Just before midnight, Chelsea Clinton arrived with a clutch of friends. They were whisked into a side hallway for a private conversation with Kevin Costner. "Are you sure you want to go down there?" he asked, referring to the crowded party floor. "It's rough down there. We went through the kitchen. It's safer and the food is warm."

"Actually," said Chelsea, "I think we want to go to the Rock the Vote party."

Costner then conducted a fatherly interview with the first daughter about her college choices.

In a beige suit and matching heels, she smiled and graciously answered each query while two of her friends exchanged a high-five.

Instead of bringing girlfriend Carolyn Bessette, George Editor in Chief John Kennedy Jr. brought his cousin William Kennedy Smith, a doctor at a veterans hospital here. Smith said he found medicine rewarding and had no plans to run for local alderman.

Many of the hundreds milling around art treasures sipped Campari and gin and looked for celebrities. Oprah was there, along with Bianca Jagger and Sen. Ted Kennedy.

But the magazine seemed to be creating a virtual party as well. Stuck off in a corner were four people dismissed as computer nerds. In fact, one of them was Billy Baldwin, carrying on a political discussion with visitors to George's Web site. His dialogue on-line with total strangers far surpassed the chat that guests had with celebs on-site.

Chicago Eight defendant Rennie Davis offered his view on being a guest at what was hyped as the biggest celebrity event of the Democratic convention: "I feel something very phenomenal happened in the Renaissance and it's happening now and it has to do with the bigness of life." Thank you, Rennie.

Asked what brought him to the party, columnist Mike Royko said, "A cab." (Last year Mike famously pleaded guilty to drunk driving charges.)

So many people wanted to come that the venue had to be changed to accommodate them. The entertainment was Poe, a singer so new and so hot no one has heard of her yet.

Moaned one organizer, "Robert J. Dole is about the only one who didn't call to come."