icepack

by A.D. Amorosi

Last week was let 'em eat cake time: gluttons sucking down white-chocolate-rimmed cocoa martinis and creme Godivas at the Academy of Natural Science's Death by Chocolate bash. I haven't seen dizzy, sugar-pig revelers like this since cutting cookalooka with Jell-O pudding powder. Hookah-puffing partiers got on, too, inhaling cinnamon-y tobacco blends at Roya on Rittenhouse's new upstairs boite. Guess it was an Antoinette week, what with homemaker Martha Stewartcomparing her jail-time plight to that of Nelson Mandela. There's no comparison: Martha wouldn't be caught dead in those horrible shirts Mandela wears. … After the sweet, the bitter: Bitter, bitter weeks hosts a Revenge release gig July 23 at the Parlor. … WHOWHATWHERE: Who was down with NAACP (yeah, you know me) or Charlie Mack? When he wasn't hosting bashes at Electric Factory or the Kimmel with Tyrese, Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Tamala Jones, Tichina Arnold, Boyz II Men's Nathan Morris, Cedric the Entertainer and Jaleel "Urkel" White, Mack was the duke of the Doubletree Hotel, where most of his crew stayed. NAACP's convention got Omarosa (must we add Manigault-Stallworth?), Nick Cannon and Sean Combs, who gave anyone who cared the 411 on his Citizen Change voter-registration org before a rumored visit to MTV's Real World Arch Street house. (Someone has to care about them. We don't.) But the only NAACPer spied eating was chair-boss Julian Bond, who went to Ralph's. 'Atsa nize. Meanwhile, Spike Lee hung at Four Seasons yakking about his new She Hate Me. Old police commish John Timoney and photog Sabina Louise Pierce stopped at Bar Noir, whose Erika Schiff is catching hell from PC Phillies fans for wearing a low-cut white number in front of kids while singing the anthem at the Citz stadium last week. Suede got a visit from Eagles Bobby Taylor and Fred Mitchell and Barry Gardner from the Cleveland Browns. Beenie Man hung at Sound of Market's 11th Street store. After Touchstone Pictures' three-hour commercial for The Village on the SciFi Channel on Sunday (a not-so "buried past," don't you think?), M. Night Shyamalan and his stars premiere the movie July 26 in Brooklyn (with Prospect Park done up juz' lahk West Chester). … Remember despising Chemistry but being too drunk to care? The new Grape Street music complex opens July 23 at Chem's old address, 4100 Main St., with Union Dead, Pepper's Ghost and Silvertide. In other Manayunk news, Bruce Reinfeld is having a busy week. Not only will his We the People participate in the Grape opening, his High Fidelity graphics and clothing company bought a storefront \'d1 4386 Main (the address Arlen Specter wanted for his re-election campaign office). To celebrate, Reinfeld plays Bar Noir's Monday Night Club on July 26 with art on display, a silent auction and a going-away gig for WePeep Pete Donnelly, whose band The Figgs hit Europe with Tommy Stinson. … Don't cry for Jonathan Estrin, Drexel's Dean of Media Arts & Design. Though his Jasper, Texas lost the Humanitas Prize to Angels in America ("It was like being asked to participate in a beauty contest, then finding Halle Berry was a contestant," Estrin says), his school is building a new media complex with shooting stages, postproduction sound facility and more. What he did win last week in the state House's passing of a bill that will give 20 percent tax credit for TV-and-film projects that spend 60 percent of their budget in Pennsylvania. And the newly opened Meritage restaurant got an award of excellence from Wine Spectator. "That makes us the youngest restaurant to receive this award," says Meritage's James Colabelli. … Openings: Wayne Edwards men's clothing store will reopen its new location, 1525 Locust, by the time you read this. Stephen Starr's "back to basics" (what's that mean? stay tuned) Continental Midtown opens the first week of August. And though Avram Hornik is busy opening an Argentinean grill and an Italian kosher restaubar at 19th and Chestnut, I hear he's chatting up DJ Bobby Startup, who's looking to expand beyond packed Bar Noir weekends. … Good rumors: While Donald Trump announces that his third season of The Apprentice will feature some Wharton School young'uns, wha's this about him grabbing the property next to Del Ave's Chrome for a gambling facility? And could another bowling locale open on the Penn Campus at 4040 Locust, the home of the one-time R5-venue 4040? … Philly expat promoter Joey Mahoney is back with Songspot.org, a floating showcase organization whose first nights include July 25's "3 mic nite Shut-in Delight" with Bayen Butler and pals at Pontiac and July 29's Eclectic Cabaret at Tritone with Scott Rocks, Jay Laughlin and Needles Jones. … Dick time: While Wilma Theater and Puppetry of the Penis hosted a "Graduate of Dick Tricks University" tutorial on Wednesday, Colin Farrell's At Home at the End of the World is the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Fest's biggest movie. "It's the top-selling screening," says TLA fest PR guy Andrew Preis of the July 23 gig. Go ask co-star Dallas Roberts how big a screening it is.