New York Magazine

Almost as soon as we walked into Charlotte Ronson on Friday night, we heard buzz that Gina Gershon was in the building and made it our mission to find her in celebrity row. We couldn’t possibly pass up a chance to ask her some incredibly important questions about working with Elizabeth “Jesse Spano” Berkley on Showgirls, and whether she ever breaks down and watches Cocktail when it’s on cable late at night. How could we resist? That’d be like bumping into Berkley herself and neglecting to sing a few bars of “I’m So Excited” from that Saved By The Bell episode with the caffeine pills. It’s just not done.

We started down at the end where Russell Simmons was perched next to his niece, Angela, who brought along a pet dog. Just as with children—of which there was also one in the front row—we always wonder how people have the intestinal fortitude to bring dogs to a fashion show, because what if they pull a Thomas Jane and bolt onto the runway mid-show? If a thirty-something actor doesn’t know better, how could a pet? Fortunately for Simmons, the pooch stayed put between her and Russell, and seemed totally unfazed by both the flashbulbs and the furor surrounding Nicky Hilton, who, honestly, we can’t believe is still getting invited to stuff. Nicky, wearing a red lace dress, had to wade through the crowd about three times, with a trailing posse of eager journalists waiting for their photo op, before somebody found her a seat in the vicinity of Louise Roe, Cory Kennedy, Sky Ferreira, Jessica White (in a massive fur and with a thick curtain of bangs), Twilight’s Nikki Reed, and a lady we are 95 percent sure was Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss.

Something must be in the water in Hollywood. At Tommy Hilfiger’s menswear show on Friday night, we saw not one but two actors sporting some serious Fashion Week facial hair with real villainous flavor. From some angles, Bradley Cooper and Kellan Lutz just looked like regular dudes who got tired of shaving, but then they’d turn their heads just so, and suddenly their scruff-and-a-soul-patch turned them into the spitting image of your most Machiavellian Sim, whom you named Voldemortimer, and who is a hot second away from tying his neighbor to the train tracks.

Lutz shared a café-style table – Hilfiger did up the Park Avenue Armory like we were outside at Bryant Park, right down to the little green four-tops – with Cobra Starship’s Gabe Saporta and British actor Giles Matthey, who just joined the cast of True Blood, and who therefore was probably enjoying one of his last outings in a shirt before the delicious, half-naked hedonism starts. We also thought we spied Peter Brant Jr. across the way in khakis and a high-fashion letterman’s jacket of some ilk, but considering that he’s generally spotted sporting a suit and an ascot, perhaps it was just a Brant doppelganger who hadn’t done his research.

Nicole Miller's show on Friday evening was a mélange of people you've never heard of, people you've kind of heard of, people you pretend you've never heard of so that no one knows the full extent of your addiction to trashy television, and then Beverly Johnson, who looked amazing and was sitting just a few chairs down from Elle's editor-in-chief Robbie Myers — prompting us to decide that Beverly must be in line for one more cover (wouldn't that be awesome?).

As we were snaking through a clutch of photographers — all of whom were trying to decide if they needed to be taking pictures of actress Meredith Ostrom, whose skirt was so short she had to protectively hold her purse against it so as not to flash anyone — we found ourselves stuck behind Stephanie Seymour's youthful socialite son, Peter Brant Jr., who was naturally wearing an ascot. "So that's why we got such bad seats," he was saying to a friend, who was wearing giant dark sunglasses, despite the fact that it was already incredibly dark inside the venue. We never found out why — did they insult someone else's ascot?  Inquiring minds want to know — because we were swiftly pushed along, and almost right into the lap of British "personality" Louise Roe, who was wearing shorts so tiny they were essentially tap pants, paired with what we are pretty sure were flesh-toned pantyhose. Apparently the Kate Middleton effect has crossed the pond.  Now, if only her bouncy, voluminous hair was contagious.

Also spotted: Jane by Design's India de Beaufort, whose new short haircut has made her almost unrecognizable. We, in fact, almost didn't recognize her, despite the fact that we watch both that show, and her previous gig, One Tree Hill. Hopefully she'll pop up again this week, because we've got several burning questions about Chad Michael Murray, and Sophia Bush is nowhere to be seen. And, frankly, we're worried.