August 28 – After MTV’s Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall, parties kicked into gear all over town, and PlayStation 2 and music producer Guy Oseary hosted the biggest at Four Seasons restaurant. Nicole Kidman snuck in through a side door, then hung out in a roped off VIP area once inside the party. Nicole arrived at the same time as rapper Q-Tip, and they left the event separately, but within moments of each other. Hmmm... Actor Jason Biggs flew in from the Venice Film Festival, where the day before he’d been promoting his new Woody Allen film. Biggs shrugged and said, “I’m a jetsetter now.” Supermodel Gisele Bundchen and Freaky Friday star Lindsay Lohan were both wearing Dolce & Gabana. Christina Aguilera didn’t say what designer she was wearing, but she had way too much makeup caked on! Michelle Branch, in a trucker hat, happily held hands with an unidentified man. Pamela Anderson came with photographer David LaChapelle and his transsexual muse, Amanda Lapore. The Hilton sisters, Britney Spears, Ben Stiller, editor Bonnie Fuller, designer Zac Posen and Duran Duran were all in the house. Even P. Diddy stopped by before heading to his own late, late party at Show, where Foxy Brown, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Osbourne, Avril Lavigne, Ludacris and Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z partied until after dawn.

August 28 – Music videos may be a smaller part of MTV’s programming these days, but the annual Video Music Awards draws top talent from the music and film worlds. Beyonce Knowles, 50 Cent, Justin Timberlake and Missy Elliott were among this year’s big winners. The showstopper was Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera opening the show with Like a Virgin, in imitation of Madonna on the VMA’s first year in 1984. Madonna joined the two onstage, sang her latest hit, Hollywood, and then kissed Britney on the lips, with tongue. As cameras segued to Britney’s surprised ex, Justin Timberlake, Madonna turned to Christina and kissed her too! Backstage, Timberlake apologized to photographers for not posing as he entered on the red carpet, saying he didn’t know he was supposed to stop. Gosh, talent, looks and brains too! Mayhem was the order of the evening, and barely-there was the dress code, at least for the women. Pamela Anderson was spectacularly underdressed, but teenaged queens of the universe Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's outfits were tame. (And no doubt, they'll sell millions of copies through their clothing line.) Rapper Snoop Dogg sure knows how to accessorize - he arrived with two shapely women tethered on leashes.

August 27 – The night before MTV’s Video Music Awards show, New York was party central for industry heavyweights. The big bash this evening was Stuff magazine’s party hosted by Missy Elliott and hotshot video director Dave Meyers at the nightclub Show. An endless stream of stretch Hummers brought the likes of Pink, Simple Plan, Fabolous, Carmen Electra, Victoria Beckham, Damon Dash, tennis champ Serena Williams and too many others to list. Kelly Osbourne, wearing jeans and tiara, casually mentioned that she and Avril Lavigne will be co-presenting at the VMAs, and that the two are friends. Missy Elliott, who’s never won a VMA despite more nominations than any other artist – some two dozen – said with a big smile, “Winning any award would be great with me!” She’s got eight nominations this year, so we wish her luck. Missy was dressed head to toe in Adidas gear, despite her recent Gap advertisements with Madonna. Did Madonna teach her yoga? “No. But even if she had, I could never get my legs as high as hers”, she said, laughing.

Justin Timberlake partied downtown at the club Suede. His girlfriend, Cameron Diaz, hid from cameras; we'd bet it was because of her tacky red hat.

August 19 - 20 – Penelope Cruz came from hell. Well, she did in the Spanish film Don’t Tempt Me. The film’s premiere was all about Penelope, who wore a silver/gray gown to the premiere, and changed into a long orange number for the after party at the Ralph Lauren Soho store. We skipped the after-after party at a downtown club, so we can’t report on outfit number three. Cruz’ boyfriend Tom Cruise was disappointingly not present for the evening.

The following evening, Rosanna Arquette showcased her documentary Searching for Debra Winger, in which she talks to leading actresses about the pressures faced by women working in the entertainment industry. Actresses Famke Janssen, Michelle Hicks and designer Anna Sui were there to hear all about it.

We dashed over to Show nightclub, where actress Dita Von Teese performed a burlesque routine for her husband, dark rocker Marilyn Manson. The show was old-fashioned burlesque, and Von Teese ended up in pink pasties and lacy panties. Ah, the pressures of women in entertainment.

August 19 – We caught Julianne Moore kissing another man just days before her marriage to director Bart Freundlich! Actually, it was all in a (long) day's work. Open All Night was really open all night, when at 4 a.m. we met Moore and Pierce Brosnan drenched and shooting a kissing scene for their upcoming romantic comedy, Laws of Attraction. It’s not very visible in the photos at left, but the filmmakers created a rainstorm on the Greenwich Village street. This turned out to be the final shoot on the movie, and the crew broke out the champagne for an impromptu wrap party. The film is due for release in 2004. Moore and Freundlich were married on August 23.

August 12 - 18 – We admit that we’d never before heard of the underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar, the subject of the new HBO film American Splendor. Apparently we’re alone, because Sean Astin, Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Sopranos’ Drea DeMatteo, Steven Schirripa and John Ventimiglio, Helen Gurley Brown and Gretchen Mol all are fans. American Splendor, starring Paul Giamatti, James Urbaniak and Judah Friedlander, has received tremendous buzz and critical acclaim. We’re humbled.

At the premiere of And Starring Pancho Villa, when a reporter asked star Antonio Banderas who’d made his black suit, Banderas opened his jacket, glanced at the label, and replied, “That’s easy. Versace.” His wife, Melanie Griffith, responded to the same question about her black pantsuit with, “Zac Posen. But I just found that out.” Super-svelte, Griffith claimed that dancing on Broadway in the musical Chicago keeps her in shape. Then Griffith got profound, opining in her breathy, little-girl voice on the previous week’s massive blackout, “Well, it was hot and dark, wasn’t it?”