Dance-Floor Delirium With the Puffster

Sean “Puffy” Combs hosted a bash for a few hundred friends at Atlas Supper Club to celebrate his label’s first R&B; release, Carl Thomas’ album “Emotional,” and I am happy to report there was no gunplay at the Bad Boy Records party.

The Puffster, minus girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, was an incomparable host. (Perhaps she was busy going over testimony with Johnnie Cochran for Combs’ upcoming gun possession trial.) “Everybody, get your drink on!” he said, before wading into the crowd to shake hands. “We love y’all in L.A.”

Magic Johnson was in a corner moving to the music (I wonder if he gets tired of towering over everyone), and the red-hot Macy Gray was trying her best to blend into the crowd, which was showing plenty of skin. Carmen Electra was celebrating her 28th birthday with Jay Z, Heavy D and friends. The drinks of choice were cognac in snifters or champagne . . . straight out of the bottle.

Dressed in a white suit, similar to the one he wore to the Grammys, Puffy was fine.

I asked if he was surprised that his clothing label, Sean Jean, was nominated for a Perry Ellis menswear award by the New York-based Council of Fashion Designers of America.

“First, you have to dance with me,” he said smoothly, throwing his arms in the air and his hips toward me.

All of a sudden, my body went rigid, and I was unable to even sway. Most people get weak in the knees when they are nervous. Mine locked up. Just my luck.

Seeing he was not getting anywhere on the dance floor with the rhythm-challenged reporter in front of him, Puffy answered: “I’m really excited to be recognized after our first year. People are starting to realize we are not just a hip-hop line and that I’m a real designer.”

Before I could ask him about Lopez, the trial or his plans for the weekend, he was swept away by a gyrating girl in leather pants and a halter top. Another nymph joined them, making a Puffy sandwich on the dance floor.

Oh, man . . . that could have been me!

*

I had one of those whatchamacallit moments the other day when I told my boyfriend, Adam, that I picked up a copy of Oprah’s new magazine.

“Oh?” he said.

“Yeah, O,” I said. We burst out laughing.

Anyway, it’s official. Oprah is taking over the world (if Puffy doesn’t first). She insists O is not a run-of-the-mill fashion mag but a “personal growth guide.”

“You always have the potential to be better,” she writes in her first editorial. “That, as I see it, is one of the purposes of your life.”

In case her book club, TV show and magazine have not helped us enough, she’s going on tour. “Oprah’s Personal Growth Summit” will blow into L.A. June 29. (Tickets go on sale May 1 through Ticketmaster.)

OK, everyone, take a deep breath, touch your finger to your thumb with your palms up and repeat after me: “O.”

*

Tony Danza update: Tracy Shaffer, the actor’s publicist, said Danza “is peripherally aware” of graffiti around town that reads: “No food. Tony Danza will pay” but that he has not actually seen it. He would love to know what it’s all about, she said.

After I queried readers, “Knight Dreamer” e-mailed to claim responsibility: “I can’t stand the unbearable jerk! Who thinks he has talent. That’s why he hasn’t had a job for so long . . . so, broke (he has no food) and he will pay (for someone to give him a job).”

Well, Shaffer has news for Knight Dreamer: In the last year, Danza has had roles in two Broadway shows, “View From a Bridge” and “The Iceman Cometh,” has filmed a pilot for CBS and was nominated for his first Emmy for a four-episode guest spot on “The Practice.” His song-and-dance show, “Feinstein’s at the Regency,” opens in New York for two weeks on Tuesday.

Dream on, Knight Dreamer.

Booth Moore can reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.