Prince — yes, Prince, the Purple One — capped off the hottest Tony Award night in about 20 years. He showed up unannounced at the Hudson Terrace on West 46th St. where, ‘four Broadway shows were having Tony Award after parties. He sported a long diamond studded walking stick and several burly bodyguards. He had no idea it was Tony night, knew none of the shows and didn’t care. He’s Prince. West Side Story? Feh.

Still, it was a great night for the Tonys. The opening number featured dozens of shows and looked like it had been rehearsed for weeks. Nope — just one soundcheck, yesterday afternoon. Amazing.

The show played very well in Radio City. During commercials,’ a watch company raffled off two expensive time pieces. Host Neil Patrick Harris (pictured) did magic tricks, and was far funnier than when the cameras were on.

It was the first time in years when yours truly didn’t want to leave the audience and hang out backstage. The show was actually entertaining. And the winners were all good choices, from Geoffrey Rush to Angela Lansbury to 10 awards for “Billy Elliott.” It’s the most number of Tonys ever for a British import. And Rush now has an Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Golden Globe.

Harris, buttoned up most of the night, ended the show with his own song, using “Tonight” from “West Side Story” to sum up all the winners and foibles of the night. He took a nice swipe at the Golden Globes.

After the Tonys, many of the shows repaired to their own parties. “Billy Elliott” took over Bar American on West 52nd St where Elton John and Stephen Daldry each made speeches. Then Elton, cheated out of a best score award, flew home to London where he has a show on Tuesday. He lost, strangely, the best score award to “Next to Normal.” Try singing one of those songs, I ask you.

Many stars filled up the two-story Hudson Terrace including Marcia Gay Harden, James Gandolfini, Matt Cavenaugh from “West Side Story,” and Jane Fonda. Prince, growing tired of this fairly conventional spectacle, finally left for parts unknown.

More on Monday afternoon…

Tonight’s Tony Awards show on CBS promises to be the best in years– maybe ever.

For one thing, this has been a theater season full of movie stars. And they’re all coming to Radio City Music Hall tonight. Be there or be square.

Two time Oscar winner Jane Fonda, nominated for Best Actress in “33 Variations,” will open the show. That’s a big deal. From then on you will see a parade of stars from James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden to Geoffrey Rush, Susan Sarandon, Stockard Channing, and Angela Lansbury. Martha Plimpton — a possible winner for her show stopping performance in “Pal Joey”–will be there despite the death of her uncle, David Carradine, a couple of days ago. Neil Patrick Harris--from CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother”– is hosting the event.

It will also be a big night if you’re a fan of Elton John. He’s set to perform at least a couple of times, and his show, “Billy Elliott,” is on track to sweep through several categories.

Dolly Parton is going to perform with the cast of “9 to 5″ as well. This year the Tonys will only show video clips of nominated plays. The big money is going to be on musical numbers and big names. You do not want to miss the numbers from “West Side Story” and “Hair,” believe me. Or from “Billy Elliott.”

If time permits, I’m told that there’s a big number planned for the end of the show, after the Best Musical award is given. Insiders say it’s worth sticking around till the very end just to see it.

And remember: at least if you’re home you can make a sandwich or take a toilet break. The audience will be in Radio City from 6 to 11pm. Help! The show is followed by an official Tony party in the Radio City ice skating rink. Then many of the shows have individual parties. The celebrating will go on all night.

One thing’s for certain: CBS is very excited about this year’s show. Les Moonves has invited all the big deals from the network including the board of directors, I’m told.

We’ve kind of figured out by now that Ryan O’Neal was a terrible father. All of his kids have had drug problems, from Tatum and Griffin to Redmond, his son with Farrah Fawcett.

But now there’s even good historical evidence. Allegra Huston, sister of Anjelica, has nothing good to say about Ryan in her beautifully written memoir, “Love Child.”

She paints a picture of O’Neal as abusive and out of control, narcissistic, and negligent. When Allegra goes to stay with Ryan and Anjelica in the mid 1970s, Griffin is about 13 and smoking pot in his room. Tatum’s closet is filled with designer clothes more appropriate for an adult. They are also sprayed with an expensive perfume.

Allegra Huston writes with an unerring eye. How she lived through Hollywood in the 70s as an abandoned teen is the real story here. Her mother, Ricki Soma Huston, died when she was 4. Allegra, much younger than Anjelica, was raised to think famed and much older director John Huston was her father. She’s raised by nannies, distant relatives, and Huston’s fifth wife’s parents. Oliver Twist had it easier, frankly.

There are plenty of good Hollywood tidbits in “Love Child,” but none as biting as the ones about O’Neal. Seeing him on the Farrah Fawcett cancer special a couple of weeks ago, it’s hard to imagine this is the same person. But then again: in 2007, O’Neal was arrested for assaulting son Griffin. In 2008, he was arrested for alleged possession of narcotics along with son Redmond. This past January, O’Neal pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge. He avoided jail by going into an 18 month drug program.

Sounds like Allegra and Anjelica were lucky to get away from Ryan O’Neal when they had the chance. Anyway, “Love Child” is the Hollywood summer read. Don’t miss it.

Good news: when Michael Fleisher was made vice chairman of Warner Music Group last November, part of the deal was a gift to him of 450,00 shares of restricted stock in the company. At the time, WMG stock was at $2.77.

Interesting footnote, just FYI: according to ‘this SEC 8-K filing from WMG, Fleisher got the job in September when the stock was around $8.50. But the deal wasn’t done until November, when the price had fallen around five bucks. That’s when Fleisher locked in his purchase price for future stock buys at $2.77.

During the ensuing months, of course, the stock had plummeted, eventually hitting a low of around $1.50. Who could have guessed that it would drop so between the time Fleisher signed his deal and the day he locked in his price? And that the price would then skyrocket again?

But in the last few months, WMG has been mysteriously and inexplicably on the rise (although this Billboard analysis has its theories). On Tuesday the stock price hit $7.47. And what did Fleisher do? He sold, of course. He made $2,964,000 on the sale of 400,000 shares. And he still has another 400,000 options to buy at $2.77.

That’s quite a reward for an executive at a company that’s failed to do anything remotely successful and whose CEO’Edgar Bronfman, Jr.‘ just announced he was moving to London, far away from the daily decision making that’s so far marked his reign of incompetence at WMG.

Cool.

The big question now is, who sells next? Bronfman or vice chairman’Lyor Cohen? They each plunked down huge amounts in the millions to buy shares when the price was $5.29 back on March 15, 2008. If they sell now, they’ll make $2 per share. But perhaps they’ll wait and gamble that the stock will rise some more for no reason.

WMG currently has two albums bearing its name on Billboard’s Top 25 albums, and two others’by Nickelback’that are part of a now-ended distribution deal.

The New York Post’s Michael Riedel must have a lot of time on his hands — certainly enough to flip through the British papers and take their stories.

Over the weekend they lifted a story out of Britain’s Daily Mail, and from pre-eminent theater and celebrity writer Baz Bamigboye.

The story in question is about author Helen Fielding bringing her “Bridget Jones’s Diary” stories to Broadway and the West End as a musical.

Bamigboye broke the story on Friday, May 15th in his weekly column in the Daily Mail. He confirmed the musical with producer Eric Fellner of Working Title Productions. The famed London reporter — who recently got headlines in Cannes for challenging director Lars Von Trier over his horrifying “Antichrist” film,’ even wrote about a secret reading of a script. held at the insidery Ivy Restaurant in London.

The Mail story also noted that Stephen Daldry and Peter Darling, the award-winning director and choreographer of the “Billy Elliot” musical (and film), were in the audience.

You can read it here

All of this didn’t deter Riedel from stealing the scoop. He simply waited two weeks and posted it as if it were new on May 29th in the New York Post. He re-interviewed Fellner and pretended that he, Riedel, had the scoop. He didn’t, and he should be ashamed.