Magazine Off to bang!-up Start

The scene: The second launch party (the first was last week at Trinity) for bang! magazine Wednesday at the 1444 Club in Hollywood. The free L.A. monthly targets the “baby buster” generation--anyone who can name two actors and one acquaintance named Corey, shops Melrose, watches “Melrose Place,” and has no memory of a world without MTV.

Who was there: Most of the local club scene with a heavy sprinkling of models. “These are the hard-core night-life people,” said singer Chris Green. “If a bomb went off, L.A. would be void of culture for the next few years.” Among the 1,500 cultural elitists milling in the club’s enclosed parking lot were Pauly Shore, Christian Slater, Lara Flynn Boyle, Lisa Stansfield, Ted Field, Tef Foo, Mario Tamayo, Christian Farrow, Aileen Getty, Rusty Updegraff, Josh Wells and co-hosts Brent Bolthouse, Benny Medina and Katie Wagner.

bang! Described: It could be a prop in a “Beverly Hills, 90210” episode; Keanu Reeves would understand it; it’s one of the magazine piles you trip over at a Melrose boutique.

Quoted: “The magazine is a voice for my generation,” said editor Kevin Koffler. “bang! really has its ear to the street as opposed to a Hollywood candy-coated version of what’s going on.”

Dress Mode: Clothes as black as an agent’s soul. The only color was in the eclectic profusion of tattoos. A Hells Angel/ yakuza hit man/Maori tribesman conclave would show less body art than this crowd.

Fashion Statement: There were a half-dozen drag queens, though at least some had been called and asked to go straight, if that’s the right word, for the evening. “I was incensed,” said one in full regalia. Actress Jennifer Rubin’s observation was: “I love drag queens when they look like drag queens and not like older models.”

Chow: “Food!? There’s no food,” said Koffler. “These people don’t eat.” However, they did drink, thanks in part to an abundant supply of sponsor products: Somers Gin, Glacier Water, Diet Pepsi and Ocean Spray.

Overheard: A model trailing a man in a suit: “Would you send me on an Oil of Olay commercial? You would?”

Triumphs: A combined Police and Fire Department effort closed the party just before midnight, in part, because of noise complaints. “I’m so glad the government is sending us home to sleep,” said one guest. It was a great ending. Any magazine that has a launch party shut down is off to a noble start--talk about starting with a bang.