RSVP / THE GRAMMYS : Record Companies Partied With Fancy Food and Celebs

Madness prevailed at the MCA/Geffen/GRP Records post-Grammy party Wednesday at the Four Seasons. The line of limos, Mercedeses and Porsches choked off Doheny Drive. Inside, more than 2,000 music biz honchos, artists, TV stars and models elbowed their way around in the crowd of revelers in bow ties, baseball caps, sequins, tattoos, dreadlocks and tuxes.

The partyscape was a Disneyland of chow. Wherever guests turned, there was a pasta buffet, meat-carving chef or gigantic chocolate CD sculpture.

“This is the greatest party. I’d come here even if I didn’t work for the company,” said Richard Palmese, president of MCA records, who was holding court in the heart of the VIP area. “We won close to 10 Grammys tonight between MCA and Geffen.”

As co-chairman of the L.A. Grammy Host Committee, Palmese was celebrating another victory--bringing the Grammys back to Los Angeles after a two-year hiatus.

According to the VIP partying next to him, however, that really wasn’t difficult. “We have so many advantages because most of the great musicians of the world live in Los Angeles. All we had to tell them was, ‘We love you, we want you, we’ll work with you,’ and that’s all it took,” said Mayor Richard Riordan who came with Nancy Daly.

After joking with Palmese that he nearly had to jump the wall to get into the party, His Honor added, “I can’t think of anybody I’d rather be with tonight . . . other than Tony Bennett.”

As the evening wore on, more celebs swelled the ranks--Coolio, Counting Crows, Peter Gabriel, Martina Navratilova. Soaking up flash units were Grammy winners Salt-N-Pepa, Trisha Yearwood and Vince Gill, who took the award for best male country vocal performance.

Chart-buster Lisa Loeb, wandering the crowd in her trademark specs, gave this advice for creating order within the award-inspired chaos. “One, look for the food,” she said. “Two, look for your friends. Three, look for the dessert and four, look for the champagne.”

And which step was she on? “Um, I’m actually looking for the restroom.”