Dec 17, 2002/FWD/ --- Though she's come in for some carping for her book launch that never ends, applause, at the very least, is due to Rena Sindi for the invitations to the dinner she's planning this week.

Sindi has messengered out charming Versace side plates, replete with the house's trademark Medusa head, for the drinks, dinner and disco party she will stage in the Italian house's Fifth Avenue flagship boutique on Wednesday.

The book, "Be My Guest," by the Park Avenue hostess, Oxford graduate, Columbia University master's degree in International Affairs holder and pretty thing about town, Sindi captures photos from 15 splashes that are all but one thrown by Rena, and shot by photographer Jessica Craig-Martin.

And though born with the proverbially spoon between her incisors - Rena's dad is a seriously rich Iraqi financier - her Assouline-published tome is a practical how-to on invitations, table settings, recipes, cocktails, decorations and music.

Since the book appeared, la Sindi has gotten in more practice, staging breakfast at Van Cleef & Arpels and dinner at Christofle. Furrier Dennis Basso threw a "Ladies Who Lunch" afternoon affair where guests scoffed down sea scallops and shrimp presented on frozen blocks of ice with fur trim.

"This is the party taken to the nth degree," is how Rena describes her guide on how to create successful bashes. The cute plate from Versace is a good start.