At midnight, all eyes turn to New York, to countdowns at Times Square or at the Janet Jackson concert at Madison Square Garden on MTV. The black-leather and navel-ring set will preen at The Tunnel, a newly reopened nightclub housed in a disused railroad passage. In Newark, N.J., a zircon-encrusted live audience will crowd the pay-per-view Miss Howard Stern Pageant to watch a panel of distinguished judges–including Heidi Fleiss, John Wayne Bobbitt and, via a jail-cell TV hookup, Joey Buttafuoco–award the coveted title.
East Coast stargazers should head for Miami Beach. You can get a jump on your hangover at the Dec. 29 block-party opening of designer Gianni Versace’s boutique. (A-listers like Naomi Campbell and Gloria Estefan will strap on the feedbag at the chic Impala Hotel.) On the 31st, Madonna welcomes some 40 friends to her mansion, as she did last year. Then, it was a foodless fiesta; this year she’s hired restaurateur Larry Forgione to serve “indigenous ingredients in a creative way.”
Those into cerebral partying will join Bill and Hillary Clinton at the Renaissance Weekend in Hilton Head Island, S.C., a think-tank-cum-encounter-group. About 325 families are invited to sit through seminars like “Reinventing Government” and “What I’ve Learned About Love.” No kidding.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra plans a concert and murder mystery. Guests and staff play sleuth to tunes like “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.” And Texans apparently love to play dress-up. At Houston’s big event, the MAS*H Bash to benefit the Red Cross, socialites will dress as army doctors and drink martinis from IV bottles. San Franciscans will be frolicking in Union Square at midnight or taking in the James Brown show at the Fairmont Hotel.
Elsewhere out West, whatever celebs are left in Los Angeles may be at the Barry Manilow concert at the Universal Amphitheater, private party for 300 backstage to follow. The rest will be in Colorado or Nevada. Barbra Streisand’s concert at Las Vegas’s MGM Grand Hotel is shaping up as a megaevent. With Frank Sinatra also playing on the premises that night, all are hoping the two will do a duet.
After last year’s boycott over gay rights, stars are once again jetting to Colorado with heads held high. In urbane Telluride–seasonal home to the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Daryl Hannah and Oliver Stone–intimate house parties are Planned. Aspen is bash city. Tycoons will gather at oil billionaire David Koch’s place; perennials like Cher and Dudley Moore will hang their pricey parkas at the Caribou Club (23 varieties of champagne every night!). Some 200 glitterati will converge at Hollywood he-man Marvin Davis’s fete at the Little Nell Hotel. Since Ivana’s in town, most predict that newlyweds Donald and Marla will have the taste to honeymoon elsewhere. Don’t be so sure.
