SOCIAL CLIMES / THE OSCARS : SPAGO : The Must-Go Party for ‘Popular Kids’

Superagent Irving (Swifty) Lazar and wife Mary’s legendary annual Oscar party at Spago is definitely the best-known party on Earth--even among those who’ll never be invited.

When people whose names were not on the guest list were turned away at the stairs, the 300-strong crowd of fans across the street chanted, “Nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, he-e-e-y, go-o-o-o-dby” as the would-be party-goers were escorted to the parking lot.

Among the 161 guests who dined at Spago while watching the Oscar broadcast were Madonna, Walter Cronkite, Paloma Picasso, Lee Radziwill, Barbara and Marvin Davis, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion, Walter Matthau, Tom and Roseanne Arnold, Larry McMurtry, Rupert Murdoch and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Another 100 or so arrived after the show, including winners Mercedes Ruehl and Jack Palance, plus Billy Crystal, John Singleton, Ben Kingsley, Sharon Stone and Dwight Yoakam, Liza Minnelli, Demi Moore, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Anjelica Huston, Whoopi Goldberg and Paul Newman.

One woman compared the event to “one of those parties you went to in high school with the really popular kids. But amplified thousands of times.”

So where were the winners? The answer: Orion Pictures (“The Silence of the Lambs”) had what must have been a joyful party of its own downtown at Rex.

The entree was oven-roasted Alaskan white salmon. Courses were served during the commercials because, said chef Wolfgang Puck, “the main thing is the Oscars. It’s not the Gourmet Society dinner.”

“It was great,” Roseanne Arnold said of the food.

“They even had Jewish pizzas--crust with cream cheese, smoked salmon and topped with caviar. That made the night. It made up for all the really boring conversation.”

Being an Oscar winner is by no means a condition for entree to the Lazar guest list. “I’ve lost 12 out of 13 times,” said Warren Beatty of his Oscar nominations. “I’m getting good at this.”

“The joy of this party usually involves people who were not nominated,” said Michael Douglas, “while the Governors Ball, depending on whether you won or lost, can be fun--or a long evening.”