People

Nicola Bulgari hosted a store-warming party Tuesday night in Beverly Hills for a gold-encrusted crowd. Although Bulgari can talk diamonds till the sun goes down, his real passion is cars. Old American cars. Bulgari’s a Buick man, and a ’38 or ’39 Buick Century coupe is his dream machine. He says he’s owned several. And he doesn’t keep them stashed away. Like jewels, he says with an Italian accent and deep eye-contact, “they should be enjoyed, day after day,” dramatic pause, “ night after night.” No wonder a conga line of women--including Eva Gabor, Deidre Hall, Cyd Charisse, Patti Davis and Cornelia Guest--waited patiently at the party to snuggle up close and say hello.

* POLES APART: Meanwhile, three blocks away, a fashion show at Giorgio Armani drew a crowd of its own. But there was no confusing the two guest lists. At Bulgari, four women showed up in the same black knit Donna Karan dress. (The one Liza Minelli wore to the Academy Awards and Candice Bergen wore to the Emmy Awards.) The rest dripped jewels, carried Chanel handbags, and wore their hair big and blond. Armani’s Army--Peter and Lynda Guber, Elle MacPherson and Bobby Shriver, and Robbie Robertson among them--wore the requisite dark and drapey look, flat shoes, no jewelry to speak of, and what looked to be their natural hair color. Occasionally, someone floated in from the Bulgari party, standing out like a fan dancer at a convent.

* TEAM SPIRIT: Ram Dass, popular guru of the ‘70s, Harvard professor and author of “Compassion in Action,” is now a beauty adviser. Dass recently appeared at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, extolling the benefits of spiritual health, a positive inner spirit and La Prarie’s Age Management Serum.

* ON THE BIG BOARD: Norma Kamali is about to make her presence known around town via a billboard campaign. “It’s only appropriate don’t you think?” she says. “So many people in so many cars, for such long periods of time.”