SO, men of Hong Kong, you fancy a 'lads' night out'. What do you do? Make a booking at a curry house and follow it up with serial pints in various Wan Chai drinking dives? Not if you're Danny DeVito, you don't.
Recently, DeVito decided to have a 'boys' night out' - just as if he was entertaining at home, but presumably wife Rhea Perlman had something to say about that. So he hired the Presidential Suite of the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills (a snip at US$3,000 (HK$23,400), even though nobody stayed the night), and invited 12 of his closest male friends along for some superstar bonding.
Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Michael Douglas, Jack Nicholson and Arnold Schwarzenegger were among those who assembled at 8pm to start with caviar and conclude at about 3am with cheese, port and monster cigars. Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck of the Hollywood star eatery Spago was helicoptered in to cater the evening, which was a great success - even though the room had to be defumigated after all the cigar smoke.
But this is Hollywood, and catering to the stars means no expense spared - and no eyebrows raised. The Peninsula, which pitches itself as 'Hotel to the Stars', caters to special requests. These involve stars bringing in their own food (special protein drinks are a current fad), and often their own chefs. At the moment, it means ordering Chinese Chicken Salad with no oil, no vinegar and no chicken and washing it down with a nice, fat Cuban cigar; to get this clientele, the Peninsula cultivates relationships with publicists, agents, and travel agents.
The hotel is situated across the road from Hollywood powerhouse CAA (Creative Artists Agency), and the agents will check out the Peninsula first before they let their treasured clients stay there.
An hour in the lobby of the Pen makes for exquisite star-spotting; Sly Stallone, Jessica Lange, supermodels Vendela and Claudia Schiffer, director Robert Zemeckis, Michael J Fox and, of all people, Mary Tyler Moore waltz through the front entrance unnoticed. But then again, part of the Pen's attraction is its own private pathway to top Hollywood facelift firm, The Lassky Clinic, which is situated beside a discreet back-entrance.
For 20 years now, Mary Micucci has been catering to the stars. Her company, Along Came Mary, was ranked Number One Hollywood Caterer by the Los Angeles Times last year. She'd rather die than tell you her private catering clients, who are known to include CAA chief Michael Ovitz and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen.