High society met low culture last night in Manhattan at Broadway producer Marty Richards's annual holiday party. Photographer Bruce Weber, choreographer Rob Marshall, socialite/songwriter Denise Rich, comedy doyenne Caroline Hirsch, and actor Ben Gazzara were among those who turned up at Richards's Sutton Place apartment bearing, per instructions, gag gifts of no more than $20 in value, to be distributed randomly to other guests. Offerings included a whoopee cushion, a Clapper, and a battery-powered figurine of a dog humping a tree. "Some of them were pretty distasteful," says Michael Milton, an associate producer at Richards's company, The Producer Circle. "Somebody used a bar of soap and put what appeared to be a piece of their pubic hair on it, and then wrapped it back up and gave that."

But the present with the most potential to offend was a framed portrait of Harvey Weinstein, which producer Marty Bregman and his wife Cornelia brought for the host. Richards has been embroiled in a lawsuit against Miramax Films, which, he claims, cheated him out of his share of the revenues from the film adaptation of Chicago, released while Weinstein was still running the company. Fortunately, Richards, who is seeking $10 million in compensation, received the gift in the spirit in which it was bestowed. "He thought it was funny," says Milton, "although the suit is not funny."