GALS WHO MAKE GOTHAM GRAND
PageSix.com Gossip

Forget sex and the city (news – Y! TV) – New Yorkers are really fixated on power. Who has it, how’d they get it and how they are using it.

From politics to publishing, fashion to finance, the women here are among the most powerful on earth. So the editors of The Post set out to identify them. Here, in alphabetical order, are the city’s 50 most powerful women:

JEAN AFTERMAN, 45
Vice President, Assistant General Manager, N.Y. Yankees
She’s the one who got “Godzilla.” The third female assistant general manager in baseball history, Afterman wields the fattest checkbook in the Major Leagues and paid $21 million to import the team’s latest secret weapon, Hideki “Godzilla” Matsui. And Afterman isn’t finished spending in the Far East.

ELEANOR ALTER, 64
Partner, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
An attacking-Rottweiler style and clients like Mia Farrow (news), Christie Brinkley and Joy Silverman have made this ferocious attorney Manhattan’s reigning doyenne of divorce. Her latest coups: a seven-figure salary and a paternity- suit win for Wall Street’s Jack Dreyfus.

BROOKE ASTOR, 101
Philanthropist
Her power exists in spades because everyone wants what she’s got: money and a gift for giving. In the past 40 years, she’s doled out nearly $200 million, from the Met to the South Bronx.

CINDY ADAMS
Post Columnist
Only in New York, kids: The Post’s celebrity columnist since 1981 is a boldface name in her own right, who this year even made her dog, Jazzy, a star. She called Hillary’s Senate run before anyone else. After a chat with Henry Kissinger last winter, she saw the war in Iraq (news – web sites) starting “mid-March.” No wonder they all return her calls.

CINDI BERGER
Partner, PMK-HBH
The preeminent fixer of the moment, p.r. spinmistress Berger turned the Dixie Chicks (news – web sites)’ anti-war gaffe into multiple magazine covers; Rosie O’Donnell’s magazine going up in flames into “Rosie is getting real”; and Mariah Carey (news)’s 2001 mental breakdown into a “need to just sleep for a few days.”

CAROLE BLACK, 59
CEO, Lifetime Television
She may stand just 5-foot-3-inches tall, but as the woman in charge of the cable channel with the highest ratings in prime time, Black – who became Lifetime’s first female president in 1999 and has been shaking things up since – is a TV giant. She has also helped launch Lifetime’s first magazine.

GISELE BUNDCHEN, 22
Supermodel
The Brazilian (news – web sites) bombshell, who just bought a new pad in the West Village, rakes in about $10 million a year. She consistently lands fashion’s biggest ad campaigns – Dior, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana – because her face (and body) moves product like no other. She’s “a powerhouse in her own right,” says Limited Brands Presi dent Ed Razek, who signed her to a multiyear, multi million-dollar deal with Victoria’s Secret. “Gisele understands the power of her brand.”

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (news – web sites), 55
U.S. Senator
Clinton is considered by friend and foe alike as the president-in-waiting (or at least president-wannabe) with an eye on 2008. After two years in the Senate, she’s got a rock-star aura and power to spare: a spot in the Democratic leadership and a seat on the Armed Services Committee. She has got the biggest political action committee of any Dem in Congress, and she’s spending the cash she’s raised to build her own political network and collect IOUs in president-picking places like Iowa. Super-smart, she’s courting Good Ol’ Boy Republicans who can deliver the bacon for New York.

KATIE COURIC, 46
Co-host, “Today” show
About 6 million people a day – 30 million a week – watch the “Today” show’s prime pixie. During a slow week – meaning when she doesn’t have a prime-time special or we’re not at war – Couric is on the air a staggering 15 hours. And “Today” makes more money than “Friends” and “ER” combined – $350 million. That’s why they pay her more than any other woman on TV – $16 million a year. When her contract is up in 2006, don’t be surprised if she gets to write her own ticket to join CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

LOIS FREEDMAN, 38
Director of Operations, Jean-Georges Management
When you must have a table at one of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurants – 66, the four-star Jean-Georges, SoHo’s Mercer Kitchen, JoJo and the new WD-50 – you’d better know Freedman’s cell-phone number. And she better know you!

JANE FRIEDMAN
CEO, HarperCollins
She can shatter literary dreams or make them come true. Her profit margins are cartoonish compared to industry norms. And stealing Michael Crichton (news) from Random House has paid off richly.

BONNIE FULLER, 45
Editor, Us Weekly
When the former Glamour and Cosmopolitan editor took over Us last March, critics mocked her goofy, teeny-bopper style. But newsstand sales skyrocketed, as did Fuller’s salary and the number of copycats – from the new Radar mag to the newly redesigned People.

ELLEN FUTTER, 53
President, American Museum of Natural His tory
About to unveil the museum’s latest extravaganza – a modernized, interactive Hall of Ocean Life – Futter is one of the few museum directors accomplishing expansion in these dour economic times. And she’s increased museum attendance by 43 percent.

THELMA GOLDEN, 36
Deputy Director, Studio Museum of Harlem
If Harlem’s art world becomes the next SoHo – as some forecast – then Golden is, by all rights, its Mary Boone. A black female curator in the white-male art world, she and director Lowery Stokes Sims have been stirring things up uptown.

STEFANI GREENFIELD, 34
Owner, Scoop stores
She has harnessed Diane von Furstenberg, Seven jeans and Juicy Couture into the city’s preeminent boutique – which is now the city’s most popular chain. And Greenfield has used her retail power to enforce one house rule: She’s never marked down a single piece of merchandise.

PATRICIA HARRIS, 47
Deputy Mayor for Administration
If you want the mayor at your event, she’ll think about it. A longtime trusted aide to Mike Bloomberg at his media empire, she’s also a cham pion of the arts – though he’s the donor! Get it?

LEONA HELMSLEY, 82
Real estate mogul
Like it or not, the gravel-voiced one-time “Queen of Mean” is the queen of green, too. She still owns or co-owns hundreds of office buildings worth billions, plus fancy hotels like the Park Lane. She’s retained control of the Empire State Building. And she keeps it lit up for everyone.

DOROTHY “DOTTIE” HERMAN, 49
CEO, Prudential Long Island Realty and Doug las Elliman
Herman’s purchase of glamorous Douglas Elliman a few weeks ago created the biggest residential real estate brokerage in the metropolitan market. The former part-time Long Island broker’s empire saw $6.5 billion in volume last year, with offices from Manhattan to Montauk. Her motto: She’ll take Manhattan!

JUNE HILTON
Admissions Director, Trinity School
She not only stands at the gate of what many consider the city’s echelon of elite education – she holds the keys. She’s every parent’s best friend – or worst nightmare.

JUDITH JAMISON, 59
Artistic Director, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Alvin Ailey’s successor has boldly gone ahead where the famed dance choreographer/director pointed – handsomely heading up (with co-director Sylvia Waters) one of the most successful dance companies in America, a $15.5 million powerhouse. And raising $45 million for a dazzling new home.

JUDITH S. KAYE, 64
Chief Justice
A tireless advocate for children and families, Kaye can deliver a historic butt-kicking to the state’s troubled judicial system – and does. She’s proposed eliminating the infamous Family Court delays, tossed out jury exemptions and took on the long- running patronage abuse.

SALLIE KRAWCHECK, 38
CEO, SmithBarney
They call Krawcheck the last honest person on Wall Street – and a lot comes with that mantle. With regulators and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer breathing down his neck about corrupt brokers, Citigroup’s Sandy Weill reached out to her to bail him out.

FREDI KRONENBERG, Ph.D., 53
Director of Columbia University’s Rosenthal Center for Complemen tary and Alternative Medicine
At the foremost academic center of its kind, she’s empowered to put all those health-food store remedies – and the gamut of alternative medical practices – through the wringer for you. Her current focus: what really helps menopausal hot flashes.

DIANA LAM, 54
Deputy Schools Chancellor
For all intents and purposes, Lam’s the czarina of the classroom – deciding what’s taught to 1.1 million students in 1,100 schools by 80,000 teachers. She has $12 billion to spend. More impressive still: Her $245,000 salary matches Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s, penny for penny.

KATHERINE LAPP, 46
Executive Director, Metropolitan Transit Authority
She runs the largest transit system in the country and draws fire every time accusations of cor ruption are leveled at the MTA – and that’s a lot lately. But Rudy Giuliani’s former criminal-justice coordinator has a stellar track record and is consistently cool under pressure.

PAMELA LIEBMAN, 40
CEO, The Corcoran Group
She keeps things hopping day-to-day at real estate dynamo Barbara Corcoran’s residential brokerage. Liebman negotiated the company’s sale – for a jaw-dropping sum – to conglomerate NRT and has since swelled the company’s rolls with brokers from the competition.

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ, 53
Photographer
Tom Cruise (news), Harrison Ford (news), Jack Nicholson (news) – none of these guys exactly bends over backward for anyone. But all three, plus 10 other box-office hot shots, sat at attention for one of Leibovitz’s signature ensemble Vanity Fair cover shots last December. Let’s just say, celebrities call her.

JENNIFER LOPEZ, 32
Actress, multimedia maven
Love her or hate her, “Jenny from the Block” really moves the units. She can open movies, sell CDs and clothes and perfume. And now Lopez and her powerful manager, Benny Medina (the other Ben in her life), want to open a boutique hotel in Miami.

ELIZABETH I. McCANN, 72
Producer
Behind some of the most financially successful plays of all time – “The Elephant Man,” “Three Tall Women” and “Copenhagen” – McCann is even better known as the force behind the newer, brighter Tony Awards (news – web sites), the theater world’s highest honor.

LOUISE MIRRER, 50
CUNY Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs
She’s building a “cutting-edge” science center at City College in Harlem, as she systematically and successfully transforms CUNY’s profile. And she’s witty to boot: When a city councilman complained there weren’t enough minorities serving in CUNY administrative positions, Mirrer noted that she is a Sephardic Jew.

ANN MOORE, 53
CEO, Time Inc.
The first female CEO in the company’s history, Moore watches over $4.5 billion worth of the world’s most widely read magazines – including Fortune, which ranked her the 11th most powerful woman in business last year. And her division’s market share has risen to 25 percent.

ALEXANDRA PEL OSI, 32
Documentary film maker
Pelosi’s mom, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), is the lead ing lady of Congress, but as Alexandra this year turns her candid cam corder on the 2004 Dem wannabes for an HBO spe cial, she’ll have plenty of opportunity to influence the race as well.

NANCY PERET SMAN
Managing Director, Allen & Co.
From her perch at the ultra-secret investment bank to the media elite, Peretsman has the ear of Oprah Winfrey (news), Barry Dil ler, Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffett (news – web sites). And as Diller once said of Allen & Co., “Deals just don’t get done in Hollywood unless they are involved.”

CHRISTINE QUINN, 36
City Council member
To some she’s the enemy – this sharp, savvy and respected four-year City Council member from Manhattan had what it took to pass Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial smoking bill. But as a close ally of powerful Council Speaker Gifford Miller, she’s in the top rank of those considered as his possible successor.

JUDITH REGAN, 48
Publisher, Regan Books The brash publisher is responsible for mega-best sellers by Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, porn star Jenna Jameson, Zone-diet czar Dr. Barry Sears, and no fewer than nine differ ent pro wrestlers (who alone have accounted for $40 million in retail sales for her Harper Collins im print, ReganBooks). She also has diversified with a talk show on Fox News and several movie projects based on her books.

RUTH REICHL, 55
Editor in Chief, Gour met magazine The well-respected for mer New York Times res taurant critic has the right stuff as editor, too – turn ing the once fuddy-duddy Gourmet into the city’s must-read food-and-dining monthly. Bon Appetit sells more copies, but no culi nary chronicle has Gour met’s buzz among New York’s dining millions.

JANE ROSENTHAL
Co-founder, Tribeca Films
With her partner, Rob ert De Niro, Rosenthal’s gradually refashioning lower Manhattan as Holly wood East. Next month, she’ll lord over the second year of the much-heralded Tribeca Film Festival, largely her creation.

DARYL ROTH, 58
Producer
Known for her exquisite taste, Roth has become a player on Broadway the hard way. Though she had the finances to put on some of the most ac claimed plays of the last decade – “Three Tall Women,” “How I Learned to Drive,” “Proof” and “Wit” – as the wife of bil lionaire real estate devel oper Steve Roth, she was initially dismissed as a dil ettante. But her shows’ huge pay days changed all that.

AMY SACCO, 34
Owner, Lot 61, Bunga low 8
The dominatrix of the dark has built her two clubs, first Lot 61 and then Bungalow 8 (both in the way West 20s), into places where the super-famous can comfortably tie one on in semi-public. She has the power to include or ex clude an increasingly high- profile clientele – and even host Britney and Jus tin in the same room again.

JESSICA SEINFELD, 31
Philanthropist When Hillary Rodham Clinton lingers at one of your first charity events, you’ve officially made it as a junior socialite. Jerry Seinfeld (news)’s wife has got a lot of clout, plus the late Carolyn Bessette Kenne dy’s quiet allure. No won der everybody wants her at their parties, too.

LISA SILVERSTEIN, 36
Real estate developer She isn’t New York’s only daughter of a promi nent developer, but she’s the only one named Silver stein – and, with brother Roger, she’s heir to the World Trade Center lease, and therefore its redevel opment, which will keep her busy for a long, long time.

LIZ SMITH, 80
Post Columnist
Her 80th birthday party last February drew Mayor Bloomberg, Liza Minnelli (news), Barbara Walters, Mike Nichols (news) and Bette Midler (news), to name a few. That’s be cause everybody in show business reads “La Liz” – stars, agents, producers and their pushy publicists. And when the glitterati have good news to share – like Rudy Giuliani’s en gagement to Judi Nathan – Smith is the first one they call.

MARY BROSNAHAN SULLIVAN, 42
Executive Director, Coalition for the Home less
In a city where power is measured mostly in money, number of under lings and boldfaced name placements, Brosnahan Sullivan saw the city and Legal Aid lawyers this year settle a 20-year suit on behalf of the homeless, her lifelong cause.

DIANA TAYLOR, 48
Deputy Secretary for Finance and Housing
The First Girlfriend may be the most popular person in (or, more accu rately, around) the admin istration. Yes, she’s got style and charisma, but she’s also a Wall Street pro who’s in line to be come the state banking su perintendent. Meanwhile, she’s got the ear of the two most powerful men in the state, in her current gig as Gov. Pataki’s pointwoman on all state authorities, in cluding the rebuilding ef fort at Ground Zero.

MARILYN JORDAN TAYLOR, 56
Chairman, New York Building Congress
Talk about layers of in fluence. Taylor’s public- policy organization for de sign and construction throws its weight around – and then some – on the downtown redevelopment scene. She’s a prime mover of New York, New Visions, the planning coa lition that has the ear of Ground Zero bureaucrats. And did we mention that the MIT grad is chairman of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (who redesigned the new 7 World Trade Center) and the lead archi tect for the new Penn Sta tion?

MARY ANN TIGHE, 53
CEO, CB Richard Ellis Tristate Region
She moved Conde Nast to Times Square. She found The New York Times a new home on Eighth Avenue. She con sulted on this month’s deal to bring HIP from Mid town to 55 Water St., the biggest new lease down town since 9/11. Long one of the city’s star commer cial real estate brokers, Tighe will soon be run ning the biggest office of the biggest real estate services company on earth.

BARBARA WAL TERS, 71
Anchor, “20/20″; Co- host, “The View”
Still the first lady of TV news, Walters gets the big interview, from Monica Lewinsky to Robert Blake (news) to Leonardo DiCaprio (news). In a shrewd business arrange ment, she co-owns “The View,” a successful show for ABC. And when Bar bara talks, network news chiefs listen.

RANDI WEINGAR TEN, 45
President, United Federation of Teachers
She’s the most powerful woman – if not the most powerful person – cur rently at the city’s budget- negotiating table. As head of both the 120,000-member UFT and the Municipal Labor Council (the umbrella group representing all the city’s unions), Weingarten is a labor force to be reck oned with, the queen of the city’s male-dominated labor movement. No won der political candidates grovel for her endorse ment.

IRIS WEINSHALL, 49
Commissioner, De partment of Transporta tion
She could fix it so your drive is pothole-free – and she just green-lighted a 10-day blitz to try to do so. Weinshall oversees a $475 million operating budget and a $1.1 billion capital budget – so don’t dismiss her as merely Mrs. Charles Schumer. The feisty senator’s wife was one of the few commis sioners allowed to stay on in the Giuliani-to-Bloom berg transfer of power.

ANNA WINTOUR, 53
Editor, Vogue
Apparently, Wintour has become so powerful she can finally shed those dark shades. At least she had done so when she was spotted lunching with the city’s First Girlfriend at the Four Seasons last week (see: Diana Taylor, above). Famously fearless, she seems not to notice the de tractors – including the anti-fur zealots – and ed itrix wannabes nipping at her heels. But every hope ful designer must ink an exclusive deal with her and every other editor in the fashion-show tents fol lows her cues.