Here's the skinny on folks chewing the fat at the Butterball gala

"See, I'm out and about," restaurant creator Dean Vlahos said Saturday night at Dan Buettner's 2009 Butterball held at Graves 601 Hotel.

With his testimony against former friend and alleged Ponzi-scheme mastermind Tom Petters completed, Vlahos is feeling a weight lifted from his soul. Jurors who heard the fraud case against Petters in U.S. District Court are now deliberating. "Tough deal, but the fact that I got to look him in the eye," said Vlahos, right, letting the two fingers he was jutting in the direction of my eyes finish the thought.

"The trial's over. It took a year [for Vlahos to come to terms with what Petters allegedly did]. It's not about the money. The money I'll remake. It was about the friendship."

Don't they say you should never lend money to friends? Guess that's an extremely important rule of friendship when you're talking about $16 million.

An admiring eye Vlahos, founder of Champps and Redstone, claimed that he'd date Kelly Hegna in a heartbeat if she ever broke up with Buettner.

"She's gorgeous," said Vlahos, who remarked that he liked her Greek-Italian looks. "Put my picture in the paper [with her]." There is no picture but the startribune.com/video will be posted Tuesday.

A Juut esthetician, Hegna didn't seem to take Vlahos seriously, making goofy faces and thumbing her nose as he verbally drooled over her. Hegna seems very happy and proud of her relationship with Buettner, the longevity expert. "For a year now," Hegna said when asked how long she has been dating Buettner. "For one year, baby!"

As regular readers and Buettner know, I adore Tiegs. Yet I do admire Buettner's willingness to forge his own connection with me and publicly deal with my affections for Tiegs.

At the Butterball pre-party, which Buettner threw at his home, Dan just put it right out there. We were chatting with his friend Dr. Chip Thomas (who cycled across Africa with Buettner and his brother Steve) and Rudy Maxa, PBS' "Smart Travels" host and a former D.C. bureau chief of long-defunct Spy magazine, one of my all-time favorite mags.

"C.J. and I have a complex relationship, but it's founded on love," Buettner said by way of introducing me to Thomas. Maxa, who lives in St. Paul, quipped in that famously authoritative, even lyrical, voice: "Whom you're in love with at any moment." RIM SHOT! Buettner and Thomas laughed, but I laughed the hardest.

"Did I say that?" said Maxa. "I get around C.J. [and] I start becoming a gossip columnist again. I've got to put that behind [me]. It's over."

No 'urban chic' for her Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his wife, former Judge Mary Pawlenty, were at Buettner's Butterball pre-party, but the state's First Couple didn't attend the gala at the Graves because they had another event commitment.

The intent for the gala was an edgier dress code, which was interpreted as hip-hop and urban chic. As a group of people stood around Judge Pawlenty puzzling over their sartorial selections, Minnesota's First Lady said, "I'm reasonably confident I don't own 'urban chic.'" I told the First Lady, who's a lawyer, that I was also sure she didn't own anything "urban chic," but she's probably SEEN it in her courtroom back when she was a judge.

Judge Pawlenty was wearing an interesting tunic she purchased from a Twin Cities shop she said is favored by women from India.

"I like your dress a whole lot!" said Dan Buettner Jr., who must not have noticed that the pants matched the long scarf.

"I gave him a few stock lines," Jr.'s dad said laughingly when told of his son's enthusiastic outburst to the First Lady.

Hemingway is no show Mariel Hemingway stiffed Dan Buettner again.

Something about not being able to get a seat near her boyfriend, according to what Hemingway told me in an e-mail via Twitter. (For more details, consult an item posted on startribune.com on Monday.)

She had feigned an intent to attend on Twitter.com at 9:53 p.m. Friday: "Getting ready to fly to Minneapolis tomorrow for the Butterball ... whatever that is .. haha."

According to Hegna, Hemingway missed her flight and balked at getting on a later one because there were no first-class seats left. Hemingway has back issues.

I'm sure many of the people who went to the gala to hear Brother Ali, who performed gratis, and The Hold Steady didn't miss Hemingway.

Josh Hartnett arrived at the Graves around 10:15 p.m. and hung with Buettner's mom, Dolly, until 1:30 a.m. Hartnett's "40 Days, 40 Nights" writer Rob Perez, whose latest project was directing "Nobody," was also reportedly at the gala, although I saw him only at the pre-party.