Spiderman: The Party

The crowd outside the Bowlmor on West 44th Street swelled into a non-menacing mini-mob. Harry Belafonte, Spike Lee and Cindy Crawford snaked their families through, avoiding the plastic champagne flutes in the congested vestibule leading to two elevators carrying the party-ready up to the third and fourth floors. Nowhere to be seen: Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark's creators and their special guests, Bono, The Edge, Bill Clinton. Ousted director Julie Taymor graciously took a bow at the Foxwoods Theater but never made it to the party, where celebrities disappeared behind heavily managed VIP curtains. But everyone else had ample comfort food (awesome mashed potatoes and meatloaf) and drink and a night of -- what else -- bowling! It was easy enough to swap shoes for the regulation lace-up kind, but more often women slipped off their slingbacks and took to the lanes in bare feet. And what did people think of the famously beleaguered show? The consensus, at least among this well-fed throng: they loved it!

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