I've ran into some strange characters when I'm in LA, but last night's encounter may top the list.

I was at the E! network cocktail party, chatting with the likes of Bruce Jenner (who told tales of his old broadcasting partner, Howard Cosell, accent and all) and Minnesotan KP Anderson, co-executive producer of "The Soup" (who told me Jared Allen is raring to be a guest host on "Sports Soup" and probably would have done so already if the Vikes weren't in the playoffs.

But there was a trio of teenage girls, joined at the hip and circulating around the room, that I didn't recognize. Finally, as the party was winding down I found myself talking to them in a corner. Turns out they're sisters - Tess Taylor, Alexis and Gabrielle Neiers - all starring in a new reality series, "Pretty Wild," about teenagers on the LA party circuit. That's not the strange part. Alexis is one of the girls accused of a string of breakins to the homes of celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan. What in the world is she doing at a cocktail party for the press? Alexis, cool as a cucumber, really didn't see anything wrong with it, nor did her mother who was also in attendance. She did say that she'll be cleared (she's scheduled to stand trial soon) and kept insisting that she was perfect for the reality world. "Hey, we're pretty - and we're wild!" she said. Nice line, Alexis, but I wouldn't use it in court.

I was dying yesterday to ask Tony Romo's former girlfriend Jessica Simpson if she was rooting for the Cowboys or the Vikings, but I bit my tongue - a rarity.

A terrific bluegrass band, David Make Three, played the IFC party and I got a chance to hang with them between sets. Well worth checking out - and you soon can. Band members, who have playeed 7th St. Entry in the past, will move up the main First Avenue room for a March concert. The unofficial host of the party was Thu Tran, the creator and host of "Food Party," a show I have said in print - and said to her many, many, many times last night - is the weirdest, kookiest thing on television. She took it the right way, so much so that she joined a few of us for a late-night visit to In N' Out Burger.