Losing Part of the NextTribe Family: Writer Diane Clehane

When Diane Clehane--a mover-shaker extraordinaire--died at the end of February at age 61, more than a gasp of sorrow went up in the community she created. That community was an intersection of fashion, media folk, royal watchers and fans, and connoisseurs of good television. We lost this generous, funny, classy woman, who was sometimes a delightful over-sharer, to what her husband Jim Donovan simply said was "an illness."

With her deep background as an reporter, journalist, and publicist, Diane authored five books and was well-known for her enthusiastic interviews of authors and other doers in her long-running column "Wednesdays at Michael's," referring to the midtown Manhattan restaurant frequented by the publishing elite. (NextTribe founder Jeannie Ralston once got the special Diane treatment; see photo above.) She had been knowledgeably obsessed with Princess Diana and reported authoritatively on the British Royal Family. Her writing on entertainment, including this piece about Downton Abbey in NextTribe, was always incisive. She gave discerning critiques and grades of A to D to episodes of programs and had recently award The Gilded Age a B-.