Frank Gehry slows down but not by choice

"I promised a lot of people I'd slow down when I turned 80," confesses Frank Gehry, the world's most celebrated living architect. Then with a sheepish grin, he adds: "I wasn't really planning to do it, but because of the economy, I wound up keeping that promise by accident."

That day finally arrived Saturday. And on Friday night the occasion was marked by an upscale bash for his 500 closest friends at the funky (but now shuttered) Geffen Contemporary museum at MOCA.

Guests included Gehry's family, artists, the mayor of L.A., and movie stars Brad Pitt, Donald Sutherland and Dennis Hopper. Actor Sally Kellerman sang "Happy Birthday" to the man acclaimed for taking architecture out of the box and reshaping it into a sculptural art form that grabbed the world's attention.

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