MTVers Party On in Parking Lot

The Scene: The mammoth celebration after Thursday’s MTV Video Music Awards. The party was at a heavily decorated, four football-field-size parking lot behind Universal’s CityWalk. More than 4,000 guests were invited. One TV producer said the party’s theme was: “Finding people you lost earlier in the evening.”

The Decor: Food booths around the perimeter, a club with easy chairs in the center and neon everywhere. MTV CEO Tom Freston said he’d “never seen such an expensively decorated parking lot with so few men’s rooms.”

Who Was There: Faced with the proletariat, the talent fled. There were fleeting glimpses of Peter Gabriel, Sinead O’Connor, Tori Spelling, Pauly Shore, Dweezil Zappa, John Stamos, Michael Richards, Lenny Kravitz, Tony Bennett and George Clinton.

The Stereotypical Couple: A VH-1 generation male with an MTV generation female. He wears a dark blazer, black T-shirt, jeans and lizard-skin cowboy boots. She flaunts in a low-cut, ankle-length crushed velvet dress, a crocheted vest, platform shoes and a ribbon choker. They’re being stared at by his ex-wife who’s dressed like Diane Keaton in “Annie Hall.”

Best Fashion Advice: A guy in his 20s to a record industry exec in his 50s: “Listen, man, at your age, leather pants are out unless you’re German.”

Trend Watch: On the way out: baseball caps on backward, goatees, mousse abuse and bustiers. Maintaining: torn jeans, brown lipstick and dirty hair. On the way up: bell-bottoms, beehive hairdos, canes and lime as a hair color.

The Buzz: It was the best talent lineup the show ever had, and the art direction was great. But, as an awards show host, Christian Slater is not the Billy Crystal of Generation X.

Quoted: “This is like house parties I used to go to,” said George Clinton. “Everyone seems to be unspooked and unparanoid.”

Show-biz Moment: “The only problem,” recalled MTV’s wardrobe stylist Jimmy Hanrahan, “was we had the Chili Peppers in Armani and they decided to have a cream cheese fight with each other. I also had the pleasure of sharing in Tony Bennett’s first Doc Martens experience.”