Where We Found Ethan Hawke, Harvey Weinstein, and Jessica Alba Last Night

Four parties, many celebs, and a night of swilling for Obama.

"This feels like New Year’s Eve," says a blonde woman to her friend, glopping a mass of macaroni 'n' cheese onto a plate. She is waiting in the country-fried buffet line at Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 fete, a self-congratulatory paean to mock news held in Chelsea's mammoth The Park restaurant. The usually minimal dining room has been transformed into a political Coney Island: red and blue slot machines, instant photo booths, greasy mini-sliders and neon cocktails.

"You mean that it's a momentous night?" asks the friend, eyes glued to CNN on one of the 50 screens visible from the buffet.

"Not really," says the blonde. "I meant more that you really want to find someone to kiss before they call the election. It would be a shame if Obama wins I have nobody to make out with."

The whispers that Barack had this thing in the bag made people more socially adventurous tonight—at least in New York.

Obama's victory tonight was truly a historic one, and no amount of polling or early ballots could prepare us for the moment of sheer exuberance when the networks made the final call and McCain spoke the final words of his concession. Still, the whispers that Barack had this thing in the bag made people more socially adventurous tonight—at least in New York. The question became not whether O would clinch it, but where exactly you would be when he did—because if you're going to be telling the story to your grandchildren anyways, it would be nice if the details involved celebrities or champagne (or at least someone to make out with).

In New York, there were too many parties to keep track of: the Comedy Central bash, which started slow (waitresses loping around with untouched trays of "Red State" Shirley Temples and "Blue State" Curacao highballs), and then accelerated into a full on starcrush later on (along with the casts of Colbert Report and The Daily Show, guests included Gina Gershon, Padma Lakshmi, Ethan Hawke, Jane Krakowski, Sean William Scott and 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer).

Further uptown, Beast crushes David Gergen and David Gregory pundited away at CNN's headquarters, while bloggers and pseudo-celebrities clacked away at their computers at the nearby CNN Grill. A friend liveblogging from the event sent me several updates when the news broke, though they were mostly effusive "OHMYGODOBAMA!" or not quite PC: "I think every black person in this room is crying right now."

The real action (in wattage terms) was at Harvey Weinstein's bipartisan midtown gathering, thrown also by Georgette Mosbacher, former wife of Robert Mosbacher, Bush's secretary of commerce. Mosbacher was walking around the party looking stunned after the Obama pronouncement, her hand pressed on her hulking pink pearl necklace. "I've got my Miss America smile on," she said. "You know how that is."