Fly on the Wall -- Where Steve McPherson and Ari Emanuel Dine and The Arquettes and Harper-Derns Double-Date

The darkly-lit dining room of the Brentwood Restaurant & Lounge was host to at least two power dinners Monday night (3/2/09). ABC Entertainment boss Stephen McPherson, who was recently tapped to oversee both the company’s broadcast network and studio, was seen dining at the front of the restaurant with Endeavor founding partner Ari Emanuel (aka the inspiration for Entourage’s Ari Gold character), along with one other man our tipster couldn’t identify. The gents shook hands as they got up just before 8 p.m.

In a booth in the back of The Brentwood, David Arquette and Courteney Cox-Arquette were on a double-date with actress Laura Dern and hubby-musician Ben Harper.

When I say darkly-lit, I mean it really takes a beat for one’s eyes to adjust to see much of anything in this place, which is perhaps partly why so many TV heavyweights frequent it. Every time I’ve been there, I’ve spotted someone from one side of the screen or the other.

While our Super Fly correspondent did manage to see these folks, it reminds me that people of course aren’t always looking to be noticed while they’re dining out — and it’s probably important to clarify that Mel’s Diner is no Gawker Stalker. I will never tell you where people are while they’re actually there.

I was reminded of this important distinction when I interviewed Jimmy Kimmel for a recent Mel’s Diner feature. If you happened to catch Kimmel fill in for Larry King a couple years ago, you know he finds much of what Gawker does reprehensible (go here for a clip of Kimmel interviewing a Gawker editor on Larry King). Kimmel tells me that Gawker sees no difference between comedy (what he is doing when he skewers a celeb) and news reporting (Gawker’s world). “Or they do see it but they pretend they don’t because it’s inconvenient for them,” Kimmel says, calling what they do “scumbaggery.”

“You have a 16-year-old female who goes to a movie, comes out and thousands of people know where to find her,” Kimmel says. “That’s not right.”

The Fly on the Wall series in Mel’s Diner is here to let you know where the business hangs out and who dines with who (I’ll leave it to you to extrapolate what deals the likes of McPherson and Emanuel may be up to, but our tipster did hear them talking about a project with “a great title.”).

BE A SUPER FLY CORRESPONDENT, tip us off to where the TV biz eats — industry bigwigs, talent, anybody working in TV in your town — with a note to tellmelsdiner@reedbusiness.com. We’ll keep your Fly on the Wall tips anonymous, just ask.