AS they scanned the menu at the Mandarin's Man Wah restaurant somewhat curiously, David and Helen Gurley Brown looked like just another pair of visitors to our shores checking out the native fare - not anything like the New York power couple that they undoubtedly are.
'I'm keen to know the cost of shark's fin soup,' she said, running a multi-ringed finger down the menu, 'because when a friend served it to us last night at dinner I finished only half of mine.' Discovering the price, she made a mental calculation before pronouncing a bit apologetically, 'It seems like I wasted US$20 [about HK$155] worth'. She added with a shrug: 'But I suppose my friends in Hong Kong are used to ungrateful Americans.' Helen Gurley Brown - who describes herself as 'a feminist, an irredeemable but contented workaholic and passionately interested in the relationship between men and women' - is the legendary muse of Cosmopolitan, now celebrating her 20th year in the editorial hot-seat.
A consummate editor (every Cosmopolitan writer is given a sheaf of notes detailing dozens of cliches which they are forbidden from using), she is given credit for the magazine's standing as an internationally respected and popular arbiter of women's issues.
Little wonder then, what with gender being the hot button theme of the past three decades, that she has been routinely named one of the '25 Most Influential Women in America'.
Husband David is a journalist turned film producer who, with his partner Richard Zanuck, brought to our screens box-office hits like The Sting, Jaws and Driving Miss Daisy.
He is a well-connected member of the Hollywood community, counting some of the biggest stars in the business among his close friends.