Tuesday, January 25, 2000

Soirees bring out good tippers, flirts, dancing machines

LOS ANGELES - At television's midseason previews, days are packed with screenings and press conferences, but evenings jump the velvet ropes for major partying.
   For three weeks every January, the networks and cable channels throw a nightly succession of splashy shmooze-or-lose affairs at some of L.A.'s trendiest spots. Prime-time's biggest stars brave the buffet lines and crowd the dance floors alongside the very critics who may have stung them or sung their praises in print.
   Coo-uhl. And sometime wee-urd.
   Here's how the scene looked at the Winter 2000 TV press tour:
   CBS
   CBS earned Best Bash honors by taking over the gorgeous two-story Conga Room and inviting a diverse array of eye network celebs, from Tang-haired 87-year-old "House Party" veteran Art Linkletter (accompanied by his wife of 65 years, Lois) to Ted Danson ("Becker") and the casts of "Chicago Hope," "King of Queens" and "Everybody Loves Raymond."
   The club, owned by Jimmy Smits, is a fave salsa dancing spot in downtown L.A. and sports pink walls decorated with colorful paintings of conga drums, carnival dancers and palm trees. There's even a separate cigar room with an open roof.
   Early in the evening, professional dancers offered free lessons to partygoers (yeah, I can salsa, baby, and it's a blast) and then took over the floor for a spectacular Cuban number that moved like a salsafied square dance.
   The horn-heavy band was too good to resist for enthusiastic hoofers Sharon Lawrence ("Ladies Man"), Danson (lookin' good dancing with a shapely waitress), Kevin James (the "King of Queens" star moves nice for a big man) and Mario Van Peebles. Most surprising couple had to be Jackie Bisset and Jeremy Sisto, who play the Virgin Mary and Jesus in a new CBS miniseries. Mary and Jesus did a mean mambo.
   Late-night talker Craig Kilborn was spied flirting with a young actress. "You have no idea who I am, do you?" he asked her (ever the charmer).
   "Sure, you're Conan O'Brien," she twittered. I think he deserved that.
   Fox
   Fox picked the sprawling Sunset Room bar-restaurant and hired the swingin' Big Bad Voodoo Daddy band to play for guests, including Dick Clark, Chuck Woolery (host of "Greed"), the cast of the cute new show "Malcolm in the Middle," the entire cast of "90210" (due to be looking for jobs after the show goes off next fall), the kids on "That '70s Show," Skinner and the Lone Gunmen from "X-Files," and Fish and Elaine from "Ally McBeal."
   The real Ally, Calista Flockhart, hid out in the dark recesses of the VIP room all night, where she spoke only to the guy from The New York Times. "She's not doing interviews tonight," snarled her oily publicist when we lesser mortals requested face time with Her Boniness.
   Best interview I got was with the VIP room waitress, the lovely Kimberly, who gossiped aplenty about frequent Sunset Roomies Michael Jordan ("great guy who never sits down"), the casts of "ER" (big partyers, said Kimberly) and "Friends" ("good tippers"), and Brad Pitt sometimes accompanies galpal Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Lopez ("horrible tipper and always so rude"). Yeow.
   Kimberly's old boyfriend is actor Erik Palladino who now plays "Dr. Dave" on "ER." Out here, it's all about who you know . . . or used to know.
   ABC
   ABC invited three top winners from "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" to its soiree at Pasadena's historic Castle Green. But it didn't let them ride in limos with such stars as Mary Tyler Moore, Drew Carey and Kyra Sedgwick. Instead, John Carpenter (the $1 million guy), Doug Van Gundy and Michael Shutterly had to shuttle over on a charter bus with critics and other working stiffs. (With all that loot, you'd think they'd have rented their own limo.)
   The theme was "Arabian Nights" (ABC is doing it as a miniseries during sweeps) and wandering among the guests were bellydancers (one wrapped in a boa constrictor), palm readers and a guy who read "runes."
   Nicest celeb was Moore (starring with Valerie Harper in a "Mary & Rhoda" TV-movie), who looked radiant in a diaphanous gray blouse from the Julie Artisan boutique. She was accompanied by her much-younger surgeon-husband and they were as lovey-dovey as newlyweds.
   Harper, wrapped in a moss-green velvet cape, was ever so Rhoda-esque, laughing loudly with all us dedicated fans of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
   Beverly D'Angelo, more petite than she appears on the big screen, co-stars with Sedgwick in the new sitcom "Talk to Me." D'Angelo was not, unfortunately, accompanied at the party by current boyfriend Al Pacino. (Darn.) And Sedgwick's hubby, Kevin Bacon, stayed home, too, depriving us all a chance to improve our six degrees of separation from him.
   Shyest party person was "NYPD Blue" star Rick Schroder, standing in shadows out on the smoking patio and talking to only one reporter at a time. He said he didn't relax into his role as Danny on the cop show until the eighth episode this season.
   Strangest encounter was with John Stamos (is he even on a show?), who asked reporters to write "that I had no pants on" (he did). Wife Rebecca Romijn was a no-show. Can you blame her?
   NBC
   NBC's party is hardly worth mentioning. Held at the Ritz-Carlton in the same ballroom where critics had sat all day for press conferences, the "10th Kingdom" dinner was in honor of a 10-hour miniseries the peacock network is thrusting at viewers in February. It's a dreary thing, as was the dinner, which consisted of soggy dim sum and undercooked pasta. The only celebs on hand were John Larroquette and Camryn Manheim. That party was over before it started.
  
  
  

 
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