“Miss Coulter, dinner is ready. We have to get started. Or am I going to have to sic the Secret Service on you?”

That was the Time 100’s party “producer” Ronnie Davis, attempting to usher the fiery conservative to her table.

And guess what? Ann Coulter laughed goodnaturedly and went, like a good girl, to her seat. Ann was wearing one of her fabled little black cocktail dresses. This is her standard getup. Even for a nine o’clock AM interview, she’s in femme-fatale black! (To be honest, no matter what you think of Ann’s politics or her provocative utterances, she really is a lot of fun in mixed company. She has a sense of humor about herself and her image.)

Mr. Davis, who has put together the Time 100 party in years past, said that for the very first time, “There were no prima donnas. Nobody had an attitude. Nobody demanded anything of anybody. The vibe was optimistic and enthusiastic and I think I can put it down to Michelle Obama’s presence. Because there was no other reason everybody should have been so cooperative and so upbeat.”

Among the cooperative supernovas were such stars as Jimmy Fallon, John Legend, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler, Suze Orman, Barbara Walters and all the ladies of “The View.” (Barbara looked great. But if you saw her on “Larry King” the other night, you know that. She told Larry she “doesn’t want to die in the saddle.” But … she’s still riding high! Read my Avenue magazine interview with her on Monday right here on wowOwow.com.)

Click here for photos of guests at the Time 100 Party.

At Rose Hall, off Lincoln Center, mega-deity Oprah came in the back entrance, but once she hit the cocktail party she schmoozed like she was “just folks.” She greeted everyone, accepted compliments, handshakes, hugs, suggestions and presumptuous opinions from fans with perfect élan. (And even the most jaded stars turn into “fans” when faced with Oprah.) 

The only star who asked for anything was designer Stella McCartney. She’s famously vegan and could not, would not, consume the lovely steak filet. So a “special” vegetarian plate was done up for Stella. It looked exactly like everybody else’s meal. Except hers was a cleverly disguised Portobello mushroom. She was not shunned or mocked by the carnivores at her table. But she could feel morally superior. (Then again, what do we really know about the inner life of a mushroom?)

The big emotional moment of the night were the remarks by Somaly Mam, the woman who escaped from a Cambodian brothel and has gone on to form a foundation to fight sex slavery worldwide. 

And when the speechmaking and tributes were over? Hardly a soul went home. No big rush to get away. In fact, the after-party was the most crowded it has ever been, and lasted longer. Nobody wanted the night to end. And good cheer prevailed. 

Ronnie concludes: “I’m telling you, it was Michelle. I think people were just blown away by who she is as a person, and what she symbolizes. Somehow, it was looked on as an historic event. ‘I was there the night Michelle Obama attended.’”

PLUS THIS: Mrs. Obama was the smash of all smashes earlier in the day at “Sesame Street.”

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“Madoff … has traded a 4,000-square-foot penthouse for a 76-square-foot jail cell … The family says he’s bearing up well in jail. He’s exercising. He is reading a lot of books. He makes the best of it,” adds this person, who says that Madoff looks surprisingly good these days. “Perhaps that’s because, for the first time in decades, Madoff has no secret weighing him down.”