On Monday night, March 9, 2009, I was lucky enough to attend Barbie's 50th Birthday Party at her Malibu Dream House (a friend who was invited asked me to come with her, and I, in turn, asked my houseguest, Norita Bergmann, to come along, too.)

We drove up Pacific Coast Highway to the house which appeared to be on the northern border of Malibu, up by Point Dume and Zuma Beach. The house had two big black gates covered in lush green astroturf and festooned with giant hot pink floral "B's. Then it was up a long steep driveway to the house, a very modern spread perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

(To see an aerial view of the house, go to: http://lalife.com/address/30065_Pacific_Coast_Hwy_Malibu_CA_90265).

We dropped our car off with the valet and the first thing we saw was a pink VW Beetle convertible that was swarmed by fellow guests using it as a photo op. In fact, that was the motif of the night - EVERYTHING was a photo op, and people never put away their cameras. Flashbulbs went off constantly.

The other over-riding theme was that, tonight, Barbie's Dream House was the happiest place on earth. Forget Disneyland. In 25 years in Hollywood, I've found myself at lots of events and parties, and the crowd out here is usually pretty jaded. But the Dream House, with an interior custom-designed by Jonathan Adler, put everyone in a jovial - even giddy - mood. People could not stop smiling and/or laughing all night. It was like being in the Barbie Fun House at an amusement park. Or Barbiewood. Or Barbieland.

Other random impressions:

The crowd of about 300 was young and pretty and seemed to be from the worlds of Home Design (lots of people seemed to know Jonathan Adler personally), Fashion Design, and Entertainment (there was a whole posse of actresses/personalities the papparazzi went crazy for. Other than Heidi Klum, I didnt recognize any of them. Call me culturally deficient.)

The women were very dressed up and THEY ALL WORE FABULOUS SHOES. And there was a lot of pink garb and accessories.

The party was first-class all the way - extraordinary food and drink, inventive and whimsical food stations, tap-your-toe music from the last 30 years, endless attention to detail - there were balls of white roses everywhere accented with crystal stones, the port-a-potty seats were banded in swaths of hot pink satin ribbon, and when the valet brought your car to you, there was a white rose in a mini-vase resting on the center console.

The staff was fun and friendly. Jonathan Adler employees served as docents in each of the rooms, explaining the decor and offering to take pix to memorialize the moment.

There were tons of media covering the party as party guests. While waiting in line to have one of our fingernails decaled with a Barbie design by some new-fangled machine, Norita and I chatted with the woman in front of us. She hoped she could get a clear enough image to photograph for an article she was writing for the LA Times. "The LA Times," I said. "Wow." After a brief pause, she said: "Well, it's not earth shattering news, but people can read about it in my blog." Indeed.

We were thrilled to be there (as was everyone else.) It was as swell a party as I've ever attended. Happy Birthday Barbie!

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are about 60,000 words worth of pictures of the event. Click on the pictures to see them bigger -- and with captions!!