Magazine Transforms Chinatown Into Party Central

The town is atwitter about Stuff magazine’s Seven Deadly Sins party, scheduled next Thursday in Chinatown to celebrate the transition of the New York-based men’s bimonthly to a monthly.

“I think Chinatown is such an amazingly cool place,” said the party planner, Jeffrey Best of Best Events. “I’ve been trying to get any client I could to do a party there for six years.”

When invitation-only guests enter Gin Ling Way through the west gate on Hill Street, they’ll walk into a plaza hung with thousands of paper lanterns. Cushions and sisal rugs will be used to create sitting areas. Incense and fog machines will provide atmosphere, and the entertainment will include fireworks, a traditional dragon parade and fortunetelling.

“We’re taking traditional Chinese elements and making them edgy,” Best said.

Stuff magazine has customized its list of deadly sins--it’s tossed out envy and gluttony for the evening and is adding stupidity and risk to the traditional lust, pride, sloth, greed and anger.

“We’re going to have 7,000 pieces of dim sum from Empress Pavilion, so gluttony is going to be my sin,” he said.

The plaza’s wonderful little stores plan to stay open during the event.

“I don’t know if they have ever read the magazine . . . but the shop owners are really into the party.”

If you haven’t received a Chinese mask in the mail by party time, don’t plan to attend--unless you’re a professional party crasher . . . in which case I’d love to talk to you.

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There’s been some confusion about how to pronounce the name of the Nuevo Latino restaurant in Westwood’s W Hotel, thanks to the film, “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.”

“People call all the time and say, ‘Is this Mo-jo,”’ said hostess Marguerite Hickey. “We have to tell them politely that it’s Mo-ho.”

In the movie, Powers time-travels back to 1969 to retrieve his mojo. But the restaurant’s name is Spanish, of course . . . named for a spicy marinade.

Yeah baby!

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Trend alert: Like mother, like son . . . Prince William, 18, is becoming quite the style setter. The world’s most eligible bachelor has been photographed at Eton College sporting two copper bracelets on his right wrist. Lots of people believe that copper bracelets can help improve your health. . . . I don’t know about that, but they sure look good on him.

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Dennis Rodman, the only person in the world who could teach Darva Conger a thing or two about publicity, is planning to launch a Web site, DennisRodmanTV.com, to provide coverage of the bashes he hosts at his home in Newport Beach, according to news reports. (If you’ve been following news of the former basketball star, you probably know that police have had to respond to dozens of complaints from his neighbors in the past year, mostly about noise.)

Wonder if we’ll be able to see his mojo. . . .

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Booth Moore can be reached at [email protected].