Fashionable Way to Turn 50

Diane Von Furstenberg has marked her first half-century on the planet with a new memoir, “Diane: A Signature Life” (Simon & Schuster), and a posse of her high-powered friends converged at West Hollywood’s Book Soup Bistro recently to celebrate the wrap of the fashion designer’s literary launch.

Oh, yes. When party host and close pal Barry Diller beckons, Hollywood listens. Flute clinkers included David Geffen, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.

The elegant party girl recommends reaching 50 to children of all ages. On good days, that is. “It just sounds so big,” Von Furstenberg says. “I was ill a few years ago, and I remember saying one day, ‘Oh my God, 46 is so old.’ And the next, ’46 is so young.’ ”

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Shame on us. What’s up with a San Francisco magazine beating Angelenos to the punch by hosting an event at a fabulous new (old) party venue in Silver Lake? The Spanish Mission Paramour was built for silent-film star Antonio Moreno and later spent a quieter spell as a Catholic girls’ school. Thank God, the place is safe for champagne drinkers again (who can still duck into the chapel if they start to see double).

Anyway, at Wired magazine’s recent bash honoring November’s special issue (celebrating the “Wired 25” dreamers, inventors and mavericks), those nutty cyberjournalists opted for a curious celeb speaker--the incredibly low-tech monologuist Spalding Gray.

“We don’t have a TV,” Gray said. “I have a rotary phone. We watch the fire at night.” Hey, just as long as he still reads the paper. Hear all about Gray’s day as a practicing Luddite when he finishes his 15th monologue, “Morning, Noon & Night.”

And one tip--you might want to steer clear of Gray if you happen to spot him out & about. Or so we learned when the tech-head audience asked for an update on his ailing left eye, the subject of another Gray monologue.

“I favor my right eye. With my left eye, there’s no detail there at all,” he said and paused. “But I still drive.”

Out & About runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Page 2.