L.A. was okay today. I had a late lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time on the outdoor patio at Orso and we drank a bottle of Veuve. I hadn’t been to Orso for a long time so I didn’t realize how on a Saturday afternoon in July at three the old ladies, filthy dishes, and fallen leaves cause its patio to resemble one of those worn villas in Tea with Mussolini. There were few people eating, three tables. At one of them was Nancy Reagan’s friend Betsy Bloomingdale. At another was Tobey Maguire, unshaven, and two female companions. The setting and the service were comically tragic, but the company was good.
