Jay McInerney, Rielle Hunter (Patrick McMullan)

"Bret is such a liar!" Jay McInerney said fondly of his old friend. It was Wednesday night, and we were chatting across the table during a dinner the author had co-hosted with Janna Bullock. Mr. McInerney was referring to our query about the infamous tweet of his friend Bret Easton Ellis, who had implied they the two literary brat packers had once 'almost' had a threesome with John Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter.

"It was the 80s, I'm sure there were times when things almost happened with Rielle and Bret and me," Mr. McInerney continued. "But what's 'almost' mean? Anything can 'almost' happen."

When we asked if he'd write another story about Alison Poole, the Rielle alter-ego whom Mr. McInerney wrote about in Story of My Life. In 2004, Ms. Poole reappeared in his short story Penelope on the Pond, hiding out in a lake house to avoid the media scandal of her involvement with a married Southern politician running for president.

He laughed. "Ha, possibly!"

The author, who is currently promoting his book on wine, The Juice: Vinous Veritas, and writing a new novel about the Hamptons, had known Ms. Hunter since the 80s. The two remained close.

"You know, I wrote (Penelope on the Pond) before the National Enquirer got wind of the whole affair. She (Ms. Hunter) called me up the day after she first met John, and I just had this image of Alison Poole coming back as Penelope from the Odyssey, waiting for her husband to come home."

On the John Edwards trial, the Bright Lights, Big City author only said, "It's probably a good thing the defense rested without calling her to the stand."

Either way, Mr. Ellis isn't talking, but maybe someone could wring the truth from Brat Packer Molly Ringwald:

Gah, no! She is ruining our John Hughes' fantasy of the 80s! (We just hope she's referring to James Spader or something.)

Soho can't be bothered with "suscpicious packages." 

Liza Minelli, four-time divorcee, covers "Single Ladies."

A New Yorker cartoonist is on view at a Columbia gallery. 

Marc Jacobs gets naked. 

Also, naked Fridays exist.

Washington D.C. officials complain that their condoms are too small.

Rand Paul wisely cancels his Meet the Press appearance.

She had no idea the photos were going to be so sexy: She calls them "repulsive."

(But, for the rest of us, probably not as repulsive as the Daily Beast's sex tape details.)

But one of the strangest things about Ms. Hunter's story has always been that she kind of inspired Jay McInerney's Story of My Life, which she brought up.

There's this Jay McInerney book [Story of My Life, narrated by a character based on Hunter, who briefly dated McInerney], and let's correct a part of that right now. In my early twenties, there was a time period when I, in the late '80s, did cocaine. And partied. I was living in New York City.

Ms. Hunter says she wasn't a drug addict, but that, yes, there was a lot of "hooking up" going on. The interviewer, Lisa DePaulo--who has written quite a bit about married people hooking up--was curious.

What was McInerney like to hook up with?
[laughs] I love Jay. Jay is a great guy, a lovely man. To date? That time in my life was a nightmare.

She is much happier now, she says.

"Replete with colorful anecdotes and vignettes, this forceful memoir offers a familiar, if a bit slippery, tale of lost youthful innocence," wrote Jacob Heilbrunn.

But, just like Mr. and Mrs. Edwards stole the show in Game Change, it's the mistress, Rielle Hunter, who waltzes away with Mr. Young's story.

"Hunter, not Edwards, is the truly fascinating character in this creepy little drama. As she observed about his lavish efforts to appease her during her pregnancy, 'not too bad, considering I was sleeping in my car a few years ago.'"

If he plans to follow through on that promise to have Dave Matthews, it's going to cost "an incredible amount of money." 

An indignant Tim Robbins spent five hours attempting to vote yesterday after a registration mix-up that eventually required the attention of two police officers and the Board of Elections. [R&M]

The red and black dress Michelle Obama wore at last night's acceptance speech was from Narciso Rodriguez's Spring 2009 ready-to-wear collection. [Mrs. O via Racked] 

Cameron Diaz refused to share her cigarettes with her fellow guests at Drew Barrymore's Halloween party. [P6]

The National Enquirer likely stole a dirty diaper belonging to Rielle Hunter's son. The gossip sheet plans to submit the find to DNA testing in order to prove that John Edwards fathered the child. [R&M] 

A "disoriented" Countess Luann de Lesseps, of The Real Housewives of New York, "couldn't stand still" at Noah Tepperberg and Danny A's Halloween party at Lucky Strike Lanes. [P6]

Meanwhile, Ms. Lohan's reported ex and daughter of Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, Courtenay Semel, got arrested in Las Vegas on Tuesday for having an altercation with a security guard at Pure nightclub; she had been asked to leave because she was rather intoxicated. [P6]

John Edwards' lawyer pals reportedly helped Rielle Hunter escape to the Virgin Islands a day before his public confession on August 8. [NY Daily News]

Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams are reportedly back together. [Hollyscoop]

Matt Damon and his wife, Luciana, have welcomed a baby girl named Gia Zavala. This is their second child together. [US Weekly]

Bill Clinton celebrated his birthday on Tuesday with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and his daughter, Chelsea, and her boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky, at Allegretti on West 22nd Street. [P6]

Radar has posted an in-depth analysis of potential meaning behind Rielle Hunter’s soundtrack choice—the Dave Matthews Band’s “True Reflections”—for the “webisodes” she filmed for the John Edwards campaign. We appreciate the effort, but given what we now know about the relationship between this particular subject-artist pairing, we don’t think you need to dig any deeper than the dialogue for insights into the former presidential candidate's psyche—it really does seem to speak for itself!

In the above episode, entitled “Plane Truths,” Edwards lounges on his plane, bantering with his young aids (“If any of these guys aren’t nice to you, you tell me!” he instructs Hunter) about shoe-shopping before asking the camera: “Do you think most people have any idea what we’re doing when we’re not on the stage? All this, everything that we do … do you think most normal Americans have any idea what we do?”

Next, he claims to be having trouble with the casual nature of the videos, explaining: “We train to be careful, to close off if it feels sensitive, to close off if it feels personal. … I’m trying hard, but we’re so conditioned, we’re conditioned to say the same things, we’re conditioned to be political—I can be in the middle of what feels real and authentic and then I get into a little reel in my head, I can see it happening. I think it’s good that you guys are filming all of the time, instead of just when I’m standing in front of a crowd.”