Kids in the Mall

U.K. mod clothiers Ben Sherman celebrated the opening of their new U.S. shop in TheBeverly Center last Thursday with an in-store after-hours gathering and outdoor rooftop bash. Partiers snatching up B.S.’s dapper suits and sporty casual wear included Simon Rex, Andy Milonakis, Alana Stewart, Samantha Mumba and members of Gnarls Barkley, who, we hear, walked away with over $6,000 in free gear after they said they’d be wearing it on the MTV Movie Awards (yeah, we’ll see). We witnessed even more feverish famous-people freebie frenzies last week at The House of Hype and The Style Lounge pre-awards gifting suites (both in private Beverly Hills mansions) as well as TheBoom Boom Room’s baby-themed gathering at the Park Hyatt Hotel. Shocker: When a mag says a celeb uses a product, it’s usually because he/she got it gratis at one of these things.

Art Zoo

The Museum of Contemporary Art’s successful Night Vision series is in full swing again, this time offering an array of live bands and DJs during its Robert Rauschenberg exhibit. Last Saturday, Joshua Tree sensations Gram Rabbit drew a large crowd of bouncing bunny-eared fans to MOCA’s patio, though they weren’t the only critters making a stir. Craft tables were set up on which patrons could create their own versions of Rausch’s famous Monogram (featuring a taxidermic goat on a giant collage) out of cardboard, newspapers and stuffed animals, many of which looked to be in serious bondage, all taped up and glued down. Seen among the hoppers and boppers: former Pikme-Up coffee-house honcho Jerry McKenna (who tells us a documentary about the famed Sixth Street café will be unveiled during this summer’s Outfest) and The Echo’s Liz Garo, who booked much of Night Vision’s music, including another animal-named act, Future Pigeon, playing June 24.

WTF?

There’s always been a divide between the hipster after-dark scene and the celeb club circuit, but lately the velvet rope that separates ’em looks to be wearing thin. Case in point: the übercool rock night Pash at Vine Bar, where the likes of Joaquin Phoenix, Mischa Barton and the Olsen twins have suddenly been swilling it with the bohoi polloi the past few weeks . . . Then there was the strange appearance last Tuesday of Lindsay Lohan at Safari Sam’s, where Franki Chan’s Check Yo’ Ponytail welcomed The Start.A few nights later, Chan told us he actually deejayed with L.L. at the 30 Seconds to Mars soiree at Spider Club. Who woulda thunk it? . . . Speaking of star muck, The Hills,a new MTV “reality” show chronicling former Laguna Beach character Lauren “L.C.” Bosworth’s new Hollywood life, had its premiere screening party with the cast last Wednesday at LAX. Nothing too exciting happened, we hear, but then if you’ve seen the show and its vapid posse of peroxide clones pretending there’s not a camera following their every move, that’s no surprise. This one is baaad. Of course, we’ll be watching it every week.

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