Hey Beautiful People,

Calm down, calm down. I have not sent out the sneak-peeks yet! I am waiting to get a clean, copy-edited version from my publisher (which should happen very soon!) So I would say, look for it in a month or so. I know what you’re thinking A MONTH?? A FRACKING MONTH???

But please! Patience!

Patience will be rewarded.

I have to say I’m really jazzed with all the excitement however. I get excited too. And I wrote the thing!

I’ve been MIA because I just turned in the final draft of Book Four in the Ashleys series: Lipgloss Jungle and am deep into the first drafts of both Angels on Sunset Boulevard 2: THE STRIP and GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE (which is my new summer series—it used to be called Social Life). But you know, all work and no blog makes Mel a dull girl.

And man I’ve been up to utter fabulousness lately! Last Monday we were invited to party with Jade Jagger at the Chateau Marmont! I have friends in fab places—a dear friend of mine is a grand poo-bah at LVMH, the company that sponsored the party (Belvedere vodka), and so we were invited to dine with ninety of Jade’s closest friends (we were counted in that number, natch) and so on Monday, I put on my new Marni five-inch patent platforms—glossy black and the palest yellow and the coolest shade of gray, my gray studded Vena Cava mini-dress, my SPANX tights and a black Chloe blazer, and Mike put on his new Gucci corduroy coat and skinny YSL jeans and his Miu Miu shirt and off we went.

It was a really fun party because it was so intimate, and they had all of the lobby of the hotel and the gardens, which were gorgeous, all these candles and crystal everywhere in the greenery. There was this cool silver Venetian mirror and they wrote down all the people at the table so you could see who was expected at the party and where you were seated. We were in the number two table, next to Jade’s. Jonah Hill from Superbad and his entourage were at our table—- and it was TOTALLY like an episode of Entourage—just a bunch of young scruffy guys just PSYCHED to be there, and Bail Ling and her boyfriend were next to us. Bai Ling is that somewhat hilarious Asian actress who is famous for appearing in tabloid papers’ “WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?” wardrobe critiques. I’m happy to report she looked quite chic and lovely that night, in a great little black dress and heels.

The Hiltons were there—it was our second Nicky sighting in a month—too funny! She was wearing a black dress from Jade’s new line, and had her hair up. Her legs are very tan. And Paris was there, looking gorgeous. You know, I have to say, I saw the pictures from the party of all these people and the pictures really don’t do them justice. They are SO much prettier in person. Paris has like a seventeen-inch-waist. She is TINY. And so fragile and delicate looking. She has this very chic blonde bob now, and she was wearing this very sparkly chiffon dress and looked every inch like a star. We also saw Rachel Zoe, the stylist, looking fab in a down-to-there maxi dress, very tan, very 70s-Halston-y. And Alana and Kimberly Stewart, both very blonde and in very tight dresses.

Oh and Jade was very beautiful, of course, her mom is Bianca Jagger, so you know, good genes to start with. She was also wearing some kind of 70s hippie flowing dress of some sort. The crowd was very New York for LA, lots of couture, lots of great clothes, very very chic. Usually you go to LA parties and it’s a little bit of the hoochie-chic. But this was so not that starlet crowd. It was very New Yorky in that there were a lot of fun fashion people. And we smoked and drank and had a blast. When you go to these things, there’s just this contented buzz in the air from being in such a magical place, and surrounded by famous people. I’m sure the Vanity Fair Oscar parties are like that times like, a million. You just get high off all the fabulousness.

We left after dinner at the same time as the Hiltons did, which was kind of funny because as we were getting int our car, Paris and Benji Madden (oh yeah, it was totally US Weekly in the flesh!) were getting into theirs, and a couple of paparazzi just JUMPED out of the bushes in front of us, totally scaring the SH_T out of us, and then we just began to giggle because we were kind of blocking their shot. I have to say, getting papped is kind of scary and pretty yucky in the end—I actually felt sorry for Paris and Nicky as the photographers clamored around their cars. It’s just very…rude and aggressive and kind of violent. And yeah, okay, famous people should expect it as part of their job, but really, Sean Penn, yeah, he makes sense now. (For those of you who don’t remember the 80s Sean was famous for fighting with paparazzi when he was married to Madonna.)

Anyway, totally bought up at storm at Barneys too. Got the Balenciaga floral camouflage gladiators. The Marni platforms. Then a blue sparkly jersey dress from Geren Ford and a cool knit one from Mayle. Then got a couple of sundresses from this boutique on Montana, a black one and another yellow one, with big jewels sewn into it, and then these cool knit flowy pants from Vivienne Tam, a black shirtdress from Nanette Lapore. Oh and I ordered a Goyard tote and got my name (MEL) and stripes customized on it (it should be available in six weeks!).

I’ve decided I’m not going to buy any more big designer-designer dresses and stick to high-end shoes and bags instead. I can justify a two-thousand dollar handbag, but a fifteen-hundred dollar dress? That seems crazy. Especially when you can buy a great Philip Lim dress for under $500. Speaking of, I bought one of his shirts he did for the Gap and it is just beautiful—great fit and so chic! I got the one with the rounded collar and the fluttery sleeves. And I bought one of those brown platform sandals that Pierre Hardy, who designs for Balenciaga, did for the Gap. Isn’t it great how they get all these designers to do their stuff for cheap?

So I think I’m all set for the summer. I’m going to bang out these books and then take a nice break. We’re going to the beach for the summer- we got a house in Ventura, it’s not the Hamptons, but what is. It’ll still be nice even though we miss our old Shelter Island house.

Hang in there, people. Buy stuff! Help the economy!

xoxo
Mel