Last Friday at noon over at the Rainbow Room, high above Rockefeller Center, Citymeals-on-Wheels held their 19th annual Power Lunch for Women. This is an almost-but-not-quite “for women’s only” luncheon, a who’s who from the worlds of business, media, government and the arts. It’s also, surprise-surprise considered one of the top networking lunches in the annual New York social calendar.

They let some guys in, and for the privilege they (the guys) pay $10,000 a ticket to sit at a table surrounded by women (who treat him like he’s a hero). So it’s worth the ten grand. Besides the fact that it goes to a very worthy cause. And who are these guys? Well, there’s Michael Lynne, one of the co-founders of New Line Cinema. There’s Daniel Boulud, the famous chef and restaurateur, and Rusty Staub. For the fee, the donor gets to choose which powerful and famous women will be his lunch partners.

Otherwise, it’s the power ladies, and my dear, in Little Ole New York, there are now lotsa them. Lotsa! And thanks to some of them, they’ve turned this annual luncheon in to a Must-Go-Must-Do. Such as: Denise Rich, Rikki Klieman, Stephanie March, Mary Higgins Clark, Diana Taylor, Jeanine Pirro, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Beverly Sills, Liz Smith, Alexandra Lebenthal, Gael Greene, Princess Firyal of Jordan, Bobbi Brown, Katie Couric, Victoria Clark, Joan Collins, Carmen Dell'Orefice, Diane von Furstenberg, Donna Hanover, Gina Gershon, Libby Pataki, America's Next Top Model winner Eva Pigford, Deborah Roberts, Gloria Steinem, Elaine Stritch, Ivana Trump, and Kathleen Turner. That’s just for starters.

Paula Zahn emceed, and they honored Bobbi Brown, Janet Sainer (former commissioner of the city’s Department for Aging), and Diane von Furstenburg for their long-standing commitment to Citymeals. There was also a special tribute to the organization’s late honorary chairman, the philanthropist and Loew’s chairman Preston Robert (“Bob”) Tisch who passed away last week. His daughter Laurie accepted the award on his behalf. There was also a special performance by violinist Nadja Salern-Sonneberg and a dramatic reading by Kathleen Turner.

Citymeals-on-Wheels serves more than 17,000 older (they say “elderly” but that’s a term that’s got to be more quaint than accurate) homebound people every day. They deliver more than 2,300,000 meals a year! In addition Citymeals-on-Wheels also underwrites weekday meals for 1200 homebound people who were formerly on waiting lists for home-delivered meals.

To qualify for the service, a person must be over 60 and have a chronic physical disability such that the person cannot leave home to shop and cannot prepare meals to meet daily nutritional needs. Chronically disabled often means conditions such as blindness, loss of a limb, arthritis and heart disease. They are not so ill that they need institutionalizing – just food and a little company to come to the door makes a huge difference.

The majority of Citymeals’ clients are women. For one thing women live longer than men. They also suffer from the lifelong pattern of earning less than men (even after working twice as hard). And they often outlive even their caretakers, spouses, friends and even children. In fact the age of recipients is growing rapidly because people are living longer. The fastest growing segment of the city’s population is now 85 and above.

Furthermore many recipients live at or below the poverty line which means $7900 a year or less. When’s the last time you could support yourself – food, rent, utilities – on a hundred fifty bucks a week? About forty years ago.

Friday’s luncheon raised enough money to provide more than 160,000 meals. One hundred percent of the money raised at this luncheon, as well as all Citymeals events, goes to the preparation and delivery of nutritious meals to people in the five boroughs of New York. This year’s lunch was hosted by Giuseppe Cipriani and the Rainbow Room. The Hess Foundation and MasterCard International were the sponsors. And let’s not forget the guys who coughed up the ten grand a piece.

You may have heard or read this before (even here), but it’s good to remind: Gael Greene and the late James Beard started this back in 1981. Just the two of them. They raised private funds to supplement the government-funded weekday meal delivery program. They started with just a few friends lending a helping hand. Now Citymeals funds 120 community-based agencies that bring weekend, holiday, emergency and weekday meals to New Yorkers who can no longer shop or cook for themselves. Another example of how someone or some ones with an “idea” can positively affect the lives of thousands and thousands of people on a daily basis.

A perfect late Sunday afternoon: the Tribeca Film Institute, the non-profit arm of the Tribeca Film Festival held a fund-raising benefit with an early dinner at Nobu 57 from 5 to 7, followed by the screening of “Rent” at the Ziegfeld Theater at 7:15. A great mix: a great mix from Jane Rosenthal, Bob De Niro and Grace Hightower, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Norm Pearlstine, Jellybean and Carolyn Benitez, Mary Boone, Patrick Demarchelier, Audrey and Martin Gruss, Kim Heirston, Faith Kates, Ray Kelly, Boykin Curry and Celerie Kemble, Terry Allen Kramer and Nick Simunek, Arielle Tepper, John Whitehead, Arthur Altschul, Jr., Kate Ford, Brooke and Daniel Neidich, Maury Povich and Connie Chung, Tory Burch, and Bill Rudin, to name just a few. Out by nine and home and in bed by ten.

And let the holidays begin; Don’t Miss This One: Tomorrow evening at 7, over at Saks Fifth Avenue, Aerin Lauder, Elizabeth Loomis, Charles Nolan, Andre Leon Talley, and Fred Wilson, the CEO of Saks will be present at the unveiling of the store’s legendary holiday windows and Saks’ new “Holiday Snowflake Spectacular,” focusing on a hi-tech snowflake light show featuring 50 distinct inspired by William “Snowflake” Bentley’s snowflake photos from the 1920s, (reaching ten stories high)whose illkumination on the store’s Fifth Avenue front is choreographed to a modern version of “Carol of the Bells.” The festivities will end with snow falling on Fifth Avenue and a fireworks display.

The production is a fantastic tech achievement requiring 8000 feet of steel, 5 miles of lighting, 72000 LED modules, 15 multicolor changing uplights, 40 strobes, 13000 feet of cable and more than 5000 hours of production.

The Spectacular will also kick-off with the premiere performance of the “Land of the Snow,” from the “The Nutcracker,” with a performance featuring students from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre.

Between the Saks holiday décor celebration and the famous Christmas tree across the avenue presiding over the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, that block between 49th and 50th Street will be the greatest tourist attraction in the city for the next several weeks.

And, on a sad note, for those who may have missed it – from the death notices in Sunday’s New York Times:

LeRoy – Maximilian Warner. During his all to short life, Maximilian (universally known as Max) Warner LeRoy – beloved son of Kay LeRoy and the late Warner LeRoy, precious brother to Bridget Warner LeRoy, Caroline Plum LeRoy and Jennifer Oz LeRoy – embraced an extraordinary number of people with a singular charisma during his thirty years; a life ended by a motorcycle accident in Los Angeles on November 3rd.

He was a literal as well as figurative, embrace. Max was a hugger par excellence, a habit that started in early childhood when his parents tried to teach him how to shake hands in greeting; he preferred hugging. Visitors to the LeRoy household were routinely assaulted by a dark-haired, dark-eyed ball of energy who threw himself at them, hugging whatever body parts he could best reach. After what became his signature hug (just a little longer, just a little tighter and just a little more loving than anyone else’s), Max would step back to ask the hug-ee’s name.

He embraced life just as ferociously and with as much abandon. And he had an enormous capacity for living, because he was so prodigiously talented. The word “best” always surfaced when Max was discussed by his family and friends. He was the best musician, the best writer, the best cook, the best at getting the party going, the best at getting the girls, the best son, the best brother and the best friend. Most of all, he was the best at loving those same family and friends, the latter an always increasing circle of people he embraced – literally!

Without that special Max love, reinforced by that patented Max hug, the world is a colder, harsher and lonelier place for all who knew him. The solace is that Max will now always be so young, so handsome and so vital, while the rest of us will not be so lucky.