Emily Smith

Emily Smith

Celebrity News

Marlo Thomas silences power lunch crowd at Michael’s

There are not many women formidable enough to silence power lunch spot Michael’s, but Marlo Thomas is one of those women.

The petite star of ’60s sitcom “That Girl” coquettishly cajoled those in the packed restaurant to be silent as she stood up to greet a group who gathered to celebrate her new book, “It Ain’t Over.”

Thomas joked, raising her famous husky voice, “Can I get the whole restaurant to be quiet? You guys have got to keep it down. I don’t mind if you are talking over Diane Sawyer and Arianna Huffington, but I just can’t have it.”

Thanking Sawyer and Huffington for hosting Wednesday’s event, she joked, “I have tried to use every girlfriend I have to sell this book, and I think it’s working.”

Her tome, which features stories of 60 women who “started over,” is subtitled “Reinventing Your Life — and Realizing Your Dreams — Anytime, at Any Age.”

Thomas added, “One thing I learned from reading everybody’s story is, think big and work small … and don’t be afraid to fail.”

Guests toasting Thomas included Gayle King, HBO’s Sheila Nevins, Joanna Coles, Joy Behar, Gloria Steinem, Diane von Furstenberg, Meredith Vieira and Atria’s Judith Curr.

Sawyer said, “I watched ‘That Girl,’ I wanted to be Marlo most of my life, I spent hours torturing my hair, I wanted the A-line dress and most of all [her] voice, there is something in Marlo’s voice, it is some promise … and it says ‘We can change the world — but it is also really going to be fun.’ ”