New York, September 12 – Anna Wintour seemed to really enjoy the performance by the Nittany Lions, Penn State University’s marching band, which opened the Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2006 fashion show. Anna smiled and tapped her foot, no doubt wondering if the band uniforms were the show. It was too crowded for Anna to turn around and see the band’s conductor, about six rows behind her, waving his arms, directing.

In a fashion week that has been thus far relatively light in the celebrity quotient, Jacobs had some aces up his sleeve. Kirsten Dunst crept out from backstage, surrounded by security, made her way through the pandemonium, only to get up and head back after a swarm of photographers surrounded her. Clearly, movie stars are not used to such treatment. Kirsten eventually ventured out again into the crowd, and had a huggy Virgin Suicides reunion with Sofia Coppola.

We were relieved, however, to see Sofia there, since Jacobs’ new muse, Lil’ Kim, is headed to prison momentarily. Sofia told us it had been a long time since she’d been to a fashion show. And Lil’ Kim did make her much gossiped-about appearance, and changed her outfit before hitting the after party at Cipriani 23rd Street.

Uma Thurman was there, but not there, smiling distractedly throughout the entire show. (Yes, we were directly across from her, and yes, we were staring.) Who wasn’t there? Everyone from Kristin Davis to Rufus Wainwright to photographer Cindy Sherman to Eva Longoria to Caroline Kennedy scoped out the frocks. Anna Sui was unmolested, even seated next to Naomi Campbell.

At show’s end, something opened up overhead, but instead of lighting fixtures crashing down, shiny silver confetti poured over the audience. And while the stuff found its way into every place imaginable on our bodies - in our hair, down our shirts, in our pockets, even inside of our closed bags - even confetti wouldn’t dare rustle Wintour's bob. As everyone got coated with the stuff - it stuck to sweaty skin – we looked in awe as Anna sat calmly, only a few flakes on one knee.

New York, September 10 – Socialites and Hollywood actresses are miffed because this season’s “It” girl, the one everyone is clamoring to dress, is the Sony PlayStation Portable. The alluring (and addictive) little vixen had Fendi, Calvin Klein, Anna Sui, Christian Louboutin, Tommy Hilfiger, J. Mendel, Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. and others design custom outfits expressly for it.

The little PSP was super excited, and decided to celebrate and show off all of its new clothes at a fashion show called Pret a PSP. When you’re “It”, you attract a crowd. Lindsay Lohan and Gwen Stefani sat front and center, while Paris Hilton strutted the catwalk along with models Alek Wek, Helena Christensen and Rolling Stones offspring Alexandra and Theodora Richards. All of the models appeared to be unscathed, so apparently Naomi Campbell kept her temper while waiting backstage to make her sole stroll down the runway, the show’s big finale.

Pssst, a little secret. The hot PSP may have had some help in becoming so chic. The party was styled by fashion svengali Rachel Zoe, the super-stylist who transformed Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan into sleek fashion queens. Rachel invited us to this little get-together when we chatted with her at the fashion shows.

New York, September 9 – This season, those imps at Imitation of Christ took a page from Martha Stewart’s reality, staging their fashion show at a lower Manhattan courthouse, complete with models in handcuffs. Guests had to get an I.D., and submit to metal detectors, which added to the ambience and made the late-arriving models even later.

IOC designer Tara Subkoff apologized to fashion photographers, saying that she couldn’t afford lights for the show, and offered to go out and buy everyone flashes for their cameras. (As if the show hadn’t been delayed enough already.)

Apparently Subkoff blew her budget on models; actress Scarlett Johansson was the first one out. She descended the grand marble staircase, smoking a cigarette, paused dramatically, and then walked in front of the crowd, which included Jimmy Fallon and Liev Schreiber, seated on barstools.

We followed Johansson outside after the show, and, snapping photos, joked, “As seen coming out of the courthouse…” “Yeah, right”, Johansson shot back, as the tabloid possibilities dawned on her. She darted down to the curb, security guard in tow, and couldn’t find her car, so they began leaning into limousines, with no luck. Scarlett politely declined a ride from a New York Daily News photographer, and headed back inside the building.

We hope this is not the end of IOC’s delightful theatrics, but Subkoff hinted that this may be her last show, and that she’d like to direct a film.

New York, September 8 – The biggest names in pop music came together on Thursday for the second annual Fashion Rocks concert. Acts spanned generations, from David Bowie and Duran Duran to youngsters Joss Stone and Alicia Keys; and genres from Shakira to Tim McGraw to Destiny’s Child. There was a small contingent of film stars, including Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Jesse Metcalfe and Kim Cattrall, plus fashion designers here and there. Rocker Billy Idol was the most animated person on the red carpet, wandering around, pulling up his shirt and posing wildly for cameras. Idol seemed kind of surprised when he turned around and walked right into the pole of the backdrop. You won’t see that part when the concert airs Friday, Sept. 9 on CBS.

New York, September 7-8 – Jenny from the block is scared of vegetarians. At her Thursday appearance on the David Letterman show, Jennifer Lopez’s people apologized to the press for her absence from the red carpet at the previous evening’s premiere of her new movie, An Unfinished Life. She and Marc Anthony scooted inside the DGA Theater on 57th Street to avoid the PETA protesters, who, we have to admit, had a clever sign depicting a skinned animal with the slogan “Another unfinished life”. (Of course, we would have preferred a well-aimed pie tossing, but they didn’t ask us.)

Anyway, back at the Letterman show, J. Lo’s posse parked all of their SUVs strategically, so that the protesters were blocked from view, and a security guard even hand-picked a dozen or so safe-seeming fans and brought them over for autographs.

As impressive as the J. Lo machine’s PETA-beating about-face was, they never made up to reporters, who, at the premiere party at Megu, waited patiently to speak with Jennifer while she and Marc dined with family inside a private room. They were having a great time laughing and talking and eating, and it was after midnight when Mr. and Mrs. Anthony slipped into the kitchen and out the side door, in full view of reporters.

New York, September 7 – Elle turned 21 and celebrated at Bloomingdale’s, fashionista-style. Granted, we might have preferred a more traditional observance of this milestone, like downing shots of tequila, for instance, but we guess this is appropriate for a 21-year-old fashion magazine. The party was suitable for Lindsay Lohan, who, at 19 is still innocently dreaming about imbibing. Lindsay is old enough to take in Kanye West’s performance. West trotted around with one of those just-released, super slim iPod Nanos glued to his ear. We asked him what he was listening to, but he was lost in Nano land, and didn’t remove the earphone even with his arm around Rebecca Romijn.

Meanwhile, Lohan’s good buddy and cohort in skinniness Nicole Richie was checking out merchandise, but not at Bloomingdale’s. At a party for Samsonite’s black label premium line, when a reporter on the red carpet asked if there had been any thaw in her feud with reality costar Paris Hilton, Nicole said no, and then hurried on inside.

Anaheim, CA, September 1 – Desitny’s Child pulled its farewell tour, called "Destiny Fulfilled…And Lovin It", into Anaheim’s Arrowhead Pond, on Thursday. As the audience was filing in, there was a roar of excitement near the stage, and we found Kobe Bryant in the front row, with his daughter Natalia. And at the last moment before Beyonce, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams took the stage, the arena again filled with screaming as Jay-Z made his way through the crowd and joined the group’s manager, and his girlfriend’s father, Matthew Knowles.

Chatting with Matthew, we discovered that it wasn’t an intentional diss at the previous night’s World Music Awards, where we waited in vain for the D.C. ladies to join us in the press room backstage. “What press room?” Matthew responded to our whine.

Los Angeles, August 31 – Don’t worry about the fact that the World Music Awards went on for five hours. The last act went on at 2 a.m., but that’s our problem (yawn), because the televised version that ABC will air on September 13 will be whittled down to a comfortable two hours.

The WMA is probably the most honest awards program; honors are based solely on record sales, and so winners are determined at cash registers.

We had a few laughs during our long night at the Kodak Theater. Rapper The Game, who often publicly airs his grudges, not only was positively mild mannered, we actually got him to smile in the press room. That might be a first.

Someone’s stylist is getting fired - Paula Abdul and Carmen Electra wore the same dark blue dress on the red carpet! Perhaps over time, they’ll get past this fashion nightmare. At least the horror was short-lived; as host of the show, Carmen changed outfits.

We asked Sharon Osbourne to place her hand on the crotch of the giant golden WMA statue in the lobby, and she obliged, to the mortification of daughter Kelly, who covered her face with her hands and groaned, “Oh mom”.

This was the WMA's first time in L.A. After years in Monaco, organizers moved it to Las Vegas in 2004.