Powerful, dynamic, handsome and powerful

Once upon a time, I attended the Boo Ball, a fundraiser here in Albuquerque. As I browsed through the items in the silent auction, I met the venerable Charlotte Balcomb-Lane, the former society writer at the Albuquerque Journal. She was a real-life Lois Lane-- smart, hard-working, glamorous. I was very pleased to make her acquaintance, and I think she found it charming when I took a small notepad and pen out of my tiny beaded handbag (I'd sacrificed bringing my entire wallet in favor of the paper-- I can't help it. This is what writers do). While the hoity-toity of Albuquerque's society (cough-cough) mixed and mingled and bit extravagent amounts of money on things most people would never want, Charlotte gave a cub reporter a little bit of advice-- she suggested that if I ever were to try my hand at society reporting, I could pinpoint the most powerful man in the room by first looking for the most beautiful and best-dressed woman. Inevitably, she'd be with someone worth knowing for your article, plus she'd be a lovely picture to go with your story. The advice has served me well over the years.
The other day it struck me, though-- if the most beautiful woman in the room is with the most powerful man, how do you go about finding the most powerful woman in a crowd? In my experience, she is wildly popular, but generally alone. Hmm...