When you get an invite to a Hollywood party for the PlayStation 3, you prepare yourself for a host of B- and C-level celebrity spottings, massive alcohol and fried food intake, and feeling like the homeliest person in the room. Fortunately, the Best Buy Hollywood PlayStation 3 block party did not disappoint.

After parking on a "better hide the laptop" kind of street, I walked my way over to the Best Buy on La Brea, strolling past the hundreds upon hundreds of campers and line-sitters passed out and sprawled out on the sidewalk

A few dozen patient potential PS3 owners had run out of sidewalk, forcing a second line across the street. The annex line was full of kids who smelled way too good, dressed way too sharp to dirty themselves with a three day line-up. This was the fresh crowd. And it looked like they too were going to get a PS3 tonight.

I called my friend, Freeloadin' Scott Andrews who had just parked and planned to meet at the media entrance. He paused carefully to take this snapshot.

After checking in at the press desk, then meeting up with Scott, we weaseled our way in to the party zone. No one of note really, save Danny "Surely I've Killed A Guy" Trejo, Stan "The Man" Lee and some very tall basketball playing type (look, I don't follow the sports, okay?) had made their way into the event.

They'd be here soon enough, but Scott and I decided to work our way in, check out the scene, and maybe score a late dinner. Sushi, burgers, chili, corndogs, all manner of hors d'oeuvres, mashed potatoes, BBQ beef sandwiches, donuts, Jamba Juice, mini-pastries, it was all there for the devouring.

We first checked out the Resistance: Fall of Man set up. Behind it were a few PS3's with Call of Duty 3 running. Both stationgs were patrolled by fake military types, but occupied by real life military types.

After watching the above enlisted man get his ass handed to him repeatedly by a Chimera Titan in Resistance, I gave him a few pointers, to no avail. He was a lost cause.

A quartet of Guitar Hero II demo stations were just behind us, so I figured, what the hell, I'll get a couple songs in before the perfumed masses arrive. Before I knew it, a "Shout At The Devil" here, a "Killing In The Name Of" there, the place was packed.

Then George Constanza... crap, I mean Jason Alexander appeared, ready to rock out.

Unfortunately, he sucked like you wouldn't believe. He made it about 14% through one song on Easy before throwing in the towel.

The rest of the party featured playable PS3 and PS2 kiosks, ranging from titles like Motorstorm (looking much improved), NBA 2K7 (shiny, pretty), Need For Speed Carbon (hideous, as it was shockingly fed through composite cables into Sony Bravia displays) and... Pimp My Ride? (Yes, Xzibit was there.) After mocking the game and the girl playing it a little too loud, we decided to check out the Blu-Ray igloo.

Reps from various movie studios were on hand to answer questions and hand out free discs, but we got trapped either at the bar or planted comfortably in front of the Panasonic Elite displays, soaking in the crystal clear imagery. Yeah, that's right. We were at a party with free booze watching TV. Pathetic.

We emerged from the bustling igloo to witness a half-dozen Laker girls strutting their stuff. What else can you do at this point?

Soon enough, Camp Freddy/pretty-much-Velvet Revolver took the stage, clearly there to collect a paycheck and cover some of their favorite songs. I saw Slash. The night bordered on surreal.

They made Guitar Hero II sessions virtually unplayable at this point, so, after discussing the Guitar Hero on PS3 problem and getting some bad news (it won't ever be playable), I stormed off to find corndogs. We ran into the Genji producer we made to suffer during a Justify Your Game segment and apologized profusely for putting him on the spot like that. Then we all laughed and froze in place, allowing the credits to roll.

Okay, that last bit didn't happen, but the night was definitely winding down. We momentarily got excited when Ricky Schroeder walked by. This was a bad sign. Then Ari's assistant Lloyd (real name unknown) from Entourage emerged from the Blu-Ray tent and I became inappropriately speechless.

I check my watch.

It was almost 11:45 so we decided to depart to visit the camper queue, waiting for the herd to rush the store. After three days of smelly anticipation, many were going home with a PlayStation 3 within the hour. What will happen?! Michael McWhertor

Contact information for this author is not available.