Swelter

A notorious glamour girl, spanning the intersecting worlds of magazine trash and high finance, casting her net into the land of fun and money: rap mogul Russell Simmons, one of our more connected friends, and Ronald Perelman, last spotted locally with Claudia Schiffer at a Revlon reception. ICM agent Martha Luttrell ("I rely more and more on good luck!") lobbing the ball into an even headier arena with Michael Fuchs, Sherry Lansing, and Mort Zuckerman. The noted publisher/developer/celebrity comptroller doing a Horatio Alger number ("Luck is perspiration. Keep at it until you sweat!") on his chic cohorts: Diane von Furstenberg, Jann Wenner, and actress Blair Brown. Back on the Coast, the star quotient escalating with Jane Fonda ("I'll do anything out of fear"), her effort reaching Frank Wells, Michael Ovitz, and Melanie Griffith, now living out yet another Star Is Born remake with Don Johnson. Ovitz, the warrior king of Hollywood, sending the circle of ambition back downstairs, delivering a cryptic lecture to a series of lesser players: "I do not work under fear, and as for the waste of paper, it is very regrettable." Up or down the chain of life, the eternal boss -- joyless and omnipresent -- remains forever prepared to spoil a good time.