In Hollywood East, It’s a Wrap : Celebrities. An all-star cast steps up the pace of summer partying in the Hamptons as the police enforce curfews and count heads.

The Hamptons used to be simply an East Coast summer resort where the Bouviers and the Vanderbilts went to get away from it all. Not anymore.

The Hamptons are the East Coast Hollywood, or what you might call Hamptonwood, boasting a residential all-star cast that includes Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Billy Joel, Christie Brinkley, Chevy Chase, Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg. And in the summer, the list of names gets much longer, this year including everyone from Robert De Niro to Sandra Bullock.

Spielberg played host to the ultimate Hamptons celebs: President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who made their second trip to the enclave. Fashion designer Vera Wang and Jane Rosenthal, head of De Niro’s Tribeca Films, gave Clinton fund-raisers, and longtime Clinton friends Allan and Susan Patricof gave a private party whose guest list included De Niro, rockers Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, model Stephanie Seymour and film producer Peter Brant.

But the Hamptons is the kind of scene where Mary J. Blige performs at a polo match. The usual New York-L.A. premiere party travels to the Hamptons for the summer: MGM had a Southampton premiere of “The Thomas Crown Affair” that Rene Russo, Pierce Brosnan, Denis Leary and newlywed DKNY models Esther Canadas and Mark Vindaloo attended. HBO threw a second-season premiere party for its series “Sex in the City” that drew Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Chris Noth and Kim Cattrall.

Entertainment lawyer Alan Grubman’s barbecue attracted Martha Stewart, Sony Records’ Tommy Mottola, Barry Diller, Calvin Klein, actor Ron Silver and TV host Regis Philbin.

“The party scene in the Hamptons is a mixture of rich or poor, black or white, it’s the old guard mixing with the new guard,” says Jason Binn, publisher of Hamptons magazine.

It’s about the celebrity crowd that wants to be in society and the society crowd that wants to be with celebrities.

“This was the summer of young people with new money and old money looking for something new,” says Andre Harrell, president of Sean “Puffy” Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment.

“Everyone is trying to outdo each other’s event, and at the end of the summer you need a vacation from the Hamptons,” says Broadway producer Marty Richards (“Chicago”), who threw a season-ending labor day party Saturday night.

This year, it all started the Fourth of July weekend at the home of Combs, whose party is the closest thing to a night at Studio 54 or the Playboy Mansion. A strict 200-person guest list was in effect after the city of East Hampton let it be known it wasn’t happy with last year’s 300 guests.

It wasn’t the first time the city had frowned on a big industry bash. Last summer Ted Field of Interscope Entertainment threw his annual party at his East Hampton home and had it shut down around midnight just as it was starting to take off. “The rules are too strict when you want to throw a party at your own home in this area,” says Field. “I’m giving my Hamptons party a rest for the next two summers.”

So is Combs. His Labor Day weekend “White Party” is his last at his East Hampton home. (The party’s motif is that all guests must wear white; last year, Revlon magnate Ron Perelman and actress-director Penny Marshall had to return home to change to get in.)

While organizing this year’s party, he was told by the East Hampton Town Board to give it a rest this year. “I’ll sue,” says Combs. The following day the town changed its mind, and with some revisions in the time and guest list, Combs won.

A similar situation happened the night hip-hop artists Jay-Z and Damon Dash held a Fourth of July barbecue at a mansion they rented for the month. They didn’t have the right permits needed for the number of invited guests, so the party, which attracted rappers Lil’ Kim and Q-Tip, actors Adrien Brody and Sandra Bullock as well as Ivana Trump, was closed down early by police.

Bullock, who was taking the night off from filming her next movie, “28 Days,” decided to continue the party at the nightspot Jet East in Southampton. The evening turned out to be the most impromptu of the summer. Bullock danced and mingled with the crowd.

Due to the strict party curfews in the Hamptons, most people continue their soirees at one of the many nightspots like Jet East, Conscience Point or Life at Tavern, which was better after 3 a.m. This summer saw adoption of the bottle service concept, which originated on the French Rivera, making such gatherings more expensive than ever. Guests who pass the velvet ropes are asked if they have a reservation for a table, where they are required to order one or two bottles of liquor, which cost a minimum of $250.

For that price you may spot the occasional celebrity like “Rush Hour” director Brett Ratner, Sarah Jessica Parker, actor Stephen Dorff and singer Michael Bolton in one of the VIP rooms. This year there were more events, sometimes three or four different parties a night.

“This was the most frantic summer, it had this air of desperation. The shallow will shift back to New York after Labor Day and the year-round residents will go back to their core group for the winter,” says Steven Gaines, who wrote the 1998 tell-all book about the Hamptons, “Philistines at the Hedgerow.”

Gaines started a new project this summer: his Web site, https://www.ihamptons.com.