Whoever says octogenarians don't know how to party has never been to former Time managing editor Jim Gaines book party. We have and, let us tell you, it's quite a "time."

Gaines and his well-preserved pals gathered at - where else? - Elaine's last night to celebrate Gaines' new tome, For Liberty and Glory. A riveting look at George Washington's friendship with the Marquis de Lafayette, Gaines told us he hopes his book will "remind Americans how much we owe the French." Trés intriguing.

Even more intriguing, the cast of characters who showed up to fete Gaines. And by "intriguing" we mean "Who are these people?"

To spice things up, we pretended to know the hunky Tad Smith, CEO of Reed Business Information, publisher of Variety. After introducing ourselves, Smith made us swear all his comments would be off the record. "What?!" we said. "You mean we can't tell the world you think [redacted]?" Shame …

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