Niki Cheng and Shaokao Cheng at their Chelsea BoConcept store. (PMc)

The first time The Observer met Niki and Shaokao Cheng, it was July, during the opening night of Julio Gaggia’s art show. Mr. Gaggia, the boyfriend of the plastic surgeon Mark Warfel, was preparing his work “Living Art: Chelsea Boy Apartment,” during which he would live for five days as a window display model at the BoConcept furniture store on West 18th Street. He spent the week eating, sleeping, working—and performing other, less-mentionable activities—in a showroom that divided him from gawkers outside with a pane of glass.

While we lounged about on the display furniture, socialite photographer Patrick McMullan brought over a petite woman with short, pixie-cropped hair.

“Niki is one of the few Power Asians in New York society,” he loudly whispered, flourishing Ms. Cheng before us. She smiled shyly and posed for a photograph before excusing herself.

It would be two weeks before we realized that Ms. Cheng and her husband owned the store where we had dropped more than one canapé between the cushions of a $3,000 couch.

In fact, the couple owns all five locations of the Danish furniture store in New York City, and another two in New Jersey. But the stores themselves aren’t the reason Mr. McMullan calls the Chengs “Power Asians.” Rather, it’s the couple’s seemingly innate social instincts, their ability to leverage a fairly cookie-cutter, mid-market design base into a celebrity-filled social whirl. One might say “Only in America,” or (even worse) “Only in New York,” but this wouldn’t exactly cover it. There is a certain type that thrives in Manhattan no matter what they’re selling, no matter where they’re from, no matter how few resources they have upon arriving.

If Darwin were alive today and researching the survival of New York species, he would do well to study the Chengs. They’re not social climbers, per se, but social movers—Gladwellian “connectors” who know everyone from celebrities to the guys with the best drapes in the city. They share their knowledge strategically with other key additions to their ever-expanding Rolodex. For Niki Cheng, 39, and Shaokao Cheng, 41, life is not about climbing a ladder. It’s about traversing the monkey bars that crisscross Manhattan.

“Niki and Shaokao have a wonderfully progressive view of New York society,” said Village Voice scribe Michael Musto. “They mix into their social circle drag performers, club holdouts, top celebrities and the corporate crowd. It’s all-inclusive.”

Last Friday, we met Ms. Cheng for a second time—again at the Chelsea store. While we were there, actress Faye Dunaway came in and had what one could only call a fit of method acting for a sequel to Mommie Dearest. The recently evicted Academy Award winner had come in two weeks ago and bought a piece of art from the store, and now she wanted Ms. Cheng’s help on a new design project.

“I adore this store. I’ve raved about it; they really need to get some of this stuff to London,” Ms. Dunaway told The Observer. “They don’t have anything like it there now.”

Unable to find a confidentiality agreement for us to sign, she stormed out shortly thereafter. (We didn’t get to tell her that there are actually 13 BoConcept stores in the U.K.) It was the kind of scene that no one wants a reporter to witness while writing a profile, but if there was any bad blood, Ms. Cheng didn’t show it.

“Really, don’t be upset,” she told The Observer, rubbing our arm soothingly. “She’ll call back. Anyway, where were we?”

The Chengs are adept at pleasing their celebrity clients, a skill that has come in handy while designing P. Diddy’s home, Jay-Z’s office (bed included), Mary J. Blige’s entire apartment and Estelle’s closet. Susan Sarandon, Lil’ Kim and Patti LaBelle have also used the duo’s interior design services, and Ms. LaBelle sang at the BoConcept flagship store for a Lance Armstrong benefit. They count designers Vivienne Tam, Asher Levine and Zang Toi among their closest friends.

Not that everyone in their circle is a brand name. After Ms. Dunaway left, we rushed over to Astor Place, where BoConcept was sponsoring a tent for a Christmas tree stand run by a Brit named Marco Romero, his girlfriend and his brother. Though he runs a jewelry shop in Greece most of the year, Mr. Romero spends three weeks in December living out of a van selling holiday firs, and Ms. Cheng took it upon herself to decorate the tent that the trio takes shifts in.

Despite a franchise that traffics mainly in large-scale items, Ms. Cheng has a burgeoning obsession with “micro-units”—apartments that are between 250 and 300 square feet.

She wanted to prove that it was possible to use BoConcept furniture to decorate a very small space, and the Romeros provided her with an interesting challenge. Their tent was about seven feet long and seven wide, and the guys had to hunch over even when standing at its tallest point. Empty, the space seemed minuscule. But after Ms. Cheng put down an orange rug, a short shelving unit, an ottoman, a table and two chairs (as well as several well-placed decorative objects), the tent looked like a living room on the Lower East Side.

It’s never quite clear why Ms. Cheng decided to treat Romero and his tent like VIPs, but when it was revealed that a $3,000 lamp from the store broke on the ride over, Ms. Cheng gasped, then turned to Mr. Romero. “We’ll have to get you another one.”

Shaokao Cheng, Cienna Cheng and Niki Cheng. (Patrick McMullan)

Perhaps the random act of kindness was a viral marketing ploy, or stemmed from her own back story of struggle. (Probably a bit of both, if we’re being honest.) Niki Cheng—née Chong—was 25 when she moved to New York in the mid-’90s. She had an architecture degree from the University of Malaysia and a visa that was only good for one year. She was scraping by as a coat-check girl at Von when she met Mr. Cheng, a young banker whose father had given him a $90,000 loan to buy a single-bedroom apartment on Madison and 32nd.

The two were introduced by a restaurant co-worker of hers, and she began relocating her belongings to his apartment after the first date, she said. After a heady three months of dating, Mr. Cheng invited her to move into his place permanently. “He didn’t realize I already had,” she laughed.

But there was a catch: his apartment in Murray Hill would be undergoing extensive renovations for two years. They made a pact: if they could live through the 24 months without breaking up, they would become a pair in the business sense as well. Mr. Cheng also pushed his girlfriend to get a job at a furniture retail outlet that would give her a three-year visa.

One day while working there, Ms. Cheng came upon a catalog that featured a coffee table identical to the type she sold. Except that Ms. Cheng’s outlet was selling her model for $2,000, and this unheard of Danish brand was selling its at $299.

The brand was called BoConcept, and its international franchise operation was just getting off the ground. The Chengs approached the company with the idea of opening a New York store on Madison Avenue, but were turned down. BoConcept’s owners thought that space in the city was too expensive and there wouldn’t be enough room to show the big items. In their view, New Yorkers were not the target market for their oversized aesthetic.

But the duo were undeterred. “We had spent a year putting together research that proved that this store could be opened in New York,” Ms. Cheng said. They also showed their plans to a friend they met at Bungalow 8.

Their friend turned out to be designer Max Azria, who spent 10 minutes calculating the figures the couple had acquired during their research, sketched a number down on his pad, and told them to go for it.

In 2003, BoConcept agreed to let the couple try their hand at a New York flagship for $300,000. “We had everything to lose,” Ms. Cheng said. “They had nothing to lose.” Niki was 28 and Shaokao 30. They had recently gotten married in Hawaii after three years of dating because, as Mr. Cheng put it, “My wife went to three different psychics who told her that marriage would bring us good fortune.” Mr. Cheng and his father remortgaged their houses to pay for the initial investment.

They barely survived the first two years; they couldn’t figure out the computer systems, and there were issues with shipping. Their business model might not have actually worked had Mr. and Ms. Cheng not been so socially ambitious.

With his degree in engineering and hers in architecture, they were able to use their conjoined home-decorating skills for seemingly un-BoConcept-related purposes. When one big-name celebrity client called, nothing from BoConcept would fit in their closet, so Ms. Cheng happily suggested shelves and fixtures that did. Soon, the singer was calling the couple to redesign her living room, and this time they used items from their Dutch catalog.

The fact that BoConcept’s furniture design is somewhere between IKEA and West Elm is somewhat beside the point. What the Chengs have done was take a relatively bland furniture store from a not especially popular Danish franchise and parlay it into a personal calling card.

When the two aren’t peddling 12-piece sectionals, they can often be found at yoga or otherwise getting fit. At 12:54 a.m. Saturday morning, The Observer received a text from Niki, who asked if we wanted to attend a 10 a.m. Bikram session with her. (We pleaded out.)

Later that morning, Ms. Cheng was at the Madison store, dressed from head to toe in brown Juicy velour. She helped hunk real estate agent Ryan Serhant from Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing find items for his move from Pine Street to Chelsea ... which of course will be documented on Bravo’s website. After he left, Ms. Cheng rushed out herself for a private second yoga session of the day, but not before inviting The Observer over for a home-cooked meal the next night with “some friends” that included Ms. Tam and Mr. Musto.
http://youtu.be/JjI2SwrGnHs
A 2010 BoConcept commerical featuring Mr. Musto and Ms. Cheng.

In 2006, the Chengs moved with their baby daughter Cienna from Murray Hill to a $1.7 million, 2,200-square-foot artist’s loft with 12-foot-high ceilings on Fifth Avenue at 29th Street. This is the space, apparently, where you can keep two six-foot ottomans without it feeling cluttered.

Cienna is now 6, their son Eden 3; when we arrived Sunday evening, their mom was running around the gigantic apartment, scooping them up for bed. Ms. Cheng looked ready to fall asleep herself, after making a feast: home-cooked dishes with pork belly, chicken, eggplant and fish, and a lotus soup for dessert. Ms. Tam was there, and Mr. Musto showed up for dessert. Mr. Levine wasn’t able to make it, but the table was more than full.

Mr. Cheng explained that she had rescheduled her meeting with Ms. Dunaway, but was too busy cooking to make it down to the store. So she had the actress come up to her apartment and multitasked.
As we were leaving, Mr. Cheng asked sincerely if we would come back and have dinner when we weren’t on the job. Ms. Cheng had already invited us to their Christmas party and a luxury garage sale they were co-sponsoring this week. They were so nice! How could we decline when they were so generous?

Another rung added to the monkey bars.

We nodded because yes, some of the looks did have that 80s-vision-of-the-future feel to them, a feel that is embodied by the classic Harrison Ford sci-fi flick. But by the time we were playing skee ball and eating sweet potato chips at the Alexander Wang after party, the film was far from our minds.

At yesterday's Alexandre Herchcovitch show, however, it became clear that the prescient Mr. McGinley was really onto something. As the first models emerged from the curtain and onto the glowing runway, The Studio at Lincoln Center hummed with glassy synths punctuated by stabs of lazer beam zappings — music not far removed from the iconic Vangelis score that underlies the entirety of Blade Runner. At this point we were already sold on the comparison, but more evidence kept rolling out: the shoulder pads, boldly colored lipstick and some of the hairstyles seemed reminiscent of Harrison Ford's love interest in the film, played by Sean Young. 

British R&B singer Estelle was placed a few seats down from us in the first row. She had been to the Herchcovitch show last year, she told us, but the influences she mentioned didn't quite overlap with the Blade Runner imagery in this year's collection. "The last show I went to of his was pretty romantic, a little bit Braveheart-ish, a little bit gypsy-ish," she said. "I liked it, it was kind of cool." She also mentioned that this show would probably be her last — she said she has to get back in the studio to finish her new album.

Also, The Observer saw, for the first time, a work of fiction under a chair in the front row, and this work of fiction happened to be Keith Gessen's All The Sad Young Literary Men. Make of that what you will. 

"I really hope that you will enjoy it because it has nothing to do with fashion," Ms. Tatou rather sheepishly told the audience, which was well-stocked with members of the fashion flock.

The film, opening in New York and Los Angeles on Sept. 25, follows Chanel from a bleak orphanage, to an attempted career as a bar singer, ending just at the cusp of her great fame. While fashion takes a backseat to drama in Ms. Fontaine's delicate and beautifully shot film, there are nods to the designer's style throughout, as when a young Coco notices the austere, angular white hats on a group of nuns or later stands awestruck in front of a group of fishermen, clad in blue-striped shirts.

And Ms. Tautou--gorgeous in a black and white dress by (of course) Chanel-was nothing if not fashionable on the red carpet. Her hair, cut boyishly short as usual, was worked up into a stunning pompadour. Still, she downplayed her own interest in fashion; she couldn't even say for sure if her outfit was from this season or not. 

"Everyone's always asking me for advice, which I never have," she said. "I think you should just wear what makes you happy and shows your personality."

Others were more inclined to show off.

British singer Estelle arrived wearing a, you guessed it, Chanel ensemble, complete with some glittering logo bling. She said she's been going strong all week in New York, visiting two to three shows a day, but was ready for a break. "I'm done," she said. "I think I'm going to a spa after this."

Was she tired of answering questions about Kanye West, her collaborator on the irrepressible single "American Boy"? "He's Kanye, that's all," she shrugged. "He's Kanye."

Model Hilary Rhoda remembered her first Chanel show for Karl Lagerfeld, but resisted comparing any emerging designers to the subject of the night's film. "Oh Chanel, I don't think they'll ever be another Chanel," Ms. Rhoda said. "She's very unique."

Others on the scene seemed relieved to be taking a break from a hectic week to sit in the dark for a few hours. Designer Erin Fetherston stopped to chat for a few moments, but others--including model Agyness Deyn, singer Ciara, and a very pregnant Adriana Lima--made a beeline for the theater. A few minutes before showtime, Ms. Lima reemerged to grab some popcorn and was already scarfing it down on her way back inside.

Actress Rachel Bilson (who could star in a biopic about Ms. Tautou, if anyone were to make one) was also there, making her way through the lobby. What was she wearing?

A little wearily she replied, pointing at her sheer black blouse. "Chanel."

Daily Transom: Happy birthday. Did you rage last night?
DJ Cassidy: Thank you! I actually haven’t slept yet, so you’ll have to forgive me if I sound a little out of it.

DT: How was it?
DJC: Surreal in every sense of the word. I still can’t believe that I threw the party at the New York Public Library. It doesn’t get more beautiful, more glamorous, more sophisticated and more over-the-top than that. …  I DJ a lot of parties every year, and what I’ve learned is that often the fun gets lost in the hype. The bigger the place, the more celebrities and the more press there is, the less fun the party becomes because the other elements begin to take over and overshadow the fun.

DT: And this didn’t happen last night?
DJC: No. And I know it’s kind of cliché to say, and everyone says it, but you know, night life in this city is—not like any one remembers it, but everyone says, “Oh it’s not like it used to be.” But I feel like this party is.

DT: What did Bobby Brown perform?
DJC: His four biggest hits, which are Don’t Be Cruel, On Our Own, Every Little Step, and My Prerogative. Every year I have surprise legendary old-school performances. ... This party, in a sense, it’s kind of an excuse to live my dream and get my heroes to perform at a party and give that to the people.

DT: I saw a picture of the cake—can you tell me about that?

DJC: The cake actually never got brought out, things were so chaotic and there were so many great moments going on throughout the party that my dad never actually brought out the cake.The cake was actually a very cool thing, I’m glad you asked. When I DJ'd the inauguration, CNN showed Obama’s first dance at the ball that I DJ'd. I DJ'd the Mid-Atlantic Ball and I programmed the playlists for the nine other balls, and they showed live from the Mid-Atlantic Ball, them dancing. And it said at the bottom “Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have their first dance at the Mid-Atlantic Ball,” so my dad was watching this on CNN the night it happened and he took a picture with his phone of the TV screen, and I guess he gave the picture to a friend of his who then took a picture of me from the inauguration from something else, and blended the two pictures, and that was the cake. This was an amazing idea—it was also obviously the biggest night of my life doing that and the highlight of my year.

DT: I saw a picture of Funkmaster Flex in the DJ booth—how did you feel about other people DJing for you? Did you have the urge to get behind the booth and DJ yourself?

DJC:  No—I never had the urge! It’s the one night I don’t have to, and I can be the dancer and not the DJ. Funkmaster Flex, who I’ve looked up to since I was like 10 years old, he’s the reason I became a DJ, he came and surprised me. He did a Michael Jackson set. It was great—he’s really the king of this.

DT: So getting older isn’t so bad?
DJC: No, this is the bright side, I guess.

DT: Are you already thinking of ways to top this year’s party next year?
DJC: I gotta tell you, every year my mom says to me, just stop. She’s like, “It’s too stressful!” I plan this party virtually myself. It’s
a lot of work and I’m a control freak. 

Public broadcasting exec Sharon Rockefeller strolled into the sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday night, May 26, alongside the artist Jack Shear, both laughing, with cocktails in hand after sitting down to a sensible dinner.

“We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” quipped Mr. Shear.

“And salad,” added Ms. Rockefeller.

“You had lobster,” Mr. Shear pointed out.

“It’s economic savvy times!” Ms. Rockefeller declared.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, real estate mogul Jerry Speyer, and actress Glenn Close, among others, had also turned out for the museum's annual Party in the Garden.

The venue, outfitted with white tents, resembled an outdoor bar on Miami's South Beach and seemed as crowded as the No. 6 train during rush hour.

Party supplies didn't last. Guests who approached the bar after 9 p.m. were informed that the museum had entirely run out of tonic, club soda, lemons and limes. "I guess that means more alcohol for all of us!" noted one high-spirited guest.

Many high-profile attendees, including investor Henry Kravis and his wife, Marie-Josee, bolted promptly after dinner. "We'd better run," the couple told the Daily Transom on their way out.

Those who stuck around, such as the artist Brice Marden, were treated to a special performance by the singer Estelle. "I heard the artist was pretty good," said Mr. Marden, sporting a blue beanie and black jacket.

"We think New York City is the best place in the entire world," said Ms. Rockefeller, a museum trustee, who nonetheless spends much of her time in and around Washington, D.C. (her husband is U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia), as she headed toward the dance floor. "It really is. People should come, have a good time, and come to MoMA. We have great art coming up."

CORRECTION: The original version misspelled the name of the artist Mr. Marden. The Observer regrets the error.

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. The stairs led to a second level and eventually to the Highline itself, which was lined with white roses, lanterns, and picnic benches (Ethan Hawke, a longtime supporter of the project, told us the setting reminded him of the filming of his 2004 film Before Sunset).

Impressive as all of this was, we wondered if any of the high-profile revelers would be able to outdo Mr. Klein in terms of birthday vision.

First up was designer Erin Fetherston. What would she have constructed for her birthday party? “I’d have a castle,” she told us. We also asked her about the high point of her Friday show: “Just seeing all the clothes together on the models…when you work with those clothes for so long, it’s really never as alive as when they’re all together.” Her favorite look for autumn? “Vibrant florals.”

Fellow designer Lucy Sykes expressed a less traditional sensibility. Her birthday structure would be “An amazing, incredible tent—sort of Indian and beautiful. It would be in a field in Gloucester England.” And her favorite autumn trend? “I’m really loving those chunky, unbelievable shoes …. I have a pair at home and they’re not really working with anything right now, but I’ll find something.”

Kimora Lee Simmons, flanked by boyfriend Djimon Hounsou, told us she would build something “fabulous and elegant and grand—a giant carousel. A huge one with little horses and fabulous divas.” Favorite look for fall? “I still like a lot of color—or black. It works for me, no? But don’t be afraid of color.”

Calvin Klein’s own menswear creative director, Italo Zucchelli, stayed on message. His birthday structure? “Similar to this one—I like spare spaces without a lot of fluff.” He also described his favorite recent design: “A webbing jacket—it’s a very complicated jacket in construction but it looks very simple. It really represents my vision.”

Lipstick Jungle’s Rob Buckley imagined “a bouncy house that big,” pointing to the CK structure. This dream was seconded by Cheyenne Jackson, currently performing in Xanadu, who recalled his childhood as a “really big kid”: “Half the time I was too tall for those things. I was too big to get in! So, it would be a giant, massive bouncy castle.”

“I don’t really want a big thing, ever," Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester told us. "I usually just love having a nice dinner.” Co-star Matthew Settle was willing to get a bit more elaborate, if somewhat perplexing: “A chairlift to the top of Mount Everest and a statue of my family to greet them when they get off.”

Estelle, who performed later in the evening, requested “A big chocolate cake that I jump out of.” Isn’t the idea that someone else jumps out? “I would jump out of it,” she said, standing her ground.

Actor Alan Cumming told us that, since his birthday is in January, wanted "a swimming pool, somewhere where I could do summer activities. Or, ideally, I’d like a train. There’s a train you can rent upstate … a train with an open deck, that sort of thing.” And his thoughts on fashion week? “I was just in Denver at the convention. [Fashion Week] is sort of like any convention. It’s sort of people who all do the same thing and they just get drunk and shag each other.”

A pregnant Naomi Watts was sentimental: “Oh my God—something that architectural would be amazing. I don’t know…just getting my favorite people together takes a huge amount of organization because they’re all over the world--a big net.” Jared Leto had similarly humble desires: “I’d probably do nothing. I would probably do something simple, in the wild, in nature, and kind of let that be the backdrop--sorry, was that boring?”

Project Runway’s Nina Garcia was a little less game: “A penthouse apartment,” she said simply, before rushing into Brooke Sheilds’s arms before we could ask for the location. Similarly, an ambivalent Kevin Bacon finally told us, “A nice grill with a big piece of fish would be great.”

And finally, Martha Stewart’s birthday structure? “Oh, a pyramid.” Would the famously creative Ms. Stewart want it made out of anything in particular? “Stone,” she said, rather deliberately.

The Hold Steady's "Constructive Summer"? Check.

Albert Hammond, Jr.'s "GFC"? Check.

Estelle's "American Boy" featuring Kanye West? Ummmmmm, nope.

Much to our surprise, the pop song of the summer (apologies to Ms. Katy Perry) wasn't even available on iTunes when we went to download it this weekend! Insultingly, in its place, was some knock-off version that shockingly ranks #14 on the iTunes Top Songs list.

What gives! Where's our girl?

After an exhaustive Google search (read: three seconds), we found out that Warner Music Group's Atlantic Records, the company that released Estelle's latest album, pulled her single from iTunes in the hopes of raising her album sales to Gold status. That strategy had previously worked for Kid Rock, whose smash album, Rock ‘n Roll Jesus, featuring the atrociously unlistenable "All Summer Long," has become a huge hit without being available on iTunes.

And to that we say: booooooooo. The music industry is clearly hurting, but with iTunes, they've actually managed to find a way to charge people for music that they probably normally wouldn't buy, except for the fact that it's so easy. We love "American Boy," but would we go out of our way to buy it in the store when it's played every sixty minutes on Z100? Of course not! We'll never buy Estelle's album (no offense Estelle, but you look like a one-hit wonder to us), so it looks like we'll never own "American Boy" unless we decide to download it illegally (or figure out how to work Amazon's MP3 store, where the single is available.) And we're sure we're not alone.

Atlantic Records, get a clue! Get "American Boy" back on iTunes. Summer might be over, but the weather will still be warm for the next few weeks...plenty of time to enjoy Estelle one more time before we all forget about her.

"It's a show!" sighed Mr. Christiana, when queried about a recent New York magazine article that chronicled the rivalry between Project Runway judge and recent Marie Claire hire Nina Garcia, and Anne Slowey, Fashion News Director at Elle and the Miranda Priestly-esque star of the CW's forthcoming battle-of-the-fashion-assistants Stylista. "I don't take things so seriously when it comes to fashion. We're not curing cancer, we're making clothing."

The designer and FIT grad has been keeping quite the busy schedule since being auf'd for not creating the perfect prom dress. His many upcoming projects include a men's line "for guys that have, like, real bodies," a women's line "for women who have actual curves," and frequent guest slots on the next season of The Rachael Ray Show. Mr. Christiana also mentioned that he and fellow season four alum Jack Mackenroth (the contestant who left the show mid-season after getting a staph infection) are working together on a new series. "It's the odd couple gay-straight thing," said Mr. Christiana. "I can't really talk about it because I'm under contract," he added, although he did tell the Daily Transom it wouldn't be on Bravo's fall line up. Lifetime, perhaps? They lurve their edgy reality TV these days!

Seated next to a pretty brunette a few feet away was Jesse Williams, who plays an art-student-slash-nude-model-hunk in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Earlier, Mr. Williams told the Daily Transom what it's like when your first Hollywood movie is a total estrogen-fest.

"It was outstanding," he said. "Everybody was really sweet." Those bright blue eyes are even brighter in person! But did he catch up on all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls to prepare for his romantic moments with Alexis Bledel? "I watched the first movie several times, and I did watch some Gilmore Girls," Mr. Williams said, sans any telling eye-rolls that might bespeak of his embarrassment. Delighted, we pictured him taking in a Rory-Lorelai marathon at his apartment in Crown Heights.

British rapper Estelle preceded Mr. Williams on the red carpet prior to Traitor's screening. The recording artist is about to leave for a tour with Gym Glass Heroes and the Roots. That doesn't mean she doesn't have time to read blogs, though. In particular, a blog penned by one Kanye West, whose vocals were featured on Estelle's hit "American Boy."

"If you look at the tone of Kanye's blog," she said--waving away the accusations that Mr. West doesn't know a comment from an RSS feed and pays someone to post items for him--"you cannot doubt that it's Kanye. Just--it's Kanye. Please!"

Not long after her, Danity Kane's Aubrey O'Day tottered past in snake-skin boots, black leggings, and a white feathery vest that displayed a rather prominent décolletage. "I don't even use the phrase," Ms. O'Day replied, fluttering her eyelash extensions when we asked how she personally interprets the phrase "bitchassedness," which P. Diddy thrust into the vernacular on the last season of Making the Band. "It's silly!" giggled the singer, who is currently playing Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray on Broadway.

Given her fanciful wardrobe, Ms. O'Day appeared amenable to the idea that she was a kind of teen idol, although Traitor's leading man, Mr. Pearce, had no advice to offer the latest crop of young things--say, High School Musical's Zac Efron?--attempting to make a serious crossover similar to his own. (Mr. Pearce got his break starring in the Australian soap Neighbours. Just like Natalie Imbruglia and Kylie Minogue!) "I'd done a lot of theater growing up, so this TV show was just one of the many things that I've done. Obviously I had to become aware of the fact that it became the most popular show in England and across Europe. That was a bit of a struggle to deal with, in a way," he said.

Now, though, the English-born, Australian-raised actor seems to enjoy defying stereotypes at every turn: He's playing a truth-seeking FBI agent in Traitor, which opens August 27, yet stars in a "quite different" warm-fuzzy Adam Sandler film, Bedtime Stories, out this Christmas. And last night, nobody could stop talking about the horn-rimmed Buddy Holly glasses Mr. Pearce donned for the premiere, which he wore with the casually blasé flair possible only to those who have transcended their heartthrob status. Take that, Rivers Cuomo!

The "King of Pop" lords over a veritable pop buffet today with new releases by Kylie Minogue, the most popular pop star to not make it in the U.S., and a rhinoplastied Ashlee Simpson. Minogue's X has been floating around the UK since November, and, so far, it's been well-received. The BBC promises an "album packed with vitality" and "oodles of fun." Oooh, fun. Who doesn't like fun? Her single, "Like a Drug," (below) sounds like millenial Britney. (Isn't she about to turn 40? Didn't she survive cancer for chrissakes?) Take a page from Madonna and move on.

Ashlee Simpson's EP featuring "Outta My Mind," the requisite "celebrity life is just crazy" track of her new album, arrives in stores today. Don't miss the CGI-heavy video (below). It's a whole lot of fun, too, with reenactments from Gulliver's Travels to Ashlee in therapy to Ashlee sitting on a gigantic Rubik's Cube to Ashlee doing the robot (she can't). Either way, she's clearly whipping it, and whipping it good. Thanks, Devo!

Imagine what day this could have been, if Estelle, the burgeoning British hip-hop princess, had released her forthcoming album, Shine, as her label as initially planned. Unfortunately, the release date has been pushed back to May. But not one to disappoint fans, she has leaked single, "American Boy," featuring—who else?—Kanye West. This year's "Umbrella"? It's catchy enough, but perhaps too clubby.

Even the indie bands are feeling a bit friskier today. The latest from British Sea Power—yes, they're from England—is entitled "Do You Like Rock Music?" If it sounds anything like the opening track, "All in It," then the answer is a resounding "Yes." They're borrowing mightily from The Arcade Fire's bag of tricks, introducing choral singers and harmoniums to the mix. But they've got plenty else up their sleeves.