What a glorious weekend for strolling the villages! Almost every town had a sidewalk sale or Harvest festival. Southampton's Main Street looked like high summer with crowds squeezing by the street side displays of local stores clearing out merchandise for new fall goods. I even managed to do a little early Christmas shopping scooping up deals at Hildreth's and Homenature before I spied the window at Bookhampton and was suddenly awed by the sheer number of hot books on display by so many familiar names – mostly our neighbors!

One of the country's most popular and prolific painters, Hunt Slonem, is the subject of a stunning tome, "The Homes and Art of Hunt Slonem" by Vincent Katz. The lavish photographs give an inside peek at Hunt's many homes – a grand Victorian mansion in Kingston overlooking the Hudson and two, not one, ante-bellum plantations in Louisiana, straight out of "Gone with the Wind". When does this guy have a chance to paint his colorful parrots and keep these magnificent estates in pristine shape?

Annette Roque Lauer and husband Matt Lauer Photo by PatrickMcMullan.com

Needing a laugh to take the edge off my home envy, I came upon Alan Alda's sequel to the first installment of his memoirs. "Things I Overheard When Talking to Myself" is pure Alda – droll, self-deprecating and often hilarious. Right next to Alan was Joy Behar smiling out at me – not in person – but from the cover of her latest book with the most typically Behar title, "When You Need a Lift: But Don't Want to Eat Chocolate, Pay a Shrink, or Drink a Bottle of Gin!" In Joy's world, keeping your chin up may hide a double jowl, but it won't improve your mood. Looking on the bright side will make you squint and lead to crow's feet, and there is nothing cheerful about crow's feet.

Rather than just give us a sharp dose of her quintessentially New York Italian cynicism, Joy polled her celebrity pals to learn their own simple, silly, and often profound things they go to when life is tough.

Not surprisingly, music legend Burt Bacharach turns to songwriting and performing. Kaye Ballard indulges with a big bowl of pasta. Beau Bridges counts his blessings. Former First Lady Barbara Bush finds comfort in reading Jane Austen. Tony Danza plays the ukulele. Larry King recommends laughter – tell a joke, read a funny book; every time you laugh, a little sadness slips away. And that's some advice you can actually use.

I may slip a copy of Joy's book to Star Room owner Charles Ferri, who is looking a little blue these days since the love of his life, Heather Graham, who was glued to his side all summer, took off for England to finish shooting "Buy Borrow Steal". In the new film, Heather portrays Georgina, an ambitious young London professional who learns she has only one month left in which to conceive a child. After exhausting all possibilities with her baby-phobic boyfriend, Georgina turns to her wildly optimistic friend played by Mia Kirshner, with whom she sets out to identify and land the perfect father for her child.

Actress Gina Gershon, the 40-something former California Valley Girl who struck out for New York and became a member of the Manhattan-based theater group Naked Angels before indie film catapulted her to fame, is back to her off-off Broadway roots. She's performing in a show at The Box titled "In Search of Cleo". Word is her new beau, Cosmetics king Ron Perelman, is front row center leading the applause.

If they ever decide to tie the knot they won't have to go far. The theater is just a hop, skip and a jump away from City Hall, which we hear is getting a major face lift by superstar interior designer Jamie Drake (yeah Jamie!) by order of His Honor Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Bloomberg is looking to knock Las Vegas off the pedestal as the #1 wedding capital in the world. So he turned to the brilliant Jamie, who restored – at the Mayor's request – Gracie Mansion to such stunning effect.

Word to Ron: Just as Jamie will be finishing the final window treatment at City Hall, Sotheby's will offer the largest flawless brilliant-cut diamond ever to appear at auction at on November 14th. The diamond—an 84.37-carat brilliant-cut D-color stone with flawless clarity—is estimated to command $12 million-$16 million. In addition to its extraordinary carat weight (which is unprecedented for a brilliant-cut diamond of this quality at auction according to Sotheby's), The Gemological Institute declares the stone is D-color with flawless clarity and that its cut, polish and symmetry have all been graded "Excellent." Sounds like a nifty wedding gift to me!

Rita Cosby was all smiles, despite being served with a subpoena earlier at her own party at Pacha for her book "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death," which has hit the best-seller list. Howard K. Stern, Smith's former partner, has filed suit against Cosby in federal court.

Mixing it up at the bash hosted by celebrity photographer James Edstrom were Dominick Dunne, CEO Prudential Douglas Elliman Dottie Herman, Donna Soloway, Bulgarian opera star Anna Veleva, Robin Byrd, and Anna Nicole's unpopular mother Virgie Arthur. OOOOHHHH.

The mail is filled with invites to book parties that are getting to be bigger and bigger productions each season. Thankfully my friend Deborah Norville chose the cozy media hot spot Michael's to pour the bubbly in celebration of the launch of her book, "Thank You Power". The intimate but oh! so famous group included Mayor Bloomberg, Nicole Miller, John Roberts, Jay McInerney, and to everyone's surprise former CBS star anchor Dan Rather. Turns out that Dan was the only one who was kind to Deborah when she was dumped from her anchor seat. Nice to see there is some loyalty around these days.

It's been less than a year since Billy Joel purchased Roy Scheider and his wife Brenda Seimer's oceanfront Sagaponack mansion and he's adding another property to his new estate. Billy and his wife, Katie Lee Joel, have just gone to contract to buy the oceanfront property next door that has an asking price of $12.99 million. Reportedly the property is 1.2 acres with 140 feet of oceanfront which comes with a renovated 3-bedroom/2-bath cottage or the buyer can build to suit. That's sweet, sweet music to the ears of the Piano Man who we hear would like to build a music studio on the property.

Seen Around the Villages

 • Today Show host Matt Lauer and wife Annette Roque Lauer had their arms full of gaily wrapped gifts while exiting Stevenson's Toy Store on Jobs Lane in Southampton this weekend. It was their son's birthday.

 • Up the street, hot design duo Tony Ingrao and Randy Kemper were busy trying on shoes at Stubbs & Wooten.

 • Albert Maysles was spotted chatting up his new documentary, "From Grey Gardens to Broadway", with friends at our local movie commissary, The Candy Kitchen, in Bridgehampton.

 • Alec Baldwin showed up for the opening of Plein Air Peconic II at The Wallace Gallery in East Hampton to congratulate his pal Terry Wallace and support the work of The Peconic Land Trust.

 • Christie Brinkley and Jill Rappaport laughing like schoolgirls at the Save Sag Harbor benefit that featured Alexa Ray Joel, Christie's daughter with Billy Joel.