In what has become a tradition for the cast of “Dancing with the Stars,” Monday night marked not only the start of a new broadcast season, but the start of the weekly post-performance soirees.
Each season they anoint a current hotspot where they watch the show, eat, and eke out an additional beat to the night’s storyline with the paparazzi that join them on the unofficial “outside” guest list.
This season, it appears to be Mixology101, a sleek new tree house perched atop a double set of stairs between the Grove and the Farmer’s Market. It opened last week. (Above, Jaleel White, Karina Smirnoff, Maria Menounos, and Derek Hough after the show.)
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Upstairs, Menounos was only steps away from where she shoots her day job, “Extra.” Her partner Hough proved that pro dancing allows you to eat whatever you want, putting away a burger, fries and nachos as the show played. Later on, Martina Navratilova, 55, rolled in with her entourage sporting “Team Martina and Tony” jackets, branded with AARP logos. “Just like (NASCAR driver) Jeff Gordon,” one said.
New York-based Ralph Macchio, a spring 2011 alum, turned up as he’s in town shooting a romantic arc with Fran Drescher on “Happily Divorced”.
Meanwhile over at the Beverly Hilton, Brad Hall and Julia Louis-Dreyfus were among the crowd kicking off next month's Tribeca Film Festival. Jamie Chung, Jenna Fischer, Jon Heder and Jamie Patricof joined Tribeca chief Jane Rosenthal at the American Express-hosted cocktail party. (Photo by Wireimage.)
Because of a late-night shoot, the “prince” missed his own “Mirror Mirror” premiere on Saturday. Co-star Lily Collins covered for Armie Hammer, until Hammer showed about an hour after the kids-themed party got going. Collins graciously posed with wave after wave of kids at the youth-heavy event. One young guest asked, “Are we in Hollywood?”
A look around the adult contingent was eclectic – from “Mirror” producer Brett Ratner and Russell Simmons to proud father Phil Collins looking healthy in a hat.
Former first daughter and current "Today" show contributor Jenna Bush-Hager popped up at the Hard Rock Hotels Music Lounge at SXSW over the weekend. She came to check out Givers, a band with high profile gigs later this spring at Coachella and Jazz Fest in New Orleans.
Bush-Hagar wasn’t the only twin as Austin local Brad Womack, an infamous ex-“Bachelor” and twin himself, was grinning around the Motorola Café as Hollywood and Silicon Valley came to his hometown.
What happened to the Black-Eyed Peas’ hiatus? While Will.I.Am was a co-mentor on “Idol” last week, bandmate Stacy Ferguson leveraged her part-Irish roots for her side gig as a part-owner of a spirit company with a St. Patrick’s Day party at Confidential. Despite a rainy night and non-traditional nightlife outpost in Beverly Hills (Seth MacFarlane and Bill Maher have been in), Fergie brought her sister and husband Josh Duhamel to promote her low-calorie Voli vodka, an aggressive entertainment marketer with several of Bravo TV's “Housewives” as virtual spokespersons.
After a non-amicable and public split from with one of his managers last month, DJ Connor Cruise (the adopted son of Tom and Nicole Kidman) was back on the event circuit Saturday night, spinning at Colony. This time, it was a direct booking with SBE’s Dave Osokow, who’s been getting the improving Cruise to other markets across the country, like the opening of sushi spot Katsuya in San Diego. It’s been reported that he pulls $10,000 per set.