I've been spending the whole evening watching a Dinner for Five marathon on the independent film channel. If you haven't seen it, Jon Favreau (writer and star of Swingers and Made, etc.) is a host leading a dinner party with 4 other celebrities. It's surprisingly engaging.

Part of that is that they're entertainers, so they know how to be interesting, and part of it is that Favreau (or his pre-interviewers) has done his homework, so he is able to direct the conversation towards interesting stories. While I'm sure it's very artificial, it doesn't feel as artificial as some of the late-night talk shows.

It has me wanting to go to my own micro-dinner party with smart, interesting people. There should be a company that does that. Sort of like a dating service, but more oriented towards bringing small, diverse groups of people together. Seed the thing with a moderator who can draw everybody out and make everybody as interesting as they can be. I think something like that could fly.