father and son. After they
come out, I start walking over to take them
up, and Leo takes Marty under his arm
and they walk up the stairs. There’s such
warmth there.
GAYLE KING, CO-ANCHOR, CBS THIS MORNING
I was present for Oprah’s first Michael’s
meal. I took her there just a year ago. And
then she went again and ran into Paul
Simon. They had a little bonding moment.
FREDDIE GERSHON, ENTERTAINMENT
ATTORNEY In today’s culture, restaurants
are very trendy for a short period of time.
Michael’s has survived. And to a large
degree, it’s because of who Michael is and
the fact that he hangs out as frequently
as he can. He and his amanuensis, Steve
Millington, are really smart hosts in the
highest tradition.
SCHWARTZ One of the things Michael
always says — he looks at you and he
points his finger — is, “Keep doin’ it.”
And that’s what they do at Michael’s.
They keep doin’ it.
OWNER MICHAEL MCCARTY
says hiseducationinthedeli-
cateart of seating began when
he opened in Santa Monica
in1979.“MyGod,itwasinsane,”
hesays.“Peoplewerecoming
from Ma Maison and Chasen’s,
and that’s when I initiated a
democraticapproachinwhich
priority is based on loyalty.
Nobody who doesn’t eat here
onaregularbasiswalksinand
tries to push anybody around.”
Even the regulars, he says,
are“flexible.”Thoughallofthe
tablesatMichael’sareround
—“I’ve hated square tables
andbanquettesfromdayone,”
says McCarty — they are
notperceivedequally.“Thebest
onesarecloserto[55th]Street,”
says New York Social Diary’s
David Patrick Columbia. Media
and celebs tend to sit in the
front room (pictured on map).
The most desirable spot for
power players like Bill Clinton,
WarrenBuffetandKatieCouric
isTable1,thecatbirdseatin
a central alcove by a bay win-
dow. GM Steve Millington
notesthealcovetrapsconver-
sation, making it ideal for
VIPswhowanttobe“seenbut
notheard.”—F.D.
Matt Blank Kathie Lee
Gifford
Gayle King Bob Costas Zac PosenPaul Simon
Diana Krall Elvis Costello
Tom
Wolfe
Carolina
Herrera
Leslie
Moonves
Sigourney
Weaver
Mark Burnett
& Roma
Downey
Hugh
Jackman
8
21
4 5
6 12
14 18 15
93
10
7
11
20
17
16
23 29
28
21 30 27
22
19
26
24
25
Kitchen
Entrance
Bar
Coat Check
Ladies Gents
Hoda
Kotb
Michael
Keaton
Warren
Buffett
George
Lucas
Susan
Sarandon