Swelter 47

The fame beat wrapping up with an actual encounter, walking into Bang's Sunday-night party and discovering Jason Binn of Ocean Drive dining in celebrity state: Stallone, film director Oliver Stone, various Hollywood types, and the standard gaggle of girls. The circumstances precluding pressing Chili Pepper questions and our usual operating policy of relentless Dick Tracy-style nerve, Stallone forthright, polite, and very vital: "I'm having a great time. Life is real good right now. Looking forward to spending a couple of months away from Los Angeles; it's getting really tough out there. If this town gets a few more production facilities, everybody in Los Angeles will be moving here and inflicting themselves on Miami for the next couple of years."

The opposite end of the gathering anchored by Oliver Stone joking away: "I don't know anybody at this table or what I'm doing here." Stone flying in from Panama that same day, working on a project about former Panamanian dictator and full-time South Dade resident Manuel Noriega: "You can't believe how difficult it is to work down there." Stone introducing Noriega's daughter Sandra, commuting between Miami and Venezuela: "It's very strange to have your family become a movie. Of course, we are expecting some sensationalism and fiction." All of us taking in the nightly carnival: bizarre electric hair and early Cher outfits, reprobates and models, Binn going terminally cellular and affecting introductions. The omega point of Miami, where worlds collide and everyone is equally fabulous, Stone finally leaning back and musing, "You know, maybe this would make a pretty good movie.