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Plimpton’s Cute, Posey’s Ragged, and Price’s Scared

Give us Prosecco, and we’ll tell her we love her.Photo: Getty Images

It’s not often that we completely geek out for a celebrity, but when it happens, it’s generally only because we bump into someone from an Aaron Spelling drama and become embarrassingly unable to contain ourselves (like when we saw Nat From the Peach Pit at our grocery store and called out to him in the parking lot, which is practically against the law in California). Tragically, after a bottle of complimentary Prosecco at Cynthia Rowley’s show on Thursday, one such moment occurred in which our cool vanished like the Great Wall of China under David Copperfield’s mischievous hand.

Lindsay Price, best known as the woman who made an honest dude out of Steve Sanders on Beverly Hills, 90210, was on hand to promote her new series Lipstick Jungle — er, we mean, to absorb the wonders of Rowley’s fall 2008 line — and the bubbly practically forced us toward her at the end of the show so we could let her know just how seminal her work has been in our lives. “Excuse me,” one of us said. “But we just wrote a book while watching the entire run of 90210 on cable, and we just have to say, we love you.” The other waved alarmingly nerdily — one of those really awful, awkward finger-waggling gestures — and said, “No, for real, we love you! We do!” We didn’t even know we felt that strongly. “Wow,” Lindsay said, laughing with a mixture of disbelief, amusement, and eagerness to escape The Crazy. “That’s … so sweet. That’s … yeah.” We had assumed she’d enjoy knowing she’s appreciated, but perhaps she was just startled because no one’s ever lavished this particular compliment on her before. Sounds impossible to us, but then again, Steve Sanders was the only character on that show who wasn’t a self-righteous ass by the end, so perhaps we were just overly invested. Perhaps.

Price sat next to castmate Kim Raver, who brought her husband to the show but seemed sort of annoyed every time he tried to engage her. Early in the presentation he broke from rubbing her to point at a model; she smacked down his hand. He immediately did it again, and she slapped his finger down again. Not to be deterred, he tried a third time and she allowed that to be the charm, but seemed tight-lipped and unamused when he occasionally whispered commentary into her ear. Maybe she just didn’t want to hear a discourse on the mighty nipple, which felt like Rowley’s most-used accessory on the runway.

Nearby sat Tatum O’Neal, whom we almost didn’t recognize, and Aisha Tyler — sans both gum and hot date. Rowley mainstay Karen Duffy enjoyed a front-row spot at the end of the runway, and actress Amy Smart — who admitted to having met Rowley only yesterday — appeared in a too long black satin shift that made her look like a bridesmaid at a necrophiliac wedding. She should’ve done a little more bonding before choosing her wardrobe. Alan Cumming, clad in glasses eerily reminiscent of Harry Potter, spent almost the entire preshow in intimate conversation with Martha Plimpton, who is both more pixielike and more attractive than anyone’s ever given her credit for in recent years.

But the most amusing attendee was Parker Posey, who — let’s be honest — looked way too haggard for a woman we overheard stating she’s off work until April. (In the Ex-Girlfriends of Ryan Adams Stakes, Posey so far is losing to resplendent redhead Jessica Joffe, who might be more pompous but also looks fantastic.) “I’ve GOT to sit down before I start sweating,” Parker whined after a five-minute conversation with a pal. But she was waylaid by an eager videographer desperate for an interview. “We can talk about anything. What do you want to talk about?” he asked. Pause. “Nothing,” she yawned. Undaunted, he tried to get her to handicap the Best Actress race for Oscar. “Who’s even nominated?” she frowned. “Cate Blanchett,” he replied. “Just say ‘Cate Blanchett.’ It’s always a safe guess.” Parker rolled her eyes and then brightened. “You know who was amazing?” she gushed. “Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart, but she was TOTALLY SNUBBED!” Then she drifted back to her seat on Cumming’s other side, where we can only imagine what divine insanity transpired. We hope it was a conversation about how awesome Lindsay Price was on 90210, but that’s probably unlikely, right? —The Fug Girls

Watch a slideshow of the Cynthia Rowley collection.
Browse photos of front row and backstage at Cynthia Rowley.

Plimpton’s Cute, Posey’s Ragged, and Price’s Scared