A Mediterranean Motif, Asian Food and Novice Execs

The Scene: MCA’s fiesta at the Four Seasons. This is the old company with new management, new execs and, hopefully, a new dawn about to break. “They’ve got a lot to prove and everybody on board who could prove it,” said one industry savant.

The Venue: The party sprawled from the hotel’s gardens, which were covered in a clear-walled tent and done in a Mediterranean motif, to den-sized rooms offering dim sum and Thai food, plus a salon with cappuccino and desserts, and finally a ballroom overhauled as a speak-easy with fabric-draped walls, mood lights and a seven-piece band backing torch singer Indeya. Record producer David Was surveyed the opulence, then remarked: “Chilled crustaceans and chicks in low-cut gowns: That’s what the Grammys are all about.”

Who Was There: Among the 1,400 guests were Vince Gill, the Mavericks, Liza Minnelli, Ted Field, Jimmy Iovine, Peter Gabriel, Trisha Yearwood, Tupac Shakur, Mary J. Blige, Primus, Taylor Hackford, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Timothy Hutton, Norm Nixon, Paula Abdul, John and Shana Silva, Jim Belushi and MCA execs Zack Horowitz, Jay Boberg, John Alexander and Mel Lewinter.

How Music Execs Are Driven Crazy: “I used to have an Egyptian punk band,” said a young woman named Ainjel Emme who wore impressive nose and eyebrow piercings, “but then we got sick of each other.”

Local Wisdom: “It’s a town of middlemen,” said a producer. “On a night like this, you really see how fat the middle is.”

Fashion Advice: Pepa, of Salt-N-Pepa, on being elegantly conspicuous--”Walk in late. Make an entrance. Wear a lime green Dolce & Gabbana pantsuit. And be sure to be the first one up for the standing ovations.”

Observed: The arrival of Death Row Records’ entourage of gangsta rappers lead one wit to quip, “If you don’t set off the metal detectors, you can’t get into the VIP room.”