A SMASHING GOOD TIME: Party guests don't typically take sledgehammers to elevators, rip up carpets or throw roaring speed-boat engines into bath tubs and shove them through walls. But then most hosts don't choose demolition as their party theme. Scenes of anarchy greeted guests attending the pre-renovation bash at Paris's gargantuan Le Royal Monceau hotel last week. Twenty-five contemporary artists had artistically ruined rooms for the occasion, including China's Wang Du and France's Yoann Saura, who bagged an exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in February on the strength of his installation: a toilet pierced with light sticks.

On the third floor, guests were invited to help tear down the hotel's dowdy decor. "I'm gonna smash everything," yelled Cory Kennedy, rushing into Andre and Olympia Scarry's all-black room, fitted out with battered couches and a giant disco ball. Kanye West, who roamed the corridors with a bemused-looking Yves Carcelle, said that trashing hotel rooms was old hat. "Yeah, you know, the usual throwing the telly out of the window type of thing," he said. Cécile Togni, meanwhile, part of Paris's Putafrange DJ act, disclosed that the trio have come up with a clothing line for the contemporary chain Maje, due to premiere in Colette in December. Philippe Starck, who'll be overseeing the complete redesign of the hotel, said he's had enough of fashion. "I'm focusing on democratic eco-friendly projects," he said, describing one mini Starck energy-generating windmill that will hit French supermarkets next year. "I'm also working on a green building in L.A. that I can't really talk about yet," he said. "But it's going to be big."