A Swinging Time at the Monkey Bar

The monkeys should be swinging from their branches when Jack Nicholson’s buddy, Alan Finkelstein, tosses a do at his Monkey Bar restaurant following Nicholson’s big acceptance speech at the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement salute on March 3.

Intrepid reporters that we are, we asked Finkelstein if Nicholson was, in fact, a partner in the restaurant.

“He’s a partner in my whole life. He’s a partner in everything I do,” Finkelstein responded vaguely, throwing us off course.

So then we asked if Nicholson liked being the center of attention at these sorts of things. “No. He gets very shy when it comes to accepting an award and speaking in front of his peer group,” said Finkelstein.

No, we meant at the party afterward. “Oh, he’ll be fine at the party. He’ll be ready to party after that.”

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Lots of Heart: While we were shopping for our annual Valentine’s Day present from Ourself to Ourself, we couldn’t believe the mob scene in 90210-land. It was like the day before Christmas--all the free parking lots were full and the jewelry stores were packed. Apparently, there wasn’t always such a strong demand for bijouterie in February. But we started to learn why. Post-quake, people had no desire to buy fragile gifts like crystal or glass.

It also seemed so much more practical to be able to “buy something I can run in,” we heard.

“I had a customer whose earthquake kit is her jewelry bag and another who sleeps wearing every piece of jewelry she owns,” reported Pepi Kelman of Pepi’s jewelry store on Brighton.

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If It’s Tuesday . . . : While speaking of B.H., why did Tuesday become the hottest night of the week at Mezzaluna?

“There seems to be something that goes on in L.A. where restaurants have a hot night,” said a befuddled Karim Souki, president. “It used to be a very slow night, but three or four years ago, Kirk Douglas gave a party for his son on a Tuesday and John Paul Mitchell gave a party on a Tuesday, and Mezzaluna is a very open space and people walked by and saw these beautiful people.

“Now it’s a scene. People are all dressed up--best I can characterize it is sexy clothes. It’s all the same young people you’d find at Tatou on Monday and the Olive Garden on Thursday.