Thursday, February 21st

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had just opened its doors for ticket pick-up for the 85th Oscar telecast.

Forty voting members, the distinguished director Norman Jewison, and I were on a long single-file line that snaked through the lobby. We patiently waited to...

In 1977, for the entire year I sent my resume to Lois Smith, the actress, begging and hounding for a job.

Finally, the actress called me up and said I sounded like a lovely young lady but I have been writing to the wrong Lois Smith. She gave me the...

An alternative version of this article will appear in the July issue of Avenue Magazine.

I have hitched a night flight on a friend's G5 to Nice and arrive at Teterboro early enough to sneak three trunks filled with 10 Marchesa gowns onto the plane.

Navigating our presidential campaign was a piece of cake compared to understanding the nuances of the 2011 Oscar race for the most revered artistic honor in the world.

This is how nine films fell into the big picture.

Three premiered in Cannes mid-May, a distant nine months ago, creating...

This post appeared first in Avenue, available here with photography included.

Back to northern Italy to take in the arts and architecture--and of course, film, at the 68th annual Venice Film Festival.

Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011

Art collector, polo player and film producer Peter Brant gives me a...

The untiring guru of movie publicity hits the French Riviera for the 64th annual Cannes Film Festival. There, she once again mixes it up beneath sparkling skies with cinema's brightest stars. In her exclusive diary, Siegal shares movie-worthy moments spent rubbing shoulders with Robert De Niro, running into Johnny Depp...

Gaddafi is hunkering down in Tripoli, giving press interviews, denying that rebels are taking over Eastern Libya. Oil prices are shooting up over $100 a barrel. These are not the top-secret opening lines of Aaron Sorkin's new script, but the global headlines of a world spinning out of control as...

A eulogy for Annette Siegal, delivered February 24th, 2011.

My mother was born 87 years ago, in the Bronx and was raised in Brooklyn, a borough she denied ever having stepped foot in.

She presented herself to the world, as if she were to the manor born. She...

Roman Abramovich was clearly the king of the island with a new 500 foot yacht called Eclipse and a new 300 foot yacht called Luna. Both boats floated in the harbor.

The concentration of wealth, power, talent and gorgeous people all running, sunning, surfing, boating around and suppressing "party pressure"...

Thursday, May 15: Departure from New York City
I dash to Teterboro Airport to hop on a financier friend's Gulfstream G-IV with Vanity Fair scribe Bob Colacello. Bob is working on a social story on the young heirs to the biggest European fortunes with photographer Bruce Weber, who...

This week, the Today Show announced that we will consume 5,000 calories in one Thanksgiving meal.

Meredith and Matt showed us the individual count for every drumstick, each serving of stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. Enough food to nourish me for four days. The pilgrims had to pork up...

Thursday, July 5th Arrival Day: All Roads Lead to Rome

All eyes are on Rome this weekend for a three-day, $10-million celebration of "Valentino a Roma: 45 Years of Style," an exhibit that encapsulates grace and everlasting beauty. We are ready to rock'n'roll with the 1,000 European aristocrats, movie...