New York, May 2 – Hey nerds, if you had saved up $5,000 for a ticket to the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute gala instead of standing outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theater for the past month, waiting for the new Star Wars movie to open, you would have been able to meet both Sith star Hayden Christensen and LOTR’s Elijah Wood.

And while this glamorous fashion bash is mostly about famous ladies wearing fabulous dresses – Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Sheryl Crow and the Olsen twins, to name a few – this year’s crowd included an unprecedented number of eligible bachelors. In addition to Wood and Christensen, Jake Gyllenhaal, P. Diddy, Ian Somerhalder, Christian Slater, Andre 3000, Liev Schreiber and Jimmy Fallon were all dateless. Usher may be off the market these days; he was with his frequent arm candy Eisha Brightwell.

Ashley Olsen apparently wasn’t springing for boyfriend Scott Sartiano’s $5,000 dinner; he only arrived at 10:30 for the after party.

Jessica Simpson came and left with designer Michael Kors. Simpson’s husband, Nick Lachey, was not at the party, but her Dukes of Hazzard costar and rumored paramour Johnny Knoxville was, albeit he arrived alone and departed with an unidentified woman. Jessica wore a diamond band on her wedding ring finger.

Simpson lived up to her blonde reputation when she couldn’t zip up the back of her dress in the ladies room, and five people were trying to help her. Finally, someone walked in, saw what was happening, went over and said, “All you have to do is take the eyehook, like this”, and zipped her right up.

At one point, Jessica’s manic posturing for the cameras had Elijah Wood stunned, motioning a friend over and saying, “Oh my god, I can’t believe this!”; then the pair stared, bemused.

A posse of major European fashion designers including Viktor & Rolf, Alber Elbaz, Nicolas Ghesquiere, Miuccia Prada, Hedi Slimane and Olivier Theyskens crossed the Atlantic to christen the Chanel-sponsored museum show.