The opening party for the new Hearst Tower wasn't enough to hold Oprah Winfrey's attention for too long. Amazingly, Madame O managed to out-diva the likes of Katie Couric and Martha Stewart Monday night, skipping out before the festivities even started.

Oprah made a brief appearance before physically shrugging off a reporter at the top of the entryway's dramatic escalator and gliding down with not-gay pal Gayle King, a bodyguard, two clipboard-wielding producers, and a bottled-water-toting PA.

"I'm off to see Barbra!" Oprah explained, as she hurried off to Streisand's Madison Square Garden schmaltz-a-thon.

(Of course, perhaps the novelty of the new edifice has already worn thin. She has her own office there—reportedly the largest in the building.)

As Winfrey made her exit, throngs of partygoers watched Hearst honcho Cathie Black, clad in an aquamarine dress coat and giant Dallas-style feather earrings, blow kisses from the mezzanine. Moments later, her boss, Hearst Corp. president and CEO Victor Ganzi, was introduced with Icecapades-esque flair by a baritone emcee as performers cued up in the wings for an acrobatic exhibition. (Seriously.)

Couric worked the crowd solo, seemingly unaffected by her latest underwhelming ratings as the suits around her performed various interpretations of the White Man's Overbite to the soulful croonings of Stevie Wonder. Stewart, in a mocha-brown sweater set, flanked by Omnimedia CEO Susan Lyne, hid in a corner, scanning the crowd for a friendly face before settling on Bloomberg.

After the dinner hour, as guests shuttled up to the 44th floor for dessert and coffee, Stewart was seen squishing herself into an elevator alongside the Mayor's security detail. "Am I allowed to come along?" she asked.

You know it's a power crowd when Martha starts working the meek act.