After drawing criticism for her alleged wardrobe shopping sprees during the 2008 campaign, Sarah Palin might have a reason to smile on her former almost son-in-law Levi Johnston.
He ducked behind the Gibson Ampitheatre on Sunday to attend Backstage Creations’ official lounge for the Teen Choice Awards – the MoroccanOil “Celebrity Retreat.” (For those confused by the name, the sponsor was a high-end line of hair products used on the set of the “Twilight” series, not a foreign financier sitting on an oil fortune.) Inside the heavily guarded tent, he picked up choice gear like a Palm phone, the Wii dance-along game “Just Dance 2,” and even some board games based on the “Vampire Diaries” and “The Office."
The event drew host Katy Perry, Russell Brand, David Archuleta, and Leighton Meester to the private area where rock stars normally entertain their friends during hometown shows in L.A. Instead of cocktails, organizers gave young talent like Jenna Ushkowitz (“Glee”) and Jason Derulo 5 Gum for all the fake air kissing during those surfboard winning moments.
After hanging out with Francia Raisa (“Secret Life of the American Teenager”), George Lopez snagged makeup to convert himself to a secret Kardashian sister for a bit on-stage. Vivitar gave drop-proof and spill-proof cameras to talent to document their night at major events, but Johnston didn’t need his right away. He had his own camera crew from “Entertainment Tonight” trailing him.
On Friday, pop station KIIS-FM gathered young and young at heart at the W Los Angeles-Westwood for its Teen Choice Lounge. Bobby Brown was on hand with children, while Alex Meraz (“Twilight”) stripped down to his birthday suit to get a public spray-down from Epione tanning spa.
HBO’s inspiration for its next Hollywood-based series, ICM agent-turned-“Lifestyle Lemonaid” blogger Nikki Joel, was amongst the crowd picking up Denimocracy Denim and Lyric Culture T’s. To the partial relief of the endangered music industry, Lyric Culture has opened a new revenue stream by licensing song lyrics and slapping them on comfy wardrobe that went to Nikki Blonski and “The Hard Times of RJ Berger’s” Jareb Dauplaise. The crowd shared the love by tweeting away about the incoming freebies, offering duplicates to their fans on Twitter’s latest money-making promotional tie-in, Promojam.
On the opposite coast and a generation away, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo and Calvin Klein were amongst the faces at Showtime’s screening of the “The Big C” in East Hampton on Saturday night. Gabourey Sidibe and Martha Stewart also hit the soiree in designer Donna Karan’s backyard. The show’s lead Laura Linney and Showtime stablemate Edie Falco joined the channel’s chairman Matt Blank for Skyy cocktails at the event sponsored by the Cinema Society and Urban Zen Foundation.
