Ms. Lee was on the blue carpet at Times Square's Marriott Marquis to celebrate this year's GLAAD awards for excellence in portraying gay figures in the media. Who was her favorite gay icon? "There are so many of them...Cher!"

Laverne Cox, the statuesque, transgender star of VH1's TRANSform Me, adjusting her low-cut champagne-and-silver frock, was full to bursting with diva appreciation: "One of my all-time idols is Leontyne Price. There are so many, but for an opera queen like me, those older singers ..." The Observer interrupted to ask if she liked any current singers, like Renée Fleming. Ms. Cox's exaggerated pout grew grave. "Renée Fleming's cool. I don't love the current singers."

Stylist Phillip Bloch floated down the red carpet, eager to talk. The celebrity dresser best known for getting Halle Berry, John Travolta and Drew Barrymore red-carpet ready had just moved to Spanish Harlem: "I can spend time in the hood, and getting downtown is easy enough." He was also looking forward to meeting the recently de-closeted Ricky Martin: "What he did takes courage-even though we all kinda knew."

Mr. Martin was honored with the Vito Russo Award at the ceremony, but meeting him proved impossible, as the ex-Menudo singer breezed down the red-carpet flanked by two security guards to protect him from the elbow-throwing crowd (who knew so many yearned to live "La Vida Loca"?) and didn't show up at the after-party.

"I'd like to meet him-did my voice just go up?" said Mr. Bloch. "I think he's great. I mean, I never had a crush on him or anything." He may have been the only one: a preshow auction included a puppy-adoption package, and the auctioneer called one puppy "the only attendee cuter than Ricky Martin."

Not all were quite so eager-Tony-winning actor and True Blood actor Denis O'Hare in particular. "I'm an opera fan, so where he and opera intersect, that's where I'm a fan." Mr. O'Hare, who was already planning his visit to the Met's Valkyrie production, named Truman Capote and Gore Vidal as his favorite gay icons: "Truman, so massively witty. Gore, so massively talented."

After the ceremony, which featured a performance by a Cirque du Soleil contortionist and a presentation by the Rev. Al Sharpton, the after-party quickly blossomed into a swinging bash. Gift bags were strewn across the floor as guests danced to Rihanna and Britney Spears remixes by DJ Tracy Young (favorite gay icons: "Madonna, hands down! And Marilyn Monroe"). Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education Kevin Jennings was grabbing fruity drinks for friends at the bar, wearing a flashy Glen plaid blazer. He loves a costume: "When I was in fifth grade, I dressed up as Cher for spirit day." How did that go? "Not so good."

The Observer stumbled into Lawrence O'Donnell, of MSNBC, deep in conversation with Mr. Bloch. Mr. O'Donnell just loves Lady Gaga: "She's great musically. ... She has more mystery around her than anyone who's ever occupied that section of our consciousness." The newsman had joked about the gay meet-up service Grindr during the ceremony-had he heard of the site before his presentation? "Yes." Had he ever used a dating site himself? "No. It's never occurred to me."

The Observer hoped to ask Ms. Lee what she thought of the menu, but, after sipping the lemonade-and-raspberry vodka "Swedish Stunner" cocktail, she was flipping the tassels on her white sequined minidress and mouthing the words to (how apropos!) "Sex on Fire" on the dance floor. Although Mr. Martin was nowhere in sight, drag queen Sahara Davenport, in a Balmain-ish sequined concoction, slyly noted, "Ricky told me he'd meet me behind the DJ booth! LOL."

The 1970s drag queen Rollerina, in leopard-print housecoat, orange pillbox and veil, tottered on the dance floor, never without a handsome younger man holding her up. Had she made her own outfit? "I'm not a designer-I go to parties." And who was her favorite gay icon? "It has to be Andy." Rollerina had befriended Warhol years ago, at Studio 54. "She's one of a kind," said Rollerina waggishly. 

Edited by Daisy Prince

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_

Ms. Mortimer was attending the unveiling of the new Spider Silk Exhibit at the AMNH. The exhibit’s centerpiece is an 11-foot-long hand-woven textile made from the silk of one million golden orb spiders. The event’s press release touted the fabric as “imbued with metaphor and poetry, with nightmare and phobia, with tales and myths that resonate with us all.” It took artist Simon Peers and fashion designer Nicolas Godley five years and about $500,000 to produce the cloth. Some spiders did indeed die.

“It’s so delicate,” Ms. Mortimer, now securely draped in Spider Silk, said, “it makes me nervous.” Still, the shawl was “very comfortable, very light,” and, best of all, “it matches perfectly!” she said, gesturing toward her shimmering gold dress.

Model Maggie Rizer, Real Housewives of New York’s Countess Luann de Lesseps, Valentino’s Carlos Souza, Countess Natalie von Bismarck, and designer Nicole Miller each wore some version of gold, silk, glitter (or all three) as they walked a yellow carpet. Stylist Phillip Bloch wore a grey and blue tuxedo expertly matched with golden Nike sneakers. The fortuitous pairing was simply “a comfort choice,” he said. Perhaps having heard that some people in Madagascar eat the golden orb spider fried, a chatty Mr. Bloch added: “I was thinking I could go on that Survivor show, or I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, but when it comes to, like, eating them [spiders]…” he trailed off sadly. 

The event was hosted by golden-haired actress Heather Graham, who wore a feathered and bejeweled black Valentino frock. When asked why she wasn’t wrapped in the Spider Silk scarf that Ms. Mortimer was wearing, she replied, “I don’t think it would go with this dress!”

Inside the AMNH’s Grand Gallery, DJ Donna D’Cruz, donning headphones affixed with a massive crown of jewels, spun for Champagne-swilling guests. As the party wound down, a few attendees who seemed to have snatched the shawl away from Ms. Mortimer passed it around and posed for pictures.

Her baby-blue, low-cut romper at the CW upfronts in May; the backless, one-sleeve, high-slit teal Versace number at the Met Costume gala; and the unflattering, eggplant Burberry Prorsum dress at the New Yorkers for Children benefit were not so well received. 

Ms. Lively does not employ a stylist. Or so she says, anyway. (A rep for Ms. Lively did not return the Transom’s calls.)

“She’s the one that looked like a mess in that Nina Ricci dress at the Golden Globes!” sniped celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch, who has worked with Halle Berry and Salma Hayek. “This is why you need a stylist. If you go to a designer, their goal is to get you out the door and on the red carpet in their gown come hell or high water. They’re never going to say, ‘This just might not be right for you.’”

And yet, Ms. Lively and other actresses, including her Gossip Girl co-star Taylor Momsen, Chloë Sevigny, MTV newbie Alexa Chung, and, sometimes, Kirsten Dunst, Natalie Portman, Tilda Swinton and Sarah Jessica Parker, are increasingly going directly to designers, visiting showrooms and runway shows, borrowing clothes and thereby cutting out the people who used to broker such deals.

“It used to be that none of the designers even knew the celebrities. The only real designers that had a presence in Hollywood were Versace and Armani,” said Mr. Bloch, who began working in the early ’90s. “We became the liaisons. Then as time progressed and everyone got greedier, they want to cut out the middle person.”

Perhaps this has something to do with stylists like Mr. Bloch, the name-dropping Rachel Zoe, and TLC’s Stacey London, who once worked with Kate Winslet and Liv Tyler, becoming themselves the stars of shows about their industry—at times gaining more publicity than their clients—and, in a sense, destroying the mystery of how the stars’ looks were constructed.

“I worked with Jennifer Lopez years ago, and her publicist came to me once and said, ‘Jennifer doesn’t like you talking about other people you work with. Jennifer wants it about her,’” recalled Mr. Bloch. Actress Debra Messing reportedly parted ways with Ms. Zoe after feeling ignored by the fame-grasping stylist. “When you’re shooting your own show and have all that shit going on that Rachel does, it’s hard to be there for clients,” Mr. Bloch said. (Ms. Zoe could not be reached for comment.)

Meanwhile, design houses are becoming more aggressive about the process, hiring “celebrity services” reps (Lauryn Flynn at Burberry; Nicole Snoep at Calvin Klein) and courting clients directly instead of going through their stylists. “There are dedicated VIP-relations people at virtually every major house that make outreach to actresses and their publicists before premieres and major award shows,” said Annabel Tollman, stylist to Scarlett Johansson and the Olsen twins and the former fashion director of Interview.

Personal stylists are an easy line item to cut in the dwindling budgets of movie studios and major networks. (’Member when Ms. Johansson reportedly missed the Cannes premiere of Vicky Cristina Barcelona after the studio wouldn’t pay for her $4,000-a-day makeup artist?) “Ellen Pompeo and I had lunch a couple of weeks ago,” said Mr. Bloch. “And she said ABC gave her $500 for hair, makeup and stylist to go on Letterman to promote the next season of Grey’s Anatomy—that ain’t gonna cut it!” (An ABC spokesperson said they do not comment on hair and makeup budget for its actors.)

But sacrificing these hardworking fashion advisers, as Mr. Bloch pointed out in Ms. Lively’s case, is not always a good idea.

“I think people who have worked with stylists believe they have learned enough that they can step out on their own,” said Robert Verdi, who’s made a career of critiquing celebrity style. “But it’s like having some legal issue pending and going to court and defending yourself because you took a few legal classes versus going with a lawyer. Which one do you think will have a better outcome?”

View a slideshow of Ms. Lively's best and worst looks here.

Rosanna Arquette was reportedly the friend who discovered make-up artist Paul Starr's body in his apartment on Tuesday. [Vogue UK]

Celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch has an advantage over Rachel Zoe because his new reality show on VH1 called Glam God With Vivica A. Fox, premiered last night, 18 days ahead of Ms. Zoe's Bravo show that will premiere on September 8. [WWD]

Meanwhile, Ms. Zoe said that her styling vision is significantly inspired by old Hollywood films. [WSJ]

Agyness Deyn is switching from DNA to Women Managament, but DNA will still represent her through the fall shows. [Fashionista]

Olympian Shawn Johnson is "addicted" to True Religion jeans. [WWD]

In an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Katie Couric compared herself to Hillary Clinton, claiming that sexism is more tolerated than racism. [NY Daily News]

Lauren Conrad, who just last week bailed on a Humane Society charity event, has reportedly continued her diva behavior in the Hamptons this past weekend. After flying in via chopper to host a party at Lily Pond, Ms. Conrad arrived late and was anti-social. [P6]

Maggie Gyllenhaal brought back the formal jumper for the London premiere of Dark Knight. [NY Daily News]

Betsey Johnson said she doesn't miss living downtown. [WWD via The Cut]

The View's Sherri Shepherd thinks Barbara Walters needs saving. [P6]

The custody battle between Ron Perelman and Patricia Duff continues to escalate as Mr. Perelman reportedly refuses to budge on sole custody and has refused to go into family therapy. [P6]

While paparazzi crowded in on the diminutive, blond-haired gamine, fashionistas seated across the runway had a hard time pinning the right name to her face. “That’s Ashley,” declared one bleary-eyed editor. “Mary-Kate has that, you know …”—she fluttered her hand around her noggin–“reddish-brown thing going on.” As it happens, it was indeed Mary-Kate, her hair restyled and now a much closer match to her sister’s.

D.J.-ing at the same even were a duo that go by the name Andrew Andrew, who dress alike and finish each other’s sentences.

The alluring confoundingness of identical—or near-identical—twins has suddenly become an irresistible concept for the fashion industry.

“Twins” abound in current advertising campaigns, most of which debuted in the September issues of the fashion glossies. Not biological siblings, but otherwise highly recognizable faces from the runway ranks, stripped of their identities and made up to look like eerie doppelgängers instead. Alberta Ferretti’s campaign, shot by photographer Steven Meisel, features models Julia Stegner and Adina Fohlin, wigged and fixed in identical poses around a Los Angeles mansion. Jil Sander, whose brand image is forever grim and intellectual, also pairs women—one in profile; the other facing the camera. In the campaign’s men’s version, the models, though facially less similar than their female counterparts, look almost conjoined in their matching all-black garb and uniform stance.

Valentino, meanwhile, opts for intimidation, with a pair of ice queens reminiscent of Robert Palmer’s stoic “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” femmebots. Same for Mulberry.

What are the houses trying to tell us?

“It’s kind of creepy and scary,” said the stylist Phillip Bloch with a shudder.

Indeed. Did the ghost twins from The Shining grow up and start shopping in SoHo?

“I think people are always turned on by that narcissistic mirror image,” Mr. Bloch continued. “So that might have something to do with it.”

The House of Ferretti said that, far from the macabre, it had the modern woman in mind. “My idea was to reflect the reality of contemporary life, in which women use the game of duality to better assert their complex personality,” Ms. Ferretti, who has been described as the “Ralph Lauren of Italy,” said in a press release announcing the campaign’s launch. The company showed the spring collection of its more casual line, Philosophy, at New York Fashion Week on Monday, Sept. 10 and is a favorite of celebrity customers Christina Ricci, Natalie Portman and Uma Thurman.

Newsweek style and culture reporter Dana Thomas, the author of the best-selling new book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster (Penguin), about the corporate takeover of fashion, preferred to read the twins imagery in advertising as a “parable” about market forces. “These companies are trying to cater to the really wealthy—that old niche clientele that they’ve always had—while also going for ‘the twin’ on a more middle-market scale,” she said by phone on Wednesday, Sept. 5, after a signing attended by her pal Dominick Dunne. “It’s like the rich twin and the poor twin,” Ms. Thomas said. “The one who made it and the one who lives a sort of average life.”

She also cited Diane Arbus’ 1967 photograph of identical twin girls. “You know fashion people revere her!” she said.

The twins fixation is manifest not only in advertising but also in the magazines’ editorial content. The cover shot of Vogue Italia, also photographed by Mr. Meisel, evokes them. As does the cover of the August 2007 issue of the French glossy Numéro. On it, hot-stepping newbie models Caroline Trentini and Masha Novoselova, shot by photographer Greg Kadel, appear as near-identical biker chicks, sporting black leather Hermès gloves and motorcycle caps. This marks the first time that Mr. Kadel, who has photographed 17 covers for Numéro, has used a duo.

“Group dynamics are an interesting study,” he said. “Even in the most rebellious and anarchistic cultures, the people who affiliate themselves tend to talk, act and dress alike, which is ironic, I suppose.”

The use of twins to plumb the depths of the fashion world’s psyche was the theme of the 1991 film Lies of the Twins, starring Isabella Rossellini (who has a twin sister, Isotta, in real life!) and Aidan Quinn—with Iman appearing in one flamboyant get-up after another. Rossellini plays an aging model who learns that her boyfriend, a psychiatrist played by Quinn, has a darker, sexier twin brother. Guess the rest.

“Society likes to think of things dualistically—wholes composed of two related yet complementary halves,” said Dr. Nancy Segal, herself a fraternal twin, and author of Entwined Lives and Indivisible by Two, psychological studies of biological twins. “Identical twins offer us the perfect model for that.”

But is the twinsplosion fashion’s most honest self-critique—an exploration of the good/evil that resides within us all!—or yet another high-resolution fantasy?

“In our case, one and one equals three,” the Dutch fashion designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, a.k.a. Viktor & Rolf, wrote in a characteristically cryptic e-mailed statement. The duo, whose muse is the actress Tilda Swinton and who last year designed a one-time collection for H&M, has cultivated a twin-like public persona by affecting sameness in dress and comportment. “Something happens that we ourselves cannot explain,” they wrote. “But we now could not imagine being fashion designers without this partnership. … It feels like being part of a twin.”

Mr. Bloch, a man who has adopted a black beret as his personal signature, said that after the "commotion" of the previous week, he's contemplating quitting the beautification biz altogether.

"We had the people at Donna Karan calling, freaking out because we gave Jennifer the dress and they didn't give their permission," Mr. Bloch continued. "And you know, like, 'Oh, you have to get the dress back,' and 'Donna's out there and she doesn't have enough dresses with her.' You know, everybody with their own private agenda. And it's like, 'Oh, so if Halle wears it, that's O.K., but if Jennifer wears it, it isn't?' It's just so gross.… Everybody has turned it into their own personal freak show." (The Donna Karan company declined to comment on the incident.)

But back on the Beverly Hills retail strip-which throughout the weekend appeared so sunny, clean and white, it could have undergone a cosmetic bleaching-the well-greased industry-style machinery was grinding on apace. On Saturday afternoon at L'Ermitage hotel near Rodeo Drive, small-time designers were bunkering down in sterile seventh-floor suites stocked with bottles of Bombay Sapphire and mineral water, displaying their wares for the army of stylists and starlets that descend on the area every awards season, in search of "fashion inspiration"-a.k.a. freebies. Some vendors strove valiantly to peg their products to the casualties in Baghdad. "Black is that color that anything would go well with!" said hopeful Pasadena jewelry designer Christian Tse, who makes delicate platinum-and-diamond necklaces he was calling "not intrusive." (They turned out to be a big hit with the wives of the Lord of the Rings sound team.) Down the hall, the Park City, Utah, evening-bag concern Corem Rose was confirming its Oscar-night roster of celebrity customers: Meg Ryan, Cameron Diaz, Kathy Bates and Renée Zellweger. "It's been insane. Insane," said the line's designer, Melinda Gomez. "We had everyone demanding black bags, and we ran out." Farrah Fawcett's stylist, however, apparently selected a shimmery red pochette to accompany the actress' American-flag-festooned skirt.

Over at the slightly grungier Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, B-list celebrities in low-rise jeans and flip-flops were eagerly swarming two special swag-filled cabanas with extremely tenuous ties to the Academy. Christian pop singer Jessica Simpson was sitting wearing a purple bustier, receiving a "custom" manicure incorporating the name of her husband, Nick Lachey. The model Rachel Hunter, a former wife of Rod Stewart, was clomping around, trailed by TV cameras. Two of the Backstreet Boys were examining Bugs Bunny merchandise. The only person on the premises who seemed conscious that anything was going on in the world outside was Jerry Stiller, sitting outside by the pool in bathing trunks and an Army-green hat, reading glasses dangling around his neck, with a script for The King of Queens (his CBS sitcom) and the New York Times editorial page. He said he'd been listening to public radio a lot. "It's incredible, out of sync, unreal," he said, meaning the juxtaposition of the war coverage and the Shangri-La before him. "You smell this foliage-the leaves, the jasmine-and you're saying, 'It can't be happening.'" Mr. Stiller did cop to accepting a free pair of sandals and a tube of Binaca.

Not everyone in the enchanted world of Hollywood fashion shared-or would admit to sharing-Mr. Bloch's sudden queasiness about Oscars fashion in wartime.

"We had no insanity; we had no freakouts," said Jason Weisenfeld, a spokesman for Versace, arguably the winning label of the night, having outfitted the Best Supporting Actress and general life's-lottery winner Catherine Zeta-Jones, plus Kate Hudson, Heather Graham, Anjelica Huston and (somewhat squashily) Jennifer Garner.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Lopez's silk crêpe Valentino caftan ("Some say apple, some say pistachio-I think the happy go-between is maybe a seafoam," chirped the publicist) was several months in the planning. By Monday, the rumor was rapidly circulating that it was the exact same frock the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had worn on a visit to Cambodia in 1968, giving it vague "political" overtones and prompting one staffer at a rival house-because if we stop being catty, the terrorists win!-to comment: "C'mon, that had to be Jackie and Lee's dress sewn together." It turned out that J. Lo's frock was merely modeled after the late Ms. O's, and that designer and star had agreed, months ago, that "they wanted a goddess approach."

Mr. Bloch said that he came face-to-face with the goddess while making the post-party rounds. "I was like, 'Leave it to you to get Jackie O.'s gown!', and she was like, 'I know, rrright ?'" he said. He deemed her choice "chic" and praised the collective effort to clean up nice for the troops. "I just think there was a lot of uncertainty going on," he said. "Everybody was trying to be very politically correct, and it was just very difficult to understand this year-what was going to be right, what was apropos and what was pretentious." Then he bravely plunged into a brief history lesson on the Korean War. "When Marilyn Monroe went to perform for the troops, she wore a black, sequined sparkly dress," he said. "She didn't wear fatigues, you know?"

But despite his helpless affinity for the glitz, Mr. Bloch is ready to regroup and try something new.

"I hate to sound like Celine Dion, but this is my final performance," Mr. Bloch said. "I really have to say, I walked out of this week just going, 'I so don't want to do this anymore.' I don't know that I would ever want to dress celebrities for an event again." Mr. Bloch said he'll be in three movies himself soon-one of which, Death of a Dynasty , will appear in the forthcoming Tribeca Film Festival. He will play a TV fashion journalist.

-Alexandra Jacobs

Airborne Osbourne

When Hollywood has nursed its Oscar hangovers, there's work to do-and it's not always pleasant, as Kelly Osbourne learned on March 25. Her flight from Los Angeles to New York to catch a 9 p.m. concert that night at Birch Hill Concert Hall in Old Bridge, N.J., was turned around, her reps say, and the shaken starlet wasn't eager to repeat the episode.

Ms. Osbourne's spokeswoman said the plane lost pressure and had mechanical problems. The spokeswoman added that Ms. Osbourne wouldn't try to get on another flight until later that evening or the next morning-effectively canceling her 9 p.m. curtain call for Tuesday night.

"They're not putting her back on the plane right away because, you know-you don't want to be back on another plane right away after something like that happens," the spokeswoman said.

Earlier in the day, Max Cruise, the company promoting the tour, seemed eager to fill seats for the New Jersey show, sending out an e-mail offering free seats to anyone who brought the printed invite. Tickets originally went on sale a month ago.

Asked whether Ms. Osbourne postponed the show because of low ticket sales, Max Cruise production manager John D'Esposito said: "No. We're telling you the truth: The girl had a bad flight. It went bad." Ms. Osbourne's spokeswoman also said that low ticket sales had "no bearing on her not being able to make it."

Ms. Osbourne's last-minute concert promotions have almost become a pattern. Before her March 20 engagement in Chicago, her promoter, Jam Productions, also sent an e-mail to its subscribers offering free tickets, adding: "First come, first served"-but even with that added incentive, only half the house was filled.

-Alexandra Wolfe

Eastern Bloc

While the New York studios like Miramax, along with their stars and celebrity hangers-on, decamped to Hollywood as usual this Oscars season, the small outpost of Oscardom that is the annual party at Elaine's soldiered on much as it has every year.

Entertainment Weekly 's ninth annual Academy Awards viewing and dinner at the storied Upper East Side hangout was full on Oscar night, with its usual bevy of pinstriped media heavyweights, Law & Order alumni and cast members, and Manhattan B-listers.

Should the annual parade of glitz go on as usual when our boys and girls abroad are in house-to-house combat in southern Iraq, the Transom wondered?

"Why not?" said Sex and the City star Chris Noth (who is also a Law & Order alum). "What do the Oscars have to do with Iraq?" Then he settled in with his dark-haired girlfriend, Tara Wilson.

The restaurant was packed hours before the awards began. Some guests looked out the window at the red-carpet arrivals, while others flocked to the bar, chattering about everything but the war. J. Lo's shockingly conservative green get-up was a far hotter topic than Saddam-but was quickly eclipsed when Ice T's date, Coco, arrived in a bright-red, derrière-bearing sheath dress. Her long blond hair covered the sheer front, but in back the dress plunged ever downward, with only crossing red string to hold it up.

Also seated at Elaine's were perpetual party person Chloë Sevigny; actor and former Cabaret M.C. Alan Cumming; Happy Gilmore's girlfriend, actor Julie Bowen; actors Rose McGowan and Joan Collins; and indefatigable party-goer Tony Bennett.

-A.W.

Girls on Film

On stage at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, March 19, actress Marlo Thomas recalled starring in and producing her late-60's television show, That Girl .

"I really was the only woman in a room full of [male television executives], and I used it," Ms. Thomas purred into a microphone on the table in front of her.

"I was young, and pretty, and they were scared of me because I was this freak person who could actually talk," she smiled before continuing. "And I always had good legs, and I never covered them up."

Ms. Thomas was helping New York Women in Film and Television celebrate its 25th anniversary with a panel discussion moderated by newswoman Mary Alice Williams and including Ms. Thomas, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron, Screen Actors Guild New York division executive director Jae Je Simmons, Revolution Studios partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Tribeca Films co-founder Jane Rosenthal.

Just an hour before the U.S. launched its attack on Iraq, five hours after Barry Diller resigned as co-chief executive of Vivendi Universal Entertainment and four days before the Oscar horse race would end in some upsets, these panelists didn't bother to mention President George Bush, Mr. Diller or Harvey Weinstein by name. Instead, the names on their lips were those of Paramount Pictures chairman Sherry Lansing, Universal head Stacy Snider, Columbia Pictures chairwoman Amy Pascal and former super-agent Sue Mengers.

Next it was Ms. Goldsmith-Thomas' turn for a confessional, and she was just as upfront as Ms. Thomas. Ms. Goldsmith-Thomas, who rose through the ranks at William Morris and then ICM until she was virtually synonymous with her most famous clients, Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lopez, left agenting three years ago to run the New York office of Joe Roth's Revolution Studios. But in 1981, fresh out of college, she was just an assistant.

"The William Morris Agency [then] was filled with a lot of very short older men who didn't really like a smart, not-short girl who had opinions," said the placid-faced Ms. Goldsmith-Thomas, who was dressed in a white shirt and black jacket.

"So, for the first year, I had to convince everyone that all I wanted to do was be a secretary. That's what you had to do unless your last name was Wasserman, which it wasn't. I just said, 'I want to be a secretary. That's what I went to college for, it's all I want to do.'"

Ms. Rosenthal, who spoke in her signature whisper about her early days at CBS, said that her transfer to the television-movie department meant that she was assigned to Ms. Thomas.

That prompted Ms. Thomas, feminist pioneer, to let loose with another admission that would not have made the final cut on the Free to Be … You and Me record.

"I had made several successful television movies by the time Janie was brought in," cooed Ms. Thomas, using a little-heard diminutive for the tough Ms. Rosenthal. "And she was tall and thin and squeaky-voiced, and she had a script where every page was turned over, and I thought, 'Oh no, she's going to prove to me how smart she is. Oh, shit.'" Ms. Thomas rolled her eyes before adding, "I'm this far in my career and I'm talking to this kid?"

But, of course, the story came around, along with Ms. Thomas: "By the third page, I was taking notes because she was just so smart."

Ms. Ephron noted that she got into screenwriting from journalism in the 1970's, "when the screenwriting fairy flew over New York, following the sideburns fairy and the Vitello Tonnato fairy."

Acerbic and warm-just like she should be!-a bespectacled brunette Ms. Ephron sat back in her chair with a palm clasped over her mouth, looking not unlike her frequent screen alter ego, Meg Ryan.

Noting that she gets "depressed" about the feminist film community's tendency to flip out about "occasionally discouraging statistics" from the industry, she had a discouraging take herself: "There are a lot more women making decisions about films now, and you know what? The films are getting worse," said Ms. Ephron.

The panelists grimly seconded her, noting that there are fewer movies about "people, not machines, and characters, not cartoons." This spring will see the release of The Hulk , The Matrix Reloaded and the second X-Men movie. As Ms. Goldsmith-Thomas darkly pointed out, "The only women's movie this summer is Charlie's Angels ."

As the panel discussion turned to the lack of good roles for middle-aged women actors. Ms. Rosenthal raised her soft voice a bit and said, "Do you know what it's like to be in a casting meeting, and you're trying to cast a movie with Rene Russo, who is age-appropriate for Robert De Niro [Ms. Rosenthal's partner in Tribeca Films] and fits perfectly with the movie, and everyone goes: 'Can we get a younger demographic?' And they come up with these names who are young enough to be, you know, Bob's child? Not even!"

Ms. Goldsmith-Thomas, speaking about her longtime client and friend, Ms. Roberts, said, "Julia is 35, and I'm sure in a couple of years it will be somebody else's turn, and my guess is she'll welcome it," she said.

But Ms. Thomas broke into a "don't kid a kidder" grin and quoted a line which she attributed to Bette Davis: "Twenty years ago, I played the girlfriend of Cary Grant, and now I play the mother of the girlfriend of Cary Grant."

-Rebecca Traister

I Want My OTV

If anyone needed proof that the winds of war were blowing change through the entertainment industry, they didn't have to look any further than the Angel Orensanz Center on Norfolk Street on March 24.

There on the Lower East Side, in the city's oldest synagogue-now converted into a nondenominational event space-79-year-old Serpico director Sidney Lumet was shooting his first music video. But it wasn't for Avril Lavigne, who recently shot her "Losing Grip" video in the center. On this golden post-Oscar Monday, Mr. Lumet was aiming his camera at Brooklyn-born opera tenor Neil Shicoff, who was dressed in a yarmulke and black-and-white prayer shawl, repeatedly tearing apart a fake Torah while lip-synching "Rachel, quand du Seigneur," an aria from the 1835 Fromental Halevy grand French opera La Juive .

"This is an opera about the politics of today," said Mr. Shicoff, who now lives in Vienna. La Juive is about Eleazar, a Jew who would rather see his besotted daughter Rachel burned to death than have her convert to Christianity.

"It is about exclusion and prejudice and non-acceptance-for Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Americans," said Mr. Shicoff, whose father was a New York cantor. "When you turn on the news today, you see a clash of historical civilizations."

La Juive was banned in the 1930's by the Nazi regime and was revived, with Mr. Shicoff in the role of Eleazar, at Vienna's Staatsoper in 1999. Mr. Shicoff will open it at the Metropolitan Opera in November and then bring it on home to Paris in 2006.

Paula Fisher, head of the Millennial Arts Foundation, is making a documentary about the timely revival of La Juive , and it was her idea to have Mr. Lumet make the nine-minute video, which will air on European music channels. Mr. Shicoff could not have been more enthusiastic.

"Sidney and I don't necessarily have the same point of view on certain hot spots in the world and how to resolve the conflicts there," said Mr. Shicoff.

The advantage of working together on the video, he said, is that "this gives us a chance to talk about what we see as a resolution to some of these conflicts."

Mr. Lumet, dressed in jeans, a gray wool sweater and blue-gray toggle-coat, loped around the Angel Orensanz Center in gray sneakers, a clipboard under his arm.

"That was a beaut!" he shouted after one of the takes, in which Mr. Shicoff had stared up toward a balcony, the camera feet from his face, addressing the invisible daughter whose death his character is ensuring.

Mr. Lumet said he was so focused on the shoot that he couldn't speak to a reporter, but did tell The Transom, "The next thing you can observe me doing is going to pee."

And so the opera video was born.

-R.T.

Coulter-Culture

Ann Coulter is leaving New York at the end of the week. The bony blond pundit is moving to Florida.

In an e-mail exchange on Monday, March 24, Ms. Coulter, author of Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right , listed for The Transom the many reasons she was heading south.

"I'm tired of working all the time, so I want to sit on the beach and drink pina coladas with little umbrellas for a while," was one reason. Also:

"I loathe Bloomberg and his obsessive anti-smoking campaign-he's the next John Lindsay hellbent on ruining NYC."

-Joe Hagan