What a difference a week makes! Suddenly the Main Streets and off-shoot lanes are abuzz and those mournful "See You in March" signs will soon be coming down. All over our local nabe in Southampton there has been a burst of activity.

Up on Hill Street Dede Gotthelf, proprietor of The Southampton Inn, has been working feverishly with architects, designers, and builders on some very grand plans that will certainly bump the cozy inn up more than a few notches in terms of its facilities. Right now Dede is keeping plans super hush-hush but I can tell you that they do include some very big moves involving the Inn's superstar chef Peter Dunlop who came over to Southampton last spring following a critically acclaimed tenure at The American Hotel. I'll keep you posted as soon as Dede will give me a little walk thru!

Ali Hewson and Bono. Photo by PatrickMcMullan.com

This week the very hip shop, Therapy Clothing, moved out of its little courtyard space and down the street to 77 Jobs Lane, the former location of the Lana Santorelli Gallery, bringing a little sparkle to the corner. Across the street, we understand The Drivers Seat owners Irma and Ken Herzog are planning a little interior and exterior facelift for their Jobs Lane eatery pending the usual town board approvals.

Of course, everyone is simply busting to know what will go into the new construction on the former Onderdonk site, home most recently to Chez Morgan Home. The word I hear is retail! Yeah! I love shopping! Ditto the old Fudge Company which turned over the keys to new owners after 35 years of serving up frosty cones and chocolates will likely have a new fashion tenant – shoes is the news. Oh honey, I love shoes! But fear not you sugar-holics, their Main Street shop will continue to be the magnet for family strollers.

Also on Main Street, jeweler Ron Massab is sadly packing up and is searching for new digs. The good news in this story is that Barbara Warner's immensely popular home fashions emporium H. Groome will be able to double its size.

Clearly, summer will soon be upon us. In two weeks, the unofficial harbinger of the new season, the Parrish Art Museum's Spring Fling, will start the tide of fetes, galas, and premieres celebrating the best of life on the East End. Chief among those this year will be the 2008 Great Chefs Dinner, and the major fundraising effort for The Hayground School's Jeff Salaway Scholarship and its kitchen, classroom, and science lab, known as "Jeff's Kitchen", slated for July 13.

This year's culinary caper will be a double celebration as it will also mark the 20th anniversary of Nick & Toni's Restaurant. The East Hampton culinary landmark is not only an entrenched celebrity magnet, it has established itself as the epitome of non-trendy Mediterranean excellence in the Hamptons, thanks to executive chef Joe Realmuto and his simple yet sophisticated seasonal menu. It is also still greatly associated with its former consummate host, the late Jeff Salaway, and the Nick & Toni's partners – Toni Ross and Mark Smith – who have not tinkered with the foundation laid by Salaway.

Toni and Jeff were co-founders of the Hayground School, and the family's devotion to the progressive Pre-K through eighth grade school has never wavered. His life was tragically cut short in a car accident before he could implement plans for a state-of-the-art kitchen/classroom supported by a science lab, garden and greenhouse on the school's sprawling campus.

Thanks to the first Great Chef's Dinner, organized in 2003 by event founder Lizz Salaway (Jeff's sister), several of his culinary celebrity friends, and many volunteers, more than $300,000 was raised to make the free-standing building on the sprawling Hayground campus a reality. Just last week, thanks to a special grant from Slow Food Long Island, the greenhouse was erected thus fulfilling Jeff's dream.

This year's stellar lineup of culinary masters, many of whom were Salaway's longtime friends and colleagues, includes: Josh Capon of Lure Fishbar, Tom Colicchio of Craft Restaurants, Food Craft, and TV's Top Chef, Claudia Fleming of The North Fork Table & Inn, Larry Forgione of An American Place and An American Café St. Louis, Marc Meyer of 5 Points, Cookshop, and Provence, Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar & Grill, Joseph Realmuto of Nick & Toni's Restaurants, Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin, Aaron Sanchez of Paladar and Centrico Restaurant, Toshio Tomita of Nobu Restaurant, Laurent Tourondel of BLT Restaurants, and Jonathan Waxman of Barbuto Restaurant. Whew! That's a lot of talent in one kitchen. (I better start that diet now because I plan to sample absolutely everything they whip together.)

The tented affair will feature food stations offering an array of the chefs' signature dishes. The area's foremost sommeliers, under the direction of wine expert Joe Watson of VINe, Winebar & Café on the North Fork, will pour wines that perfectly compliment these culinary delights. Dinner will be followed by dancing, and there will also be wine tasting provided by the top local and international vineyards, appearances and book signings by noted food writers, displays of specialty foods, culinary tools, and products, and an auction and raffle.

Speaking of food, it's nice to know that even models eat, sometimes. Great food was definitely utmost on the mind of supermodel Tyra Banks and her flock of fashionista friends who chowed down at The Plaza Café where they feasted on Chef/owner Doug Gulija's tempting seafood treats. The America's Next Top Model hostess and her pals supped sumptuously - and I might add healthily - on local Hogs Neck Oysters and wild King Salmon imported from the Tasmanian Sea. Clearly rice cakes are off the menu, wonder what she had for dessert?

I spotted Alec Baldwin at the Ralph Lauren shop on Jobs Lane with a very pretty dark haired babe recently. Alec was chatting up "The Fantasticks" which he and his new lady had just seen at the Southampton Cultural Center. He was also overheard talking about the recent contretemps over the Rick Murphy and Jerry Della Femina stories in The Independent. Alec was adamant that it's editor Murphy who should take the heat and be axed. He was definitely not for any boycotts of the paper or the restaurant as it would "put those hardworking kids out on the street". Glad he stands up for the working woman!

East Hampton lawyer/TV personality Star Jones appears to be better at the legal side of things than the whole TV thing. Despite her low-rated Court TV show getting dumped by Henry Schleiff, the contract which she negotiated calls for her to be paid for three more years – show or no show. Rumors are that it will cost Court TV big bucks – a rumored eight figures each year – so you can be sure they'll find something else for her on their slate.

My good friend Sag Harbor artist Eric Fischl, the soon to be Mrs. Howard Stern - Beth Ostrosky, Amanda Brooks, Ellen Guggenheim, and my favorite pixie Alan Cumming helped to raise over $350,000 at the Tribeca Ball to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the New York Academy of Art. That's a lot of scholarship funds.

Raising even bigger bucks through art was rocker Bono, founder of Product (red) in collaboration with bad boy artist Damien Hirst (and some major help from East End art dealer Larry Gagosian), who steered the recent auction at Sotheby's of 82 works by the world's foremost contemporary artists, including the street artist Banksy, Julian Schnabel, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg. All the proceeds from the auction will go to support HIV/AIDS relief programs in Africa run by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Bono, in orange-tinted glasses, kicked off the bidding at the AIDS charity auction he backs by singing the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love". And love they showed in some record breaking prices for contemporary art – far exceeding their wildest expectations

Jeff Koons' "Balloon Rabbit Wall Relief," a silk screen on stainless steel, sold for $2,035,000. It was expected to go for $800,000 to $1 million. The priciest work, a Damien Hirst pill cabinet "Where There's a Will There's a Way", filled with painted antiretroviral drugs, fetched $6.2 million In a first, neither Sotheby's, the Gagosian Gallery, or Bono's charity, (red), didn't take a penny to organize the sale. All the proceeds will go to support HIV/AIDS relief programs in Africa.

A red-hot crowd of celebrities was in attendance, including Queen Noor of Jordan, Ali Hewson, Dennis Hopper, Bobby Shriver, Ziyi Zhang, Roberta Armani, Brian Williams, Michael Stipe, Hamptonite and hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons with girlfriend Porschla Coleman, and tennis great John McEnroe. Supermodel Christy Turlington strutted to the front of the crowd as photos by Chuck Close of fellow supermodel Kate Moss were being auctioned. Real estate developer Aby Rosen made an appearance.

Sotheby's officials believe the event was one of the top charity events in history!
I just received an invite from Jill Zarin to a private preview screening of "The Real Housewives of New York" at hot New York club Touch on March 3. Simply cannot wait to see how these ladies, especially Jill and Countess Lu Ann de Lesseps, hold up under the scrutiny of reality TV cameras.

Cheers until next week!