All summer we kept hearing Eric Schmidt had resumed hanging out with onetime flame Marcy Simon, the killer flack at play-for-keeps Microsoft PR firm Burson-Marsteller. We're still hearing that. And now Simon's talking about the Google CEO in public.

We were surprised to see a carefully-calibrated communicator like Simon drop Schmidt's name on her Twitter stream (see screenshot below); she's been tight-lipped about Schmidt in the past. And isn't she supposed to be pimping TV gigs by Burson's actual clients, like Microsoft?



We're guessing some sort of new relationship is afoot, if not between Schmidt and Simon, then between Google and Burson:

Simon, we hear, joined Schmidt on his jet for a flight last Thursday from California to Teterboro. Apparently she wasn't put off by his taking her last month, as we heard he did, to The Island Mermaid on Fire Island when the couple visited together there in August. That's the same place where Schmidt took actor Stanley Tucci three years ago; we'd urged him to find a new haunt.

But between this Simon-Schmidt sighting and the earlier ones in Aspen and California, it's sounding increasingly like Schmidt is a creature of habit. Which shouldn't affect Google shareholders — unless it causes Schmidt to inadvertently expose something of himself to the PR firm of his lethal enemy (we're talking about proprietary information here, pervs). Or unless it leads to a relationship that finally puts in play Schmidt's Google shares, via a divorce from the wife from whom he's reportedly separated.

If you know anything, including why Punky Brewster was also tweeting up Schmidt, we'd love to hear from you.