L.A. Turns Yet Another Trendy Page

Maybe you’ve heard of Vertigo, the club.

Now there’s Vertigo, the book.

See yourself cavorting on the dance floor. Let your friends know you got past the crowd-choosing doorman. Find out what you should wear while club-crawling. Figure out which celebrity elbowed you.

But most of all, wonder why a tree was cut down for this kind of information.

“That’s a good question,” said Sunny Bak, spokeswoman for the pencil-thin glossy volume.

“Vertigo, the Book,” all 70 pages, was conceived by advertising executive Patrick Kahn who talked Vertigo’s owners into putting it out as a promotion. Aimed at the tan-and-trendy set, its first printing was 20,000 copies, all handed out at the club this month “as a service to their special clientele,” Bak said.

Exactly what service? “A stroking-their-ego service,” she said.

The book describes in minute detail every celebrity who ever glided past Vertigo’s doorman, ramblings about the L.A. party scene, not to mention fashion layouts, music reviews and personality profiles. And for anyone keeping score about L.A.’s publicity-shy royal romance, there’s a self-promoting interview with Vertigo co-owner Mario Oliver and his girlfriend, Princess Stephanie of Monaco, about their life together.

Also scattered between ads for trendy togs and restaurants are candid photos Vertigo’s non-celebrity regulars. “It’s the perfect promotion for people who like to have that feeling of being famous without really being famous,” Bak said.

Kahn said the book is “entertaining” and “different.” But whether it’s good enough to be published quarterly, as had been planned, remains to be seen. “It’s not a one-time thing,” Kahn said.

Stay tuned for Vertigo, the sequel.