Greetings, party-watchers! We bring you part two of our coverage of Arianna Huffington's party in LA on Wednesday night (Part I is here. Go look!). It takes a while to write/upload, so consider this a work-in-progress and check back frequently, which will inflate our stats and make us feel important. By the way, no one actually went into the pool despite our blatant attempts to imply that we were a drunken, carousing lot based on the above photo of Slate's Mickey Kaus with two drinks. Truth be told, one was for someone else. It's true, we didn't actually see him hand it to anyone, but that's what he said, and since he didn't end up in the pool we tend to believe him.

Okay! When we left off, the party was starting to really fill up. Arianna was at the door greeting her guests who were milling about the front hall and fanning out across the first floor (dining room, sitting room wherein brief speeches were enjoyed, backyard and poolside, and in the book-heavy study, wherein we would be remiss not to mention the coolest feature ever: a wooden spiral staircase leading to an upstairs bookshelf with a hidden door built into it! How very Harry Potter. We referred to it as "the Harry Potter Door" all night, which guests seemed to get, thus proving our theory that everyone has secretly read Harry Potter, even really learned erudite-type folks.

Wandering through the crowd pretending to be important we espied two identical heads of luxuriant hair, which we recognized from countless photographs: Isabella and Christina Huffington. Unlike in the Vanity Fair article, they were not dressed alike; also ulike the Vanity Fair shoot, they got to keep their outfits. Despite having to fork over the Von Furstenbergs at the end of the shoot, they said it was fun because they got to try on lots of great outfits. "That was the best part," said Christina. We wondered if they knew how cool their mom was, or if they needed Harriet Miers to tell them. Best Governor EVER! (NB: That is a joke about Harriet Miers, NOT a reference to the current governor of California.)

But wait! I have been remiss -- we haven't even talked about the food yet! Following the appetizer tray around is a great way to circulate and still make sure you eat more than all the other guests. While chatting with HuffPo blogger Marty Kaplan and political/entertainment consultant Donna Bojarsky we enjoyed fresh ahi tuna on a light crispy flatbread; while admiring LAT Calendarlive.com editor Bettie Rinehart's burgundy Vin Baker bag we snagged an endive leaf creamy goat cheese (the bag is, incidentally, the one worn by the title character on "Felicity" in her senior year -- I know that because I have the same bag! Felicity BFFs 4-ever). We admired the roast beef-wrapped asparagus from afar and admired the asiago-topped risotto cakes from a-close (which is how we met Josh Abramson of College Humor; we brazenly went in for seconds which inspired him to go in for firsts, and then both double-taked at a plate of food being carried by some dude in a Kangol hat who sniffed "I'm not a waiter." Dude, if you don't want to be mistaken for a waiter then you might want to try not walking around carrying a big plate of appetizers. Just an idea). Ooh there were little duck spring roll thingies too.

At this point the party had hit full steam and even more people who I didn't recognize had shown up: the NYT's Sharon Waxman, producer Lawrence Bender, HuffPo's and Crooks & Liars' John Amato, who we would have loved to have said hi to (hi John! Sorry we missed you!), and Yahoo!'s Lloyd Braun. The crowd started flowing into the entrance hall and sitting room for speeches, looking on from the floor and from the landing on the stairway above; the stairs were fashioned somewhat akin to those in the Von Trapp household, and for one bizarre moment I wondered if the HuffPo bloggers had put together a special presentation for us. Oh, how I would have loved to see that. FishbowlLA has a succinct run-down of the speeches here (as well as some keen insight into the collective fashion unconscious of the male LA media). I was too busy jostling for photos to take notes; I did, however, tell one random guy he was "hot" after he suggested a good angle. Fishbowl is classy.

Continued...

Photos:

Mickey Kaus, Laurence O'Donnell and Michael Sonnenschein. O'Donnell writes for the West Wing, but watch for him in front of the camer with a darker, more sultry haircolor in an upcomig episode of a show called "Big Love." Or it could be called "Big Lori" or "Big Louis" -- I can't read my writing. "Big Loni," maybe? Yeah, it's gotta be "Big Loni." I smell a hit!

Mark Lisanti is apparently the kind of guy who does the dishes. So said his ladyfriend (and housemate) whose name escapes us (sorry!) even though we can picture her great outfit clear as day. We looked for evidence of dishpan hands but could find none.

We don't know if Lisanti's new co-blogger Seth Abramovitch does the dishes, but we're willing to cut him some slack because he's Canadian. Fishbowl is all about the shameless double standard.

The Secret Harry Potter Door described above. One almost expected to see Nearly Headless Nick floating by. We snuck a peek inside and espied Arianna's assistant Marja Adriance, infinitely preferable to ghosts with gaping neck wounds. There's Marja below, with apologies and thanks to HuffPo and Earl the Photographer from whom we pilfered. But hair like that must be shared with the world.

Marja Adriance with Kimberly Brooks, also with a lovely head of hair.

"The name is Steele. Lockhart Steele."

Photos!

Books!

Artist Derek Boshier get bloggy with it. Also, he is wearing by far the most fun pant-sock combo at the party. Sorry, Laurence O'Donnell, you miss it by a hair. Cheer up, you still have "Big Loni."

The top of Ron Silver's head (bottom right)

Fishbowl about to take a picture of the top of Ron Silver's head.

Tie + shoes = AWESOME.

Photog Elizabeth Daniels shoots Arianna and HuffPo editor Michael Owen

Arianna, at rest (we're kidding of course -- we're pretty sure that Arianna never rests)