Inside FASHION WEEK 2009!

When Lucy Liu was escorted to her front-row seat at Hervé Léger this morning, the woman in front of us sighed with satisfaction. “At last. A real celebrity,” she said. The photographers reacted with similar enthusiasm, crowding around Liu and frantically snapping pictures as though a photo of her was the only thing standing between them and cold, cruel death. The frenzy around LL — who, it must be said, is incredibly good-looking in person — completely stole the thunder from the rest of the starlets at the show, all of whom then had to be escorted through the crush of otherwise disinterested media. It’s understandable: Lucy Liu IS a bigger draw than, say, the super low-key Joy Bryant, who smartly got out there first and glued her butt to her seat before she risked losing a limb.


Sophia Bush probably wishes she’d followed Bryant’s lead. Squeezing through the throng with a wince, Bush yelled at her companion for stepping on her coat — honey, better your coat than your feet — and then plopped down next to actress Danielle Panabaker and mouthed, “Oh my GOD.” Perhaps because the Fashion Week fixture skipped last season, Bush commanded the second-most attention once she got her bearings. The photogs must have missed her. Or else they were starved for One Tree Hill spoilers.


Michelle Trachtenberg also inched toward her seat wearing a terrified expression (along with a curious tie-dyed Léger). She seemed especially thin — whereas scrawny-on-camera Jessica Stroup from 90210 surprised us by NOT appearing to be asking Death if he had room at the inn. Though you still could probably pick a lock with her arms, Stroup otherwise looked much healthier than we expected, which is a relief because we like her. She gabbed energetically to reporters, brimming with enthusiasm and adorably wide grins, but her chartreuse bandage dress was gynecologically short.


The last celeb to be shown to her seat was Mad Men’s January Jones, who was standing so close to us at that point that we can definitively say she looked completely dead inside — a defensive reaction to being pummeled in the media scrum, no doubt. We’d shut down, too. In fact we almost did, in solidarity.


Curiously, outside the venue — giving all appearances of waiting in line to gain entry to the show — were Whitney Port and Olivia Palermo, clinging to each other like scrawny life rafts. But the stars of The City were nowhere to be seen inside. Maybe they were actually there on official DVF business (her collection hits the runway today) or on the pretense of ongoing DVF employment. Maybe they decided they couldn’t handle all the fuss and bailed or holed up backstage. Or maybe they were just scared of going up against Lucy Liu. Can’t say we blame them on that one.