Who ever heard of a narcoleptic throwing a wild pajama party? A setup for a snoozer, right? Not when your host is Gino Empry -- Toronto's legendary publicist to the stars and still one of the city's most flamboyant fixtures (right down to the pompadour precariously perched on his head).

The invitations for Empry's Saturday night slumber party proclaimed it to be the 18th annual event of its kind. It was actually a first, but as Empry puts it, calling it the "18th," "makes it sound more happening." The former impresario of the Royal York's Imperial Room certainly knows how to give good hype.

To the relief of many, Empry decided not to wear his birthday suit, as he had threatened. Dressed in silk boxer shorts and dripping with diamonds, he greeted guests at the door to his Carlton Street bachelor pad. "What did you bring me?" he bellowed, a martini glass brimming with a fruity pink cocktail (Sex on the Beach) in hand.

Jaymz Bee was Empry's co-host of the night. Toronto's toast of Las Vegas, resplendent in a silk smoking jacket and red ascot, doesn't just work the retro lounge shtick with his Royal Jelly Orchestra -- he lives it. Most of the guests, Bee pointed out, were his and they included an assortment of dolled-up go-go dancers in lace teddies, flannel-clad poets, boa-draped puppeteers and the wild and wacky comedian Judy Jet, sporting padding in the bosom of her slip.

Empry's condo -- with its white carpeting, garish red drapes, animal-print chaises and bearskin rugs -- can best be described as "pure shagadelic." It's lovingly decorated with wooden masks and other treasures Empry has acquired on his many trips around the world. The walls are covered with the memorabilia of his career: one of Tony Bennett's oil paintings (red roses in a vase) hangs over the gas fireplace and a photograph of Evil Knevel graces the dressing room. The red-white-and-black abstract by Jack Pollack (the Canadian dealer-painter, not the famous U.S. renegade) in the dining room is unique, according to Empry. "He was too lazy to go get water, so he just peed in the paint." Mmm. I'll pass on the bowl of cheezies and burnt popcorn.

"This is the orgy room," Empry proudly proclaimed, leading the way into the master bathroom, dominated by an elevated jacuzzi set in plush peach carpeting. "I've had six police sergeants in there." Don't ask any more.

Empry seemed to be slightly disappointed that nobody stripped out of their PJs for a soak, but then again, he didn't exactly set a striking example. When the photographer and I tried to get him to pose on his chinchilla bedspread with a bevy of scantily-clad beauties, Empry scrambled out of the bedroom. "Wait," he cried out to us, "I didn't show you my soapstone collection." So much for his reputation as the, um, big swinger.

The party kicked into high gear when Allan Austin, chiropractor to the stars, fired up some Jerry Lee Lewis tunes on the baby grand. Empry himself doesn't play. "I'm going to learn when I get old and can't work any more," he said. Empry is rumoured to be in his 80s. Age, however, is a state of mind. And Empry appears to be in fine form. He outlasted most of his guests, who finally cleared out at about 3 a.m., and didn't once nod off or let out one of his rip-snortin' snores that have scared the daylights out of plenty of theatre patrons over the years. Empry's evaluation of the night? "There were lots of kooky people here," he said, with a completely straight face. "But nice looking. They seemed to have fun without causing too much damage."

Empry isn't the only Daddy-O getting into the swing of things. John Lithgow, the Oscar-nominated, Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor who currently stars as High Commander Dick Solomon in the NBC comedy series 3rd Rock From the Sun, has recently released a crazy children's CD called Singin' in the Bathroom. Backed by Bill Elliott's 30-piece big band, the collection features catchy ditties with far-out titles such as You Gotta Have Skin and From the Indies to the Andes in his Undies.

Big Kids is an original song Lithgow wrote himself. "When I was a little boy," Lithgow explained over the phone from New York, "my big brother hung out with all sorts of toughs. I remember running into the house whenever they walked down the street together."

Does he ever get the same feeling of trepidation around his 3rd Rock co-star, the Amazonian first assistant played by Kristen Johnston? "I'm still a little bigger than she is," he said with a laugh, "except when she wears spike heels. Then she terrifies me."

Lithgow, who is off to Spain this summer to co-produce and star in Terry Gilliam's film version of Don Quixote, says there isn't much difference between adult theatre audiences and a gaggle of five-year-olds. "You can't hit them with too many ideas. They love silliness and lyrics they can learn in the course of a song." Makes sense. How else could Phantom of the Opera have survived so long?