The Scene: A fifth anniversary party for...

The Scene: A fifth anniversary party for the Museum of Contemporary Art, held Saturday night outside the Frank Gehry-designed Temporary Contemporary in Little Tokyo. (It’s not so temporary anymore; the city has extended MOCA’s lease there through 2038.)

The Buzz: The art society types were a bit fatigued, what with Friday night’s opening gala for the third International Contemporary Art Fair at the Convention Center. But they were looking forward to tonight’s Los Angeles County Museum of Art gala, which will be opened by Italian Prime Minister Ciriaco De Mita.

Who was there: MOCA director Richard Koshalek; MOCA chairman Frederick M. Nicholas; museum vice-chairman Lenore Greenberg and Bernard Greenberg; trustees Marcia Weisman, Eli Broad, William Kieschnick, William and Merry Norris; artist John Woodall, whose installation “Tools of Performance” is now on exhibit; Lance Primis, president of the New York Times newspaper, which sponsored Saturday night’s bash; high-tech entrepreneurs Peter and Eileen Norton; art lovers George Gradow and Barbi Benton; restaurateur Michael McCarty; and hundreds of others.

Dress mode: Ponytails and turtlenecks galore--for men. The rest was casual, from the stylish to the style-less. (Really, now, appearing at a party in sweat pants and sandals?)

Entertainment: KCRW FM’s Tom Schnabel was a deejay, spinning a range of discs, from Edie Brickell to Talking Heads and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Seeing tony art types swinging to the chestnut “Madison Time” was worth the $50 admission price.

Overheard: One man, gazing into a trash can filled with dirty plastic plates, asked snidely, “Is this a new Julian Schnabel exhibit?”

Nice touch: Montebello’s Schurr High School marching band performed “Happy Birthday” for the museum.

Chow: This birthday party had enough gooey desserts to send Richard Simmons into apoplexy, including crepes, fruits and cheese, petits fours, tarts, specialty cakes and a make-your-own-sundae bar. Then, of course, there was the 12-foot-long, three-story chocolate and raspberry birthday cake, donated by Michael McCarty.

Triumph: Guests entered through multicolored balloon art, above which hung a spectacular balloon version of MOCA’s famous logo.

Glitches: A sound system, which at any distance from the dais, made speakers as unintelligible as subway conductors announcing the next stop.