CLOSE-UP : Miss Nomer

The Cigarette Girl came to the celeb-heavy party decked out, as usual, in high heels, corset, cape, feather boa and a three-foot-tall, jewel-studded feather headdress (prompting writer Tama Janowitz to ask: “How many birds did you have to kill for that outfit?”) Toting a tray slung low at her hips, the Cigarette Girl, a.k.a. Veronica Bach, is the party’s visual center. Everywhere, heads swivel to look. “Men stand back,” says Bach, “and women come up and touch the outfit.”

Hired by party planners to pass out goodies, Bach always makes a grand entrance, whether descending a staircase at a birthday party for Bruce Willis or appearing on Oscar night at Residuals, a North Hollywood actors’ hangout. Residuals owner Craig Tennis says that “Bach has a ‘dead-stop traffic’ look. It’s like a time warp, like being at the Copacabana.” Says Bach: “The costume is about happier times; it’s about having fun.”

Bach, an aspiring actress (she’s had small parts on “One Life To Live” and “Kate & Allie”), took on the role of Cigarette Girl a few years back when a party planner in New York asked her to dress up as one for an event. Since then, she’s lit up scores of parties on both coasts, handing out whatever items her clients want, from condoms for AIDS Project Los Angeles events to French candies at a Pierre Cardin fete.

It’s been her most successful role, though it’s not without its irony: The Cigarette Girl won’t hand out cigarettes. “I’m allergic to smoke,” Bach says, “and don’t like being around it. Cigarette smoke kills, and I don’t want to hurt people.”