Alan Cumming

Last night’s Calvin Klein 40th Anniversary party was held in a John Pawson-designed, temporary structure on 10th Avenue and 30th Street built specifically for the event.

Adjacent to the space—fittingly, it seemed to be constructed from the same building material used to turn Manhattan living rooms into second bedrooms—was the new Highline Park, which guests were invited to tour during the party (the park is not yet open to the public).

Once inside, the place looked something like a very glamorous high school quad—a slate-colored staircase ran the width of the building, most of which was occupied by seated cliques of attendees sipping drinks and appraising the entryway.  read more »

DENVER—"There's my girl!" Chevy Chase bellowed as Madeline Albright walked into the backroom of the Vanity Fair-Google party on Thursday, August 28. The towering comedian, who was clad in a blazer, T-shirt and jeans, bent down to embrace his old friend. They discussed plans to get together—Mr. Chase promising an e-mail from "his people"—mugged for the cameras, and agreed that Barack Obama had nailed his speech. "If we're seen together, you're in trouble," joked the funnyman.

After a hearty laugh, conversation returned to the speech. Ms. Albright said that while the presidential candidate is incredibly charming in person, she was also pleased with the "diplomacy" of the speech.  read more »

Last night the much-discussed Hollywood contingent here in Denver, who have been lending their "visibility" to myriad events and causes all over town, congregated in the V.I.P. section of the Black Eyed Peas concert. Members of the Creative Coalition's hard-working band of entertainers—Alan Cumming, Tim Daly, Anne Hathaway, Spike Lee, Barry Levinson, Josh Lucas, Matthew Modine, Susan Sarandon—were joined by various showbiz colleagues including Jessica Alba and Hayden Panettiere in the balcony area at the Fillmore Auditorium, as Fergie & Co. shook their rumps on stage below.

Meanwhile, local nightclub impresario Jesse Morreale wondered if the glamorous crowd would have enough energy to return for another after after party at the Rockbar.  read more »

Transom correspondent Spencer Morgan is in Denver this week, talking his way into all sorts of political-slash-celebrity bashes. At the Creative Coalition event on Monday evening, he cornered Josh Lucas, Alan Cumming and the West Wing's Richard Schiff.

Meanwhile, in the Hamptons, George Gurley sunned his buns and found Russell Simmons, Stephanie Wei and Liam McMullan hanging out at an American Red Cross party at the estate where Mariah Carey got married a couple months ago. The songbird was nowhere in sight, but Ms. Wei and Mr. McMullan were more than happy to share their thoughts on the summer. "The Hamptons are like Disney World!" sniffed Ms. Wei.

Also: Meredith Bryan chats with model-socialite Elettra Wiedemann (daughter of Isabella Rossellini) about her new T-shirt line, whose proceeds go to help hospitals in Burundi, and Jonathan Liu thinks he may have found the real Gossip Girl—and she's wearing teal velour.

DENVER—“I think the most interesting thing I’ve seen so far is all the secret deals that have been going on,” said the actor Josh Lucas at the Going Green event hosted by Bank of America on Monday night. The American Psycho star is at the Democratic National Convention, making the rounds of the Creative Coalition circuit of events. “It’s been happening everywhere. ‘I’ll give you two tickets to the J.Lo party, you give me two tickets to see Fergie on Thursday.’ It’s been happening everywhere. It’s like serious drug dealing going on.”

Earlier that day, Mr. Lucas had been in an SUV heading to one of the many events sponsored by the  read more »

Now that we're into the second day of the Democratic National Convention, it's time for a poll of all that "celebrity power" that was supposed to follow Barack Obama to Denver.

While Paris Hilton has not shown up yet (much to the disappointment of John McCain supporters), here are some noteworthy names that attended events during the first day of the convention as put together by Associated Press, with a little additional research by the Daily Transom:

Danny Glover showed up at the Creative Coalition event wearing a Martin Luther King Jr. T-shirt under his blazer.  read more »

Following his role as Trigorin in Classic Stage Company's The Seagull, Alan Cumming will open the Lincoln Center Festival on July 2, starring in Euripides’s Bacchae by the National Theater of Scotland. The festival will end July 27 with the Gate Theater of Dublin’s Gate/Beckett, three one-man dramas by Beckett that were not originally conceived for the theater: Liam Neeson is in Eh Joe (a television work from 1965), Barry McGovern stars in I’ll Go On (adapted from three novels), and Ralph Fiennes is in First Love (a novella), according to the New York Times. Damon Albarn, leader of the rock bands Blur and Gorillaz, will be at Avery Fisher Hall on July 12 with the Honest Jon’s Revue, featuring musicians from Mr. Albarn’s record label. Tickets go on sale Friday.

Alan Cumming was excited to play a “real man” in the Classic Stage Company’s production of Chekov’s The Seagull. Mr. Cumming, the Tony Award-winning Scot with saucer-size blue eyes and a sly grin, recently played Dorothy’s scarecrow Glitch in the TV miniseries Tin Man and, um, a spacey scientist called Fegan Floop in those Spy Kids movies. (He also had a delightfully sleazy role as a gay nightlife impresario on The L Word.) But in The Seagull, he appears as Trigorin, a broody famous writer who woos Dianne Wiest’s character Arkadina and seduces a budding actress (played by Kelli Garner). “He just seems like a real man,” Mr. Cumming said over the phone, walking to Prana Power Yoga for his regular stretch after a recent play rehearsal. “He’s got everything, but he wants to destroy it. I’ve never played anyone like him.”  read more »

Tony Award winner Alan Cumming will play Trigorin, the lover to Dianne Wiest's magnetic actress, Arkadina, in Anton Chekhov's 1896 play, The Seagull, at Classic Stage Company (136 East 13th Street). It is to be directed by Viacheslav Dolgachev, artistic director of the Moscow New Drama Theatre. Previews begin on Feb. 20, with opening night set for March 13.  read more »

Last night, Milanese fashion label Costume National hosted a party in their Soho boutique commemorating 21 years in the industry. To toast the milestone, the brand known for super-slim-fitting clothes—à la Hedi Slimane—released a weighty book, Costume National: 21 (Assouline). While the Misshapes provided the background tunes for the relatively small gathering, a few guests made themselves cozy by curling up on the store’s chaise lounges, where they sipped red wine and martinis. Never mind all the blaring overhead lights—everyone looked fab, darling.

“I’d be a liar if I told you how,” said actor Willem Dafoe, responding to The Daily Transom’s question about how the brand seemingly attracts an ever-younger and hipper clutch of loyalists each season. “I don’t know about the fashion world, how it really works,” he admitted, speaking in stilted clauses like Christopher Walken in a mob flick.

Continue reading after the jump.  read more »

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At the movies, incomprehensible gibberish has become a way