It's no wonder then, that former UK Tatler Editor and current Topic A CNBC host played to a sold out luncheon crowd at Nathan's in Georgetown the other day.

Exactly when Americans became so intoxicated with the Brits is hard to say, but ever since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, our fate was sealed. But hey, we can claim the Duke and Duchess of Windsor whose combined DNA gave us plenty of fodder.

"What Madonna is to trends, she is to the media" said Nathan's owner Carol Joynt in her intro. "She is an extreme version of the rest of us." Well said.

She began her career as a shinny sheet freelancer for an Australian real estate guy who always went to the office extremely early in order to steal all the checks; after that, she decided that "if you don't have a budget, you need a great life." This is, of course, exactly what she has. "The check stealer went to jail, I went to America."

She met her future husband Harold Evans, then the Editor at The London Times, on the 8th floor of the building where "He took a tremendous interest in my career." I'll bet.

Editor of Tatler at 25, followed by same at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker to Publisher of the now defunct Talk Magazine, she quips about the demise of the latter: "Never give an opening party that is better than the movie."

She has influenced more careers than we know, which includes that of the late photo-journalist Richard Avedon. "He was an excitable, generous man who would bombard me with faxes and was totally engaged at all times. Even as an aging journalist he was always in the heart of the story. When Alger Hiss was ill and Avedon was 78, he rushed to the house of his ailing subject for exclusive photos. He did his best work on assignment."

Her life has been about risk-taking. A New York Times profile claims that "She has the cunning of a rat," to which she responded, "It was taken out of context." About her home life: "Track suits and Long Island weekends." Do you ever wish you could disappear? "Yes, but I always get vertical about something." Regarding her TV show: "You have to learn to talk and it requires a lot of other skills. This stuff is hard and I hate lots of other things like endless hair & makeup." On getting guests: " There is nobody on the streets of New York who doesn't have a show of their own." She's staying in the game though, she likes "exposure to smart stuff". With all the stuff verbiage, at least she talks like an American.

In the audience: former Washington Post Style writer and author Myra MacPherson; artist Bill Dunlap; AOL founder Jim Kimsey; Republican heavyweight Susan Hurley Bennett; former Dossier Publisher Linda Hahn and Washington Ballet fund-raiser Kay Kendall.

Can't say I've ever partied in an ice room, but that was part of the scene at Washington's newest luxury Hotel which was drenched in style and imagination on a night that included more than 500 guests.

For those who preferred warmer weather, conversing with Mayor Anthony Williams was hot. Case in point: Assault weapons came back nationwide on September 13th and district residents are not happy campers.

But according to Washington Times writer Deborah Simmons, no ay problemo: "While policy-makers and law enforcers continue to grapple with violence in particular, and youth violence in general, anti-gun folks need to face the fact that, although Washington has changed, the Second Amendment has not." Try telling that to parents who lost their children to handguns. Pretty soon it will be easier to buy a semi-automatic weapon than cigarettes.

While guests shuttled between Korean barbeque and the Sushi bar, trapeze artists flew by overhead, a nice change from the recent 'no-fly' zone security drills that keep us up at night.

There were so many bold faced names there you needed a phone book to keep up, but ones I remember include Roberta McCain, Baroness Garnett Stackelberg; Cristina and John McLaughlin; Diane Williams; DC council members Carol Schwartz and Jack Evans, Reps. Sheila Jackson-Lee and Mark Foley, Kara Kennedy, Nina Auchincloss Straight, David Bruce, Amb. Dick Carlson, Mary and Mandy Ourisman, Rima al-Sabah, and the Ambassadors of The Netherlands, Yemen and Portugal.