Red Carpet: 40/40 Club Fun

The 40/40 Club is a new sports-themed nightclub with "an eclectic menu" that includes fried deviled eggs and southern-fried chicken sticks owned by hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, boyfriend of Beyonce. I did not have the stamina to stick around until they arrived, probably at about 2 a.m. I did get a bunch of fun pix, though.

The first recognizable star I saw was, uh, the Rev. Al Sharpton. It surprised others, but this was the third time I've seen Rev. Al on the Vegas scene -- he was in the audience of a Gladys Knight concert a few years ago. I don't remember the other time but it was, as this, a black-related event.

For a while, it was the predictable I'd-attend-the-opening-of-a-can-of-tuna crowd: Frank Marino, Nathan Burton and then Carrot Top...

We were getting sort of restless, having been assembled 8 p.m. along this area and having nobody of note show up for more than three hours. I was particularly fascinated by the Nicole Richie-lookalike in the blue dress and sprocket-silver boots from the local Fox affiliate in the middle shot. I'm always fascinated by "journalists" who hug and kiss all the stars and fancy themselves one of them.




Anyhow, eventually, we started getting a parade of major sports stars, including (in order) Charles Barkley, LeBron James and Alex Rodriguez:

I gave up on this red carpet when Mary J. Blige showed up. A PR woman, knowing I wanted to chat with her, nonetheless said to the singer, "Would you speak to the local Fox reporter?" And then, when done, the same PR lady said leadingly to Blige, "You don't want to talk to anyone else, do you?" Later, this woman would claim it was Mary's ideas who she spoke with, but as someone with a severe hearing disability, I can SEE exactly everything that's said. But, anyhow, here's Mary J -- and her very, very severe shoes...

I did get a very nice shot of one of Miles' reporters at KVBC, Hetty Chang, chatting up LeBron, who is 6-8. The disparity reminded me of my 2001 snapshot with Yao Ming in a Changchun, China hotel room. See it here. God, wasn't I young and my hair so short!

Evidently, I wasn't the only one who gave up; Richard Abowitz of the L.A. Times blog the Moveable Buffet checked out even sooner than I did. He will be live-blogging New Year's Eve tonight from the Strip, for those of you who feels sad you're not there. Read it all here.

I have not seen yet whether Jay-Z and Beyonce made it or, if they did, whether they made the wait worth anything to the print reporters who waited. Others who were on the "tip sheet," a press release advertising who would walk the carpet, included Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Jackson and Barry Bonds. Dunno if they were there, but I gave up when I realized while chatting with LeBron that my questions were too deep for this setting anyhow. Oh well.

But before I finish this, though, I wanted to mention that there was this huge hoard of people being escorted into the club, mostly very pretty women. I asked one how she got her invite and she mentioned, elusively, that she was from some "agency." Hmmm.

That does NOT explain how this reincarnated Robert Goulet got in, though...