Ghoulishly Happenin’

“That’s so Sarah Jessica,” a woman exclaimed, picking up a treacherous-looking spiky metal handbag at David Keeps’ Shop Chuey gallery in Chinatown Saturday night.

“As if it was an adjective,” said Keeps, with a grin.

The party was for Niagara, a Detroit-based pop artist whose show includes paintings, silk screens, T-shirts, purses, martini glasses, towels and other products. (Keeps thinks Niagara could become a “rock ‘n’ roll Martha Stewart.”)

Niagara, in black leggings, big hair and painted-on lashes--Morticia Addams meets Nico--stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by an adoring crowd. “Thank you for coming to L.A.,” gushed 32-year-old Jon Halperin. His companion, Taraneh Pezeshk, 20, asked Niagara to sign a little ceramic ashtray she’d just bought. “I was so excited when I heard she was coming,” Pezeshk said. She turned to Niagara. “I love that,” she said, pointing to a crowd favorite, a print of a gun-toting woman with the inscription “Geisha This.”

A girl in a “Free Winona” T-shirt admired a dress with the text, “I’m not that L.A.” while nearby, a couple paused in front of a glass box containing a metal handbag decorated with a syringe behind a clear panel. (The other side of the purse said: “Break in case of emergency.”) “Isn’t this something?” a man exclaimed.

When a reporter talked to some guests, Niagara interrupted: “Hey! This story is about me,” before walking outside to talk to artist Mike Kelley. (The two were bandmates in “Destroy All Monsters,” a proto-punk mid-’70s band. Niagara sang, Kelley drummed.) “The band was really an art thing,” Kelley said. “ ‘cause we were so good-looking. A human trash pile.”

“That’s a good name for a band,” replied Niagara as the DJ began playing their old music. “This is us; we sound plenty good,” Kelley said.

Designer Monah Li stopped by to say hi. Actor Josh Leonard and artist Kenny Scharf mingled in the crowd. Keeps gave his verdict on the turnout: “Ghouls and hipsters.”

Drawing a Crowd

“I’m big with grandmas,” said John McEnroe, sitting at the back of Book Soup on Sunset Boulevard. The 43-year-old McEnroe was hawking his biography, “You Cannot Be Serious,” and Saturday, about 50 people had lined up to catch a glimpse of everyone’s favorite middle-aged bad boy.

A local high-school tennis coach was in awe. “There’ll never be another John McEnroe,” he sighed. A 40-ish unathletic-looking woman asked McEnroe to sign the book, “From one great tennis player to another.” (He did. And graciously.)

He mentioned that a couple of older women had driven all the way from Fresno just to see him. “That’s my biggest support group--women in their 70s.”

McEnroe said he had taken a hard look at himself while writing with collaborator James Kaplan. “It’s not a fluffy type of portrayal, but warts and all, the bad and the ugly,” he said. “It’s not about how great I am.”

Everyone already knows that.

John DiCrosta, 39, a fan for 27 years, complimented the tennis pro on the choice of cover for the book--a 1984 Nike ad with McEnroe as James Dean. “He was the rebel with a cause,” DiCrosta said, as he stood on the sidewalk clutching his autographed copy. “If he was whining, he always had the game to back it up.” After 45 minutes, the crowd was thinning. But McEnroe would not give up: “Another one. I have a good feeling there’s going to be another one.” Sure enough, a man walked by and McEnroe persuaded him to buy a copy. “See, this is what happens when you persevere,” he said. “It’s like a fifth set of tennis.”

Quote/Unquote

“You get to a point where you’re crying yourself to sleep at night.... I feel like I’m in the middle of a soap opera. I honestly know what it’s like to have a broken heart now.”--’N Sync’s Justin Timberlake in the June 24 issue of People magazine on his breakup with Britney Spears.

City of Angles runs Tuesday through Friday. E-mail: angles @latimes.com.