Rikki Klieman and Bill Bratton

LAPD Chief Bill Bratton returned to his former home, NYC, for a festive holiday celebration with his wife, Court TV’s Rikki Klieman. The tinsel-town-meets-East-Coast bash (with a guest list that read like a Who’s Who of the criminal justice system), was thrown by Stephen and Diane Volk at their Sutton Place pad. In the holiday spirit: Michael Nouri, Robert Zimmerman, Robert Klein, Mort Zuckerman, Richard Turley, Debbie Bancroft, Marisa Berenson, Monica Crowley, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, Judge Kimba Wood, Murray Richman, Marcia Stein, Mike Cherkasky, Gael Green, and Dr. Richard and Francine Leinhardt.

When we chatted up Bratton, the former NYC Police Commish, he spoke about the New York-minute nomination of Bernard Kerik (his successor as the Big Apple’s chief crime fighter) for the position of Secretary of Homeland Security. In the wake of the scandal, Bratton said, in no uncertain terms, that if tapped for the then still-open position, there was no way he would consider it. Just a bit of “California dreaming” by Tom Ridge, who had let the word slip that he thought Bratton would be a good fit....