MARC'S FRONT ROW: When the scant celebrities arrived (promptly, thank you very much) to Marc Jacobs' show on Friday night, they were met with buckets full of mini-champagne bottles, setting something of a celebratory tone.

"I'm tempted, but no one else is drinking," said Gretchen Mol. "I don't want to be the tacky one."

No worries, since the actress didn't even have time for a tipple. By 7:15, Jacobs was striding across the stage telling no one in particular, "Let's start this."

After the show, Victoria Beckham marveled at Sonic Youth's live performance. Its sound isn't much like the Spice Girls' groove, but the show may have made a fan out of Posh. "I didn't listen to them before," Beckham said, "but now I might start."

Selma Blair was more in awe of her friend's design skill. "Marc's the young wunderkind who never stopped and made young girls want to dress up again," she said, sounding a little like a press release.

New to the scene was rapper M.I.A., who had never been to Jacobs' show but appears in the current Marc by Marc Jacobs ad campaign. "I tried to go to his party in London a year ago, but I couldn't get in," she recalled with irony. How times have changed. This year, the petite stunner DJ'd Jacobs' after party at 24 Fifth.

LET IT OUT: Susan Sarandon sat front and center at the Donna Karan show on Friday. Famous for her outspoken views on politics, the war and just about everything else, Sarandon also shared her opinion on the possible ending of the writers' strike soon. "It's a rumor," she said. "I think it's something that's been circulating, but it's not true. It would be great, though. We all need to wait it out and work together and stick together. It's so important for them to keep going." And does Sarandon agree with good friends Graydon Carter and Diane von Furstenberg — both of whom pulled the plug on their celebrated pre- and post-Oscar festivities? "It's the only appropriate thing they can do," Sarandon said.