Harlock's standing a few inches away when British fashion darlings Plum and Lucy Sykes arrive to flashbulbs sparkling like firecrackers. "You're missing the event of all fucking time!" a black-clad partygoer hisses into her cell phone.

As the crowd thins, she lines up between Marina Rust and Tiffany Dubin to pay for the shirt she selected. Reaching for her wallet, she giggles to herself, "It would be so embarrassing for my credit card not to work at this."

A week in the life of poverty elites might find them spending Monday night at a restaurant opening and Wednesday night sharing takeout Chinese food on the couch (usually a futon from college). But by the end of the week, they've probably spent as many nights in the presence of real-life rock stars as watching their videos.

A 26-year-old associate producer at VH1 who makes $30,000 a year spent one evening escorting Madonna and Lourdes to the VH1 Fashion Awards. She's also dished with Susan Sarandon at Chelsea Piers and hung out with Debbie Harry during the shoot for Blondie's Behind the Music. "We watched Fargo and ordered deli food," she says. "She has a really cute little dog." A former assistant at Island Records couldn't believe her luck when she was asked to go to Vegas with U2.

Michael Lee Barlin, 29, a filmmaker who often house-sits a Fifth Avenue loft with his girlfriend, is still paying back the $40,000 he charged on his credit card to make his first feature. So he sees most movies for free -- at private screenings. "After This Is My Father, I was making a cell-phone call in the lobby, and when I turned around, Julia Roberts was doing the same thing right next to me." Such proximity to greatness can make up for distinctly unfabulous downtime. "I'm not shy about going up to people," says Matt Jankowski, a former media planner who snapped pictures of himself with Melissa Joan Hart at a Teen People promotion. "That's half the game."

Last year, Lisa Garrett was working for Halston and sleeping on her twin bed from childhood because she couldn't afford new furniture. But she jetted to Los Angeles to dress celebrities for the Oscars. "Tara Reid came in," she recalls, brightly. "She's from New Jersey, I'm from New Jersey -- we were totally just hanging out." Then there was the Talk magazine party at the Mondrian's Sky Bar, for which Garrett herself received the celebrity treatment; she got to borrow a $2,000 white cashmere Halston suit. "I will never feel that attractive again," she sighs. After sipping red wine next to Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin, Warren Beatty, Steve Martin, and Kirstie Alley, she managed to gather up enough nerve to work the party. "We said hello to Chris Rock," she says. "We chatted with Tina Brown. Obviously."

The high life can be habit-forming, and the more Poverty Elites are exposed to its riches, the more they feel entitled to live it. Especially when they see their friends in other fields -- e-commerce entrepreneurs, third-year associates at Cravath -- enjoying the Hamptons shares and Hermès Kelly bags they earned the old-fashioned way. "In my mind, I feel like I deserve to have more money," says a 26-year-old network-television editor who makes $31,000. "Entertainers and TV producers work hard, but I work just as hard as they do. Why shouldn't I be compensated with millions?"

To close the gap, what the Poverty Elite can't get through work they get by working it. Some approach scoring graft with the zeal of a competitive sport. "Any time I want, I could get loaned a Corvette for a week," says one broadcast journalist -- with or without a story assignment. "A friend of mine borrows a different car every weekend."

An event planner at a top investment bank, Erica Ross spends most of her time on all-expenses-paid scouting trips to the Lodge in Vail or the Breakers in Palm Beach. Her itinerary usually factors in beach time and a massage. Often, she's allowed to take along companions -- even her mother. And when she's not on the clock, her job title has its advantages. "If I go to a restaurant or a club and tell them I'm an event planner, I'll get nicer treatment," she says. "I have friends who work it very well. A colleague was going to the Four Seasons in Maui on her honeymoon, so we called and got her a suite."