Diners at Tao were treated to metal detectors and a slew of armed security guards when Israeli President Shimon Peres came in Sunday night with a table of six.
Hours before denouncing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN General Assembly yesterday, Peres took over the Midtown restaurant, blocking off East 58th Street.
A source told us: “The entire block was sealed off. Security used a metal detector when guests walked in, and all were extremely cooperative. Peres took over one table with his guests, while security took over six other tables surrounding him.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and four family members went to the Flamboyan Theater on Suffolk Street to see “The Bcam/Macbeth,” a production of “Macbeth” so blood-soaked that his security tried to stand backstage to check if the guns used as props were real.
Spies said Barak showed up at the theater unannounced, and cast members stood in disbelief while Secret Service agents did a sweep of the ramshackle theater. Barak and his family took their seats on the folding chairs. A slew of weaponry, including guns, are brandished on stage during the production. There’s also a lot of nudity, blood and mayhem as Macbeth dispatches one rival after another.
Meanwhile, the presence of the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has stopped traffic on East 72nd Street between Madison and Fifth with his fleet of cars.
One angry resident told us: “His new residence has no less than 10 to 12 double-parked cars, 24 hours a day, every day for the past two weeks.”
Security on the scene told us the Moroccan ambassador to the United Nations, Ahmed Snoussi, lives next door to Al Thani and is also in town to attend the General Assembly.
Meanwhile, French First Lady Carla Bruni stopped traffic by turning up at the United Nations yesterday to listen to her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, speak — a day after she reportedly met with Sarkozy’s ex-wife, Cecilia Attias, for brunch at the Carlyle Hotel.