The 'delayed' meeting with Paris Hilton

Big-time Bollywood wasn’t really there. Which, in an age where the success of a bash is measured by the wattage of its star turn-out, would otherwise not have gone down too well. As it happened, this one time it might be overlooked, given that the bash was for an international society queen, one with strong ties to the fashion world and those who were present represented Mumbai adequately from both worlds — fashion and society.

Beau monde frontrunner Queenie Singh’s party to welcome hotel heiress Paris Hilton Saturday night had all the usual trappings of a big do. So the lighting at the party venue, a suburban lounge-discotheque, was tweaked to include Paris’ fave colour pink, and Queenie had personally requested a crystal ribboned decor near the entrance, which reflected the pink lighting from across the room.

Voila, the setting — at once large-scale and personalised, in the tradition of hosting society darlings across the globe. And interesting, for those wanting to watch an international celebrity hob-nobbing with the city’s elite, captured in familiar space, rather than sitting across a table answering scribes’ questions  with practised/prepped monotony.

It is said that good things come to those who wait. In the hyper-quick age of cyber-digital/Twitter, this is a bit of an anachronism, but many of our celebrities, globally, still seem to take it seriously. Read: They make you wait. Paris Hilton made scribes wait around two and a half hours at the scheduled press conference on Saturday, but that was only a prelude. The invite for the party read 9pm but by the unwritten rules in the crystal-clinking crowd, a delay of an hour or so is a given.

Three hours would be stretching it, even by star standards. At 11pm there were signs of impatience. At 11.30pm, restlessness. 12.30pm or so, some of the guests started saying cursory goodbyes. Queenie, who had fractured a toe that evening, and was braving vertiginous heels despite it, was the picture of poise, despite the delay.

Ms Hilton walked in at 1.20am, four and a half hours from the time on the invite. And this is where the mood turned. The buzz was palpable, some who had just left, returned. Paris Hilton, pencil-slim in disco sequins and earrings designed by Queenie was in the house and there was a clamour for introductions.

“What do you like best, about India so far?” I asked, when introduced. She didn’t hesitate: “The people!” Ms Hilton exclaimed without pause. Celebrities have that incandescence sometimes, that they can overturn complicated situations simply by charm.

Paris Hilton, exerted it that night, effortless. “She’s used to parties beginning at 12.30pm, she didn’t realise,” Queenie told me later.

Ms Hilton posed for pictures willingly, both for press and individual mobiles. She thanked her host prettily and sincerely from the DJ box. She tweeted her love of our world. To the end that happily, and in the wonderful way high society has, of adapting to its extremes, by the time the evening closed, and despite the long wait — all was utterly and absolutely forgiven.