SOCIAL CLIMES : Party’s Not Over Yet for Swifty

Your Social Climes staff has been reading more than our usual bundle of tabloids this week, and brings you news from the literary front:

When the Academy Awards are doled out on March 27 the stars will once again have to do without Irving (Swifty) Lazar’s primo A-list Oscar party, since the legendary literary agent died just over a year ago.

He’s gone--but hardly forgotten. Before his death, Lazar started writing his autobiography. Debuting in March is “Swifty: My Life and Good Times,” by Lazar, with Annette Tapert (Simon & Schuster). Odd that that’s the title; Lazar allegedly hated the moniker given to him by Humphrey Bogart.

The book promises Lazar’s rags-to-riches life story, plus lots of heavy names being dropped and tales of his famous deals.

“Even though Lazar himself is dead,” reads the publisher’s blurb, “the party still isn’t over until he says it is.”

Crafty Vanna: So you think Vanna White’s only talents are turning letters, having big hair and clapping?

The “Wheel of Fortune” star has more up her sequined sleeve--she loves to crochet! “Vanna’s Afghans A to Z: 52 Crochet Favorites” (Oxmoor House) offers projects for the beginner to the pro.

“When we learned of her crocheting,” said an Oxmoor House spokeswoman, “we thought she was the perfect person to convert non-crocheters into crocheters.”

It seems Miss Vanna learned the craft from her grandmother and considers it her favorite hobby because it’s so “portable and relaxing.”

She also gives crocheted items as gifts--”Wheel” host Pat Sajak and Merv Griffin are two lucky recipients. Even if you’re not lucky (or famous) enough to get an original Vanna, you can use her patterns--such as “Tickle the Ivories,” dedicated to her piano teacher, or “Perfectly Pink,” which is Vanna’s favorite color. We would have never guessed.

Trophy Wife: In between telling L.A. about floods and earthquakes, KNBC-TV news anchor Kelly Lange has also been working on--no, not an afghan--a novel.

“Trophy Wife” (Simon & Schuster) marks Lange’s entry into fiction with a tale of beautiful, glamorous Devin York, trophy wife to wildly successful clothing manufacturer Paul Bradshaw, who’s something of an arrogant cold fish. Bradshaw turns up dead, natch, and York is suspect numero uno .

Hmmm . . . Lange could have been considered a trophy wife herself when she was married to director William Friedkin (they split in 1990).

But we’re not suggesting for a minute that art is imitating life. After all, Friedkin is a director, not a clothing manufacturer, and he’s very much alive. We’re sure Lange just has a great imagination and an eye for high-glitz murder stories--after so much reporting on the O.J. Simpson trial, who wouldn’t?