A change of seasons for Gurtner; Belichick super on Letterman, too

CHANGING SEASONS After 2 1/2 years at the helm of the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, Thomas Gurtner, regional vice president and general manager, will return to California to oversee operations at the chain's Newport Beach hotel. "I get to go back and head up a big project there," Gurtner said yesterday. The move will also put him and his wife, Nui, closer to their daughters. Peter O'Colmain of the Regent Beverly Wilshire, another Four Seasons property, will succeed Gurtner. O'Colmain, who has dual citizenship in the United States and Ireland, will live in the Boston area for the first time. "I look forward to Boston, I absolutely expect to feel at home there," he said yesterday from Los Angeles. During Gurtner's time here, he oversaw the renovation of the hotel's lobby, its presidential suite, and the Bristol Lounge, slated to reopen just as he is leaving. The renovation of the swank Aujourd'hui is pending and expected to be completed by May, when the five-story meeting addition behind the hotel opens. O'Colmain said his biggest challenge will be to start the room-by-room renovation project. Gurtner took over the Boston Four Seasons from Robin Brown, who, since leaving, has been working on the planned Mandarin Oriental Hotel and residences just down Boylston Street. TUNING IN TO THE COACH When Patriots head coach Bill Belichick talks, people listen. Belichick's appearance Wednesday night on David Letterman's "Late Show" drew one of the largest local audiences for the show. The Belichick edition of Letterman, which also featured supermodel Cindy Crawford, pulled in a 6.8 rating (that's about 150,320 viewers) for local CBS affiliate Channel 4. The show also garnered a 22 share, which means that nearly a quarter of the TVs in use were tuned to Letterman. Since Belichick is a student of statistics, we'll give you a few more to chew on: The Wednesday show provided the program's best performance in the Boston area since March 5, 2001, when the Northeast was hit by a severe winter storm and viewing levels were extraordinarily high. Viewership in Boston was 143 percent higher than the program's Wednesday market average so far in the 2003-04 season. All of that to say: The coach is a ratings darling.

BOOTY AND THE BEEF Even before Janet Jackson, stuff like Stuff@Night had to work hard to be provocative. "It's definitely getting more difficult to shock people," says Scott Kathan, the mag's managing editor. "We're not trying to shock necessarily, but we are looking to raise a few eyebrows." Mission accomplished. The Valentine's issue of the bi-weekly publication features two nudes on the cover, their embrace modeled on Auguste Rodin's famous sculpture "The Kiss." "We were pretty careful about the hand placement," cracked Kathan. "Look, we're a sexy publication, and that's reflected in our content and the content of our advertisers. (We might quibble with the sexiness of an ad for Via Matta that shows a hirsute fellow in unflattering undies.) The beefcake on the cover, by the way, is Brazilian-born Rolando Amorim, a fitness instructor and bodybuilder, and that's aspiring model Kerrin Griffin he's got his tattooed arm around. "I'm happy with [the picture] in the sense that I know I didn't do anything wrong," said Amorim. "If someone sees something sexual, they're the ones with the dirty mind." Stuff@Night publisher Stephen Mindich couldn't agree more. "It's absolutely perfect," he crowed. "It's fabulous, fun, and sensual." CHEFS COOKING THINGS UP What's the deal with Barbara Lynch and the number 9? The chef-owner of No. 9 Park gave birth to her first child, a baby girl, at 9:19 p.m. Monday at Winchester Hospital. The new addition, Marchesa Siorella Petri, weighed in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces. . . . Chef Todd English will be on "Good Morning America" today, chatting with Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer about the current low-carb diet trends. Well, not just chatting; English will whip up his popular Brooklyn Porterhouse recipe. . . . And, The Anthony Spinazzola Foundation, through last week's black-tie Gala Festival of Food & Wine and its Grand Benefit Dinner, raised $670,000. The money will be used for the foundation's Culinary Apprenticeship Program and for grants to hunger-relief agencies and regional culinary schools.

CHEERS! As you might expect at the opening of a sports bar, a few former jocks showed up the other night at the debut of Frankie's Sports Bar at Jasper White's Summer Shack in Cambridge. The bar is named for bartender Frankie Reardon, who played some professional football in Europe. We spied former Patriot Steve Nelson, longtime NHL ref Paul Stewart, and Vinnie Eruzione, brother of Olympic hero Mike Eruzione (they all have autographed items on the walls). White's business partners, Patrick Lyons and Ed Sparks, stopped by in time to watch the Celts go down in defeat.

Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.