Preseason warm-up

Tom Brady and his globe-trotting girlfriend Gisele Bundchen enjoyed an intimate lunch yesterday at chef Pino Maffeo's Boston Public at Louis Boston in the Back Bay. The cute couple was very affectionate, sitting close, kissing, and holding hands even as they chowed on the chopped salad and an order of the tuna summer rolls. We're told the Pats QB, whose last preseason game is tonight, had the panko-crusted sole with soy broth, while his supermodel sweetheart sank her teeth into the wild king salmon. (For dessert, the canoodling couple shared the cheesecake and a sundae.) Brady recently sold his condo on Commonwealth Avenue and is renovating a place on Beacon Street. But considering their proximity to Newbury Street, the pair (pictured exiting Boston Public) may not have headed straight home. Star magazine reports Brady and Bundchen have done plenty of shopping for John Edward Thomas Moynahan, Brady's week-old baby with ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan. According to the mag, the three-time Super Bowl champ ordered $2,000 worth of items from baby boutique Petit Tresor, while Bundchen "dropped a cool $1,000 on a gift basket filled with a cashmere puppy, six different blankets, a cashmere sweater & pants set, a white onesie with the word 'supermodel' written in black on the bottom . . . plus a handful of burp clothes and bibs." Meanwhile, US Weekly is reporting that Brady was a bit of a wreck while at the hospital with Bridget and the newborn. An eyewitness told the mag that No. 12 was "crying at one point because he didn't want to leave the baby and he knows it's going to be a tough decision."

In town to watch their husbands play at the Deutsche Bank Championship, a few of the PGA wives stopped by the Greater Boston Food Bank yesterday for a friendly food-sorting competition. Justin Rose's wife, Kate, and Mark Calcavecchia's better half, Brenda, vied with food bank CEO Catherine D'Amato and Doug Miller, VP of State Street Corp., for the title of food-sorting champ.

Medford's Maria Menounos is coming back to town, if only briefly. We're told the lovely "Access Hollywood" lass, who's been reporting for NBC this week on the ravages of the wildfires in Greece, will be in Boston Sept. 19. Why? Menounos produced the indie film "In the Land of Merry Misfits," which is in the lineup for the Boston Film Festival.

Senator Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, put their Vineyard vacation on pause for a few hours Tuesday night to attend a fund-raiser that netted several hundred thousand dollars for the Illinois Democrat's presidential bid. Held at the summer home of Judy and Ron Davenport, chairman of the Pittsburgh-based Sheridan Broadcasting Corp., the event was packed with heavy-hitters. Among them: longtime Dem fund-raiser Alan Solomont, Harvard Law profs Bob Mnookin and Lani Guinier, and John Hancock's Carol Fulp. Caroline Kennedy dropped by with her three teenage children, Rose, Tatiana, and John, and former Pennsylvania senator Harris Wofford, who served as a civil rights adviser to President Kennedy, was also in the house. The talk wasn't all politics, though. We hear that when Celtics co-owner Bob Epstein and his wife, Esta, were introduced to the candidate's wife, Obama's better half immediately confessed that she's a diehard Chicago Bulls fan.

Bobby Brown's bumming again. The Roxbury-bred RB singer says ex-wife Whitney Houston is keeping him from his daughter. The TV show "Extra" obtained court documents in which Brown complained that Houston "has attempted to eliminate me from Bobbi Kristina's life." Brown, who last spring divorced the diva after 14 tumultuous years, also states, "I also paid approximately $10,000 for Whitney and Bobby Kris to live in a nice hotel while Whitney was going through rehab. I basically lived in my car." In response, Houston told the court, "We have a daughter together, and I would like him to be involved in her life. . . . Frankly, I needed to be divorced from him so that I could get my life back on track."

A slew of celebs were set to celebrate last night at Sonny McLean's, the Santa Monica, Calif., saloon famous for its allegiance to Red Sox Nation. While the fete marked the release of Daisuke Matsuzaka's CD, it was also a fund-raiser for the Red Sox Foundation. Expected to attend were Sox chairman Tom Werner, "ER" actress Maura Tierney, B.J. Novak of "The Office," BC grad Chris O'Donnell, "Private Practice" hottie Taye Diggs, lovelies Claudia Jordan, Pilar Lastra, and Leyla Milani from "Deal or No Deal," Gordon Clapp of "NYPD Blue," "CSI" costar D.B. Sweeney, Boston-bred actor Neal McDonough, former "West Wing" exec producer Lawrence O'Donnell, and Charlestown's own Jonathan Tucker. Musical guests included the Standells, former Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, and drummer Kenny Aronoff.

"Iron Chef" wiz Masaharu Morimoto stopped by Ken Oringer's Clio in the Back Bay on Tuesday night. . . . NBC News guy David Gregory was at American Seasons on Nantucket with Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, former ambassador to Portugal during the Clinton administration, and her husband, Smith Bagley on Tuesday night. It was the Bagleys' second night in a row at Michael and Orla LaScola's eatery.

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