It's no surprise that Hillary should use her big day to invite friends and supporters to an 'intimate' dinner, nor that they were obliged to pay $1,000 a plate for the privilege. She has a campaign to pay for, after all, even if we all know that she could stay in bed watching telly for the next 10 days and still win re-election to the Senate on 7 November.

And after all, birthdays come but once a year. On 19 August, Bill, an icon of the babyboomer generation ever since he became US president at the age of 46, had one of his own.

The big Six-O, no less. Celebrations, though, were postponed to this weekend.

If you think this means merely another 1,000-a-plate dinner in Central Park this evening, you have no grasp of his appetite for partying, gladhanding and raising torrents of cash for his charities.

The invitations . . .

2,100 of them . . . were sent out by his daughter Chelsea and by the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe. "My mother and I are planning a weekend of events to commemorate his 60th birthday, " Chelsea wrote in her version. "I know that he would want you to share this milestone . . . so I hope you can join us in New York City this 27th October through the 29th."

The first thing you notice are the dates (plural). This bash lasts three days, with the first event . . . a cocktail reception at the overpriced Gramercy Park Hotel . . . on Friday night.

It will wind up at the Gramercy Park, where many of the guests are staying, with another reception in the early hours of Monday. Anyone attending that one will have shown significant stamina.

All putative attendees were informed at the outset that their minimum monetary contribution should be $60,000 . . .

a figure that has everything to do with the number of years on Clinton's clock. But there will be elite privileges for anyone coughing up a bit more.

Those with $100,000 to burn could expect a table for brunch this morning and the thrill of sharing mimosas and poached eggs with Bill and Hillary. A cheque for $500,000 (credit cards accepted) ensured platinum treatment all weekend.

The pecking order gets still more complicated. Really big FOBs have also been assigned the status of "hosts" for the whole weekend. Among them is Ron Burkle, a supermarket magnate from California and Daniel Abraham, the former owner of the SlimFast diet empire. The roster of slightly lesser "co-hosts", meanwhile, includes Steve Bing, the property heir and father of Elizabeth Hurley's young son.

The rest of the guest list is a who's who of long-time major contributors to the Democrats and to the Global Initiative, which is overseen by the William J Clinton Foundation.

The Gramercy Park scrum promised to be high on booze and fine food. Then, after a brief night's kip, it was on to Saturday morning's poachedegg brunch at Pastis, a smallish faux-French bistro (French fries in metallic cones and juicy steaks) in the white-hot Meatpacking District.

Digestion requires a few hours of rest and recreation upstairs or at the St Regis, the other hotel assigning rooms to the assorted FOBs, before the entire guest-list descended last night on the Museum of Natural History for a reception and dinner to last four hours. It will not be a small crowd. Anyone giving $100,000 or more has been assigned four seats at the dinner beneath the museum's gilded ceilings.

Today the Clintertainment machine goes into high gear. Heartier souls should be ready to board buses for the sweeping Bayonne Golf Club in New Jersey for some golf with Bill. (Busaverse types are welcome to make use of the club's own helicopter pad. ) From there it's all the way back to Central Park, and cocktails and supper at the Boathouse.

Neither Mick Jagger nor Keith Richards are writing cheques this weekend, but rumour has it that the Rolling Stones will not be charging for a special performance at the Beacon Theatre tonight on Broadway. All the weekend's attendees have been invited to show up at the 2,800seat auditorium, but the $500,000-donors will get a backstage pass to mix with the band. Privacy will not be guaranteed on account of camera crews expected to record the night for a documentary about the current Stones' tour, directed by Martin Scorsese.

Just to contemplate the weekend's schedule . . . never mind actually taking part . . . is exhausting. It is a reminder that in retirement, Bill Clinton is hardly retiring. He may have relinquished the keys to the White House six years ago (and undergone heart by-pass surgery two years ago) but he is still campaigning with all the fervour he was always famous for.

That means campaigning for Democrats across the land, for his wife up and down New York, and, more than anything, for money for his charitable causes. This is a crucial time for the Democrats, who are nursing hopes of winning back control of the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate. Such a reversal for George Bush would be sweet revenge for Clinton, whose own legacy was half undone when mid-term elections in 1994 turned over control of Congress to the Republicans, a sea-change that led to endless investigations into his private doings and in his impeachment (and subsequent acquittal in the Senate).

Even so, he apparently doesn't know when to stop. Or just doesn't want to, because he is so good at it.

The multi-part bash this weekend is not the first to have been arranged on the back of Clinton getting a bus pass. Last month, he staged a dinner for donors in Toronto, which attracted such celebrities as Jon Bon Jovi, James Taylor and Kevin Spacey. That night raised $20m, although you can be sure that the final tally of giving after this weekend will be considerably higher.

Also in Toronto was comedian Billy Crystal, who poked fun at what he called the "Clinton Birthday Tour" that has no end. "By the time you finish this tour you're going to be 65, " he joked. And every mogul and magnate in the land with a single Democratic bone in their bodies, will be both worn out and broke.