On Thursday, May 31, Sean (P. Diddy) Combs hosted a private party at Simon Hammerstein’s burlesque club, the Box. “It was so ghetto,” said one (white) source present that night. “And it was super-packed. It was so not the Box.”
The bash took place after the FiFi Awards, the Oscars of the fragrance industry, and was in honor of Mr. Combs’ prize-winning luxury men’s cologne, Unforgivable. Things got off to a rocky start when the Box’s androgynous ringleader, Raven O, called Mr. Combs to the stage for the typical “special guest” treatment, which generally involves being blindfolded and then serenaded, caressed and whipped by a bevy of leggy women in heels and fishnets (which sounds pretty nice to The Transom!).
“P. Diddy was not being very cool at all,” the source said. “Raven O kept inviting him to the stage, and he wouldn’t go. None of his entourage were participating in the show.”
Things took a violent turn, according to someone close to Mr. Combs, when “a very large, overzealous patron of the club repeatedly encroached on P. Diddy’s private area.” An altercation ensued between the interloper and several people at Mr. Combs’ table.
“All I know is that, all of a sudden, there were fists flying and glass was breaking,” said Source No. 1. “It was like this crazy brawl. And then the whole place cleared out.”
Mr. Combs, who was investigated for assault after allegedly slapping someone at a post-Oscar party earlier this year (a civil suit is pending), emerged unscathed and was whisked out of the club by his security detail immediately after the incident.
A rep for Mr. Combs declined to comment on his involvement in the melee, as did a rep for the Box.
By contrast, the P. Diddy CFDA after-party at Marquee was “pretty mellow,” said an attendee, who said the host spent most of his time with socialite Tinsley Mortimer.
