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PARKER: Vanity Fair puts on the swank

Last night party draws a host of DNC celebs

By Penny Parker, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 29, 2008 at 8:51 p.m.

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Spike Lee was just one of the stars of Hollywood who came to Denver during the convention. Above, he sits and waits for Barack Obama's speech at Invesco Field at Mile High.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol / The Rocky

Spike Lee was just one of the stars of Hollywood who came to Denver during the convention. Above, he sits and waits for Barack Obama's speech at Invesco Field at Mile High.

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Vanity Fair, the magazine known for throwing the hottest Oscars after-party, took its show on the road for the final night of the DNC.

Each room in the 24,000-square-foot Exdo Event Center, 1399 35th St., was decked out in a different theme for Thursday's event. The main area was divided into four rooms representing the elements: fire, sky, water and earth, with food and decor befitting each element.

At earth, I ran into Craig Newmark, the Craig of craigslist. Newmark said he was most enamored of the bloggers tent outside of the Pepsi Center.

"The bloggers will play out a historic role that we don't even know how yet," he said.

Newmark was slightly more enamored of the prairie dog photos he captured from a field behind his Westminster hotel.

Also seen at the swanky soiree: Fran Drescher, Alan Cumming, Dana Delany, John Kerry, Jamie Foxx, Tim Daly, Cameron Crowe, Taye Diggs, Chevy Chase, Madeline Albright, Anderson Cooper, Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, Mad Men's Jon Hamm and NBC's Dan Abrams.

HOTTEST SPOT: As I said all along, the Westin Tabor Center served as home base to the Obama and Biden families during the DNC.

GM Tom Curley said in a statement on Friday after their departures:

"We were honored to serve the Obama and Biden families and to be their home away from home for this exciting week. The DNC was a unique experience for our entire team, and I am extremely proud of all our hotel associates for the job they did working side by side with the Obama campaign staff, the Secret Service and the local law enforcement agencies."

My only dealings with local law enforcement and Secret Service was when Tobie Orr and I were trying to get into The Palm while the crowd was stationed on the west side of Lawrence and the motorcade filled the entry way to the Westin on Thursday.

The crowd was waiting to catch a glimpse of Barack Obama, and the cops and Secret Service were doing their level best to keep the rest of us out of their way. "Are you part of the motorcade?" one SS agent barked at us. If only I had said, "Why, yes." We explained that we were headed to The Palm, then were ordered to hurry the heck up.

I was told, FYI, that that was a decoy and Obama had slipped out the back. Oh well, so much for bossy officials.

SUBURBAN SPIKE? Filmmaker Spike Lee and about 20 members of his entourage took the 'burbs by surprise Thursday night by showing up on the rooftop patio of LoDo's Bar and Grill in Highlands Ranch.

"They wanted to get out of downtown and were staying in Parker," my spy said. "They wanted some place more chill, so they hung out on LoDo's rooftop patio and stayed until closing. They were all very cool."

THE SEEN: Access Hollywood's hottie Maria Menounos dining with friends at Rioja Thursday night after a long week of shooting the DNC. Jon Stewart ordering a quarter pound char dog with chili and cheese at Mustard's Last Stand near DU.

EAVESDROPPING on a woman at a DNC party: "You really need a cocktail. You're going to have a horrible time if you're sober."

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail parkerp@RockyMountainNews.com.