GIRL TALK: Los Angeles Fashion Week kicked off, naturally, with a celebrity-hosted party, Bebe Sport's bash for spokesmodel Eva Longoria at Skybar Wednesday night. Known more for the skivvies she wears on "Desperate Housewives" than for sweating it out at the gym, the petite actress turned out for the obligatory public appearance, saying, "It's an athletic line, so it's a really good fit for me." Longoria kept her composure in the increasingly crowded VIP area while her handlers grew more and more agitated, hissing orders to underlings and warding off would-be well-wishers who came to gawk at her and new mom Marcia Cross, Katherine McPhee and Sanaa Lathan.

Much more relaxed and less crowded was Corey Lynn Calter's Lucky-sponsored cocktail party downtown at Marvimon House the next night. Christina Ricci, Nora Zehetner, Maggie Grace and Rachael Leigh Cook sipped Cosmopolitans in the brick courtyard, checking out each other's dresses. Glancing around the space, Grace said, "I thought wearing boots without tights would be somewhat of a risk, but I didn't want to look like everyone else." Case in point: Behind her, another PYT sported the same frock — with black tights. "Thank goodness I didn't wear them," she said. "I don't usually do the L.A. fashion show thing, but I know Corey from Pilates class and I love her clothes," said Ricci. Meanwhile, front-row regular Anthony Kiedis was busy telling a friend about singer Mickey Avalon, the opening act for his band Red Hot Chili Peppers. "He's got these girls who walk on stage in that horse-like prancing that runway models do — but they're mocking it. It's pretty cool."


DEVIOUS DOPPELGANGERS?: If Internet "It" girl and 17-year-old Nylon columnist Cory Kennedy looks familiar to a certain generation of partygoers, could it be because of her eerie resemblance to another precocious party-lover, Bijou Phillips, now 26? A front-row guest at Corey Lynn Calter's fashion show Thursday night, Kennedy has found notoriety through her MySpace page and her underage exploits (such as blogging from a Diddy party and hanging out with Vincent Gallo). That behavior may parallel some of Phillips' wild-child days in the mid-Nineties, which include escapades of table-dancing at Moomba, dating older rockers (former Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando) and allegedly snipping off a suitor's fingers with a cigar cutter at a club. Let's hope Los Angeles' no-smoking rule eliminates that particular bit of history repeating itself.



For complete coverage, see WWD.com.