New York, December 6 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art decided it had had enough of being upstaged by the A-list parties over at recently touched up rival MOMA. So the Met quietly asked Roberto Cavalli to sponsor an exhibition for its Costume Institute, and then asked the Hollywood-darling fashion designer to toss a little dinner party in its honor. Voila. MOMA who?

Julianne Moore, Beyonce Knowles, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child, Julia Stiles, Serena Williams, Thalia and Tommy Mottola, designers Arnold Scaasi, Cynthia Rowley and Anna Sui were all guests in the big house for art.

Anne Hathaway turned as she was entering, saw who was behind her and exclaimed, “Holy S--t! That’s Lenny Kravitz!” Kravitz was with his daughter, Zoe. Pharrell Williams out-Lenny'd Lenny in a giant fur coat. Legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis grabbed Mischa Barton, who was mid-interview with a TV reporter, dragged her down the red carpet and said, “This is my new star”. No word on the project, but De Laurentiis is working on his own Alexander the Great biopic, scheduled for a 2006 release.

Alicia Keys looked slightly out of place wearing jeans, but her black jacket was by Cavalli. Keys was late, arriving at the Museum around 9:30; she was also scheduled for a private performance at Planet Hollywood at 9:30. Fashion comes first, naturally.

All the guests gushed about Cavalli’s clothes, and his animal prints that are part of the exhibition, titled Wild: Fashion Untamed.

Anaheim, December 3 – Paris Hilton sure gets around. Despite telling MTV recently that she’s “in the studio every day now” finishing her debut album, Paris was at GQ’s Men of the Year awards in L.A. on Thursday, then was a surprise guest Friday evening at the KIIS FM Jingle Ball. Maybe Paris hitched a ride with Pharrell Williams, who was at also at both events? Paris didn’t stay for the entire concert, because she headed to her fragrance launch party, which was also Friday night in Hollywood.

A promised surprise “pop superstar” performer at Jingle Ball was Anaheim native Gwen Stefani, who was visiting her family nearby. She reminisced about watching the Arrowhead Pond venue being built while growing up there, and said she wanted to do her first live concert as a solo artist in her hometown.

Christina Milian got onstage holding a pit bull puppy she said was one of her early Christmas gifts. No mention of who it was from. Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Avril Lavigne, Alicia Keys, Ashlee Simpson, Maroon 5 and JoJo also took the stage.

November 27-December 3 – Promoting their new book, Faithful, about the Boston Red Sox, coauthors Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan put safety first and made their New York City appearance private, in the offices of publisher Simon & Schuster. If they’d done the usual bookstore signing in Boston archrival NYC, would there’ve been any customers? King was in a good mood, and joked, “Take me with you”, when we mentioned that our next stop would be a Heidi Klum photo op.

More literary news this week: fellow author Paris Hilton dropped in at a Fashionistas book launch party at L.A.'s Argyle Hotel.

We thought, “Oh, fun, a costume party!” when we got to the Motorola party and saw Kelly Osbourne’s wig and mega-cleavage and Nicolette Sheridan’s Eskimo getup. But no, there was no theme other than to bring a toy to donate to kids. Yep, Nicolette went from wearing towels in the locker room to fur boots in L.A.

The fashions were much better - and looked fab on supermodels Carolyn Murphy, Elizabeth Hurley and Liya Kebede - at Estee Lauder’s party at the sparkling new Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Vanessa Williams also looked great when we caught her rehearsing her Christmas show on Broadway.

New York, November 29-30 – Jessica Simpson left the lights on all over New York this week. On Tuesday, the Newlyweds star overbooked, performing live on television with hubby Nick Lachey at Rockefeller Center’s big tree lighting ceremony, singing her last number just before the lights went on at 8:55 P.M. Meanwhile, she was scheduled to appear at 8:30 P.M. over at MTV studios on Times Square to flip the switch on a giant Mitsubishi Electronics screen. Live TV won out; the folks at MTV cooled their heels waiting. Nick flew out to L.A. following the Rockefeller Center tree gig to be at VH1’s Big in ’04 show the next day.

Los Angeles, December 2 – GQ magazine moved its Men of the Year bash to the west coast for the first time this year, and while the overall star wattage may have dropped a notch, the rag still drew some big names. Usher, P.Diddy, Pharrell Williams, Tom Ford, Jamie Foxx, Jesse Metcalfe of Desperate Housewives and most of The O.C. men (and women) graced Lucques restaurant in West Hollywood. Gael Garcia Bernal, currently dragging it up on screens in Almodovar’s Bad Education, met up with former costar Diego Luna. Paris and Nicky Hilton and their pal Bijou Phillips, Vivica Fox, tennis “it" girl Maria Sharapova, Josie Maran and Macy Gray provided testosterone relief.

Los Angeles, December 2 – Nick Nolte was inscrutable at the premiere of his new movie, Hotel Rwanda, on Thursday, the very same day that news broke that the parents of a teenaged girl who was allegedly assaulted at Nolte’s home have filed suit against the actor. Maybe the sunglasses helped. Meanwhile, the Beverly Hills premiere drew a star-studded crowd including Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling and even celluloid Jesus Christ, Jim Caviezel. Hotel Rwanda stars Don Cheadle and Joaquin Phoenix along with Nolte.

Los Angeles, December 1 – Although Michael Moore accepted an IFP Gotham award via satellite on Wednesday, telling the folks at the New York gala that he was in “the blue state of Michigan” (see below), he was actually in the blue state of California, schmoozing with the Hollywood crowd. He attended a Fahrenheit 9/11 Producers’ Guild luncheon, and later joined Leonardo DiCaprio at the premiere of the film The Aviator. Finally, Moore headed to the Shrine Auditorium, where he accepted a VH1 Big in ’04 award. Maybe he thought no one would notice, since the Big in ’04 show doesn’t air until December 5.

New York, December 1 – Maria Full of Grace and Sideways were among the winners at the Independent Film Project’s Gotham Awards on Wednesday. This celebration of indie film brought in some mainstream Hollywood types like Jim Carrey, Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon. Dates were hard to come by: Carrey came alone, his Spotless Mind costar Kate Winslet disappointingly cancelled; Wahlberg brought his indie film director, I Heart Huckabees’ David O. Russell; and Mario Badass Van Peebles brought his father, Melvin. Some folks were luckier; Ethan Hawke’s date was the luminous Julie Delpy, and Kevin Bacon, who seemed to have survived a severe hair product attack, brought his wife, Kyra Sedgwick. Filmmaker awardee Michael Moore couldn’t be there, but accepted by satellite from “the blue state of Michigan, where we are very blue”.

Even bluer were the unlimited Bombay Sapphire drinks the fifty-or-so handpicked “fans” slurped while shrieking whenever a car pulled up, in order to make the live broadcast on IFC channel look exciting. Of course, preselecting the seemingly random fans also avoided having really ugly people on camera. Where did they get these "fans"? One graciously explained, “Three quarters are fans recruited from TRL. The rest work at TRL.” We suspect the MTVers were interns, and tried to find out if they were paid for the evening, but it seems that standing in a Chelsea Piers parking lot, drinking, screaming and groping for autographs to hawk on e-Bay was reward enough.