OSCAR’S NIGHT OUT : Lazar at Spago: It’s 2 Parties in One

If Irving (Swifty) Lazar threw just one internationally famous Oscar bash, his place in social history would be secure. However, it’s really two parties that the literary agent and his wife, Mary, host at Spago.

The first is a sit-down dinner that begins at 6 p.m. sharp. And put the stress on sit-down. Lazar circulates through the restaurant as the show kicks off on television, urging, cajoling and ordering his guests to stop schmoozing and “please, please, sit down.”

This is no small feat since the likes of Warren Beatty, Paloma Picasso, George Hamilton, Tony Curtis, Quincy Jones, Diana Ross and Jimmy Stewart are unaccustomed to moving until they’re ready.

It was after the guests were seated and the show’s opening number half over that the only real glitch of the evening occurred. A waitress in one of the restaurant’s upstairs offices decided she’d rather watch the Home Shopping Network than the Oscars. Unfortunately, her set controlled the 14 monitors in the dining area. For 20 seconds, the Lazars’ 140 guests were in the TV world of zirconian necklaces and discount microwave ovens.

Until the Best Picture award was announced, the guests dined on Wolfgang Puck’s designer pizza and hors d’oeuvres. As soon as the telecast ended, the main course of grilled gulf snapper was served. Among those dining together at the tables of 10 were Jackie Collins with Marvin and Barbara Davis, Gene Kelly with Angie Dickinson and Allan Carr and Ed McMahon with Don Rickles and Bob Newhart.

Guests were just finishing dinner when the second party began with arrivals from the awards ceremony and Governor’s Ball at the Shrine. The median age in the room dropped 20 years in 20 minutes.

This is when the sheer critical mass of celebrityhood in an enclosed space makes the Lazar party such an amazing event. Here were three years’ worth of People magazine covers in a room half the size of a basketball court.

Leading the charge were Madonna and Michael Jackson, who sat with Michael Douglas and Anjelica Huston, instantly making this the “A” table.

Then, in past the Israeli security guards strode Jodie Foster, Mike Ovitz, Phil Spector, Barry Diller, Mike Medavoy, Bob Daly, Debra Winger, Alan Dershowitz and Gov. Pete Wilson (who was told he had to leave his bodyguards at the door--there just wasn’t enough room).

By now Madonna had moved over to sit on Beatty’s lap at another table.

Over in a quiet corner, Al Pacino sipped coffee with Jack Lemmon; across the room Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal gleefully passed Kathy Bates’ Oscar around their table and Jeremy Irons grabbed Glenn Close as she was about to leave, coaxing her “to come sit with me.” Of course she did. After all, this was Swifty’s.

“This is the party everyone wants to be at,” Jackie Collins said. “And if they say they don’t, they weren’t invited.”