New York, August 30 – Kanye West celebrated the release of his new album, Late Registration, with an intimate dinner hosted by Complex magazine and Hennessy. The dinner was at a spectacular converted factory called The Foundry, and it was intimate, most likely, because it was located in Queens, just a convenient twelve blocks from the subway. Since most of the guests – Nick Cannon, Herbie Hancock, who also released a new record that day, record exec L.A. Reid and hip-hop violinist Miri Ben Ari – were delivered by car, we’ll just blame the lateness on hip-hop time: the 9 P.M. after party was delayed because, at midnight, they were still serving the 7 P.M. dinner.

New York, August 30 – Does back-to-school shopping get any better? Tuesday afternoon browsers at Virgin Megastore on Union Square snapped to attention when they realized that the band in the store promoting their new CD was 30 Seconds to Mars, whose lead singer is Jared Leto. Reviews for the band’s second album, called A Beautiful Life, have been mixed, but with Leto singing, who cares? The band did a rocking set at the store, and…..wow, he has really dreamy blue eyes. We tried, but couldn’t stuff Leto into our iPod.

Photos: Jason Kempin/LFI

Miami, August 28 – MTV certainly has matured as it has grown, and perhaps more so in this conservative, post-Janet Jackson era. And, with all of the anticipation, outrageous parties, yachts, shootings and over-the-top celebrating, the Video Music Awards show itself was the accounting firm of awards shows. Everybody was on their best behavior backstage. No drama, no tears, no wardrobe malfunctions beyond Lindsay Lohan’s and Gwen Stefani’s unfortunate joint wearing of animal prints, but that’s more of a lifestyle choice and we’re open-minded.

Jake Gyllenhaal was busy, so Kirsten Dunst made do with Orlando Bloom for the evening. Nelly ran into an old friend, Annette Funicello, who is the personification of Miami Beach’s mid-twentieth century heyday. “Your arms are getting big”, Annette complimented the hip hop artist on his physique.

What’s that? Oh, excuse us just a moment.

We’re back. It seems that woman with Nelly was actually Desperate Housewives’ Eva Longoria. Well, she looked just like Annette. Brava, Eva.

Back in the current century, Kanye West must have arrived at the American Airlines Arena in a bus. His posse of about 40 people spilled out onto the white carpet, engulfing other celebs we know were there, but got swept away in the Kanye flow. West came into the press room after the show had ended, and, claiming he wanted to do something different in a photo, asked around for a cigar. (The cigar must be Kanye’s new schtick – he was puffing on one when he arrived.) No one had one, and he refused to kiss his award trophy, so just held the thing up and looked at the camera, accountant-like.

We also saw Destiny’s Child, whose farewell tour is beginning to rival Cher’s – we’ll see the “broken up” group next in three days at the World Music Awards, followed by two L.A. concerts, and again on September 8 at the Fashion Rocks concert in New York.

Miami, August 26-27 – As soon as hurricane Katrina cleared out of Miami, MTV resumed its domination of the city with its Video Music Awards. Better late than never, storm-delayed celebs rolled into town and got the parties started, literally. Pamela Anderson overcame commercial airline skittishness, arriving in Miami via private jet at 11:30 on Friday night, and heading straight to the Star Struck party at the Sagamore Hotel, where she was quite friendly with her unidentified date. Very friendly. We hear he’s a photographer. Anyone know him? E-mail us with dish, por favor! In case you were wondering, Pam's top in the photo at left is see-through.

Everyone stopped wondering who Pam’s guy was when Jessica Simpson arrived. No, Jess didn’t bring a mystery date.. That loud buzzing was the crowd wondering why Jessica didn’t have on a stitch of makeup, other than clear lip gloss. Inferiority complexes sprung up instantly – Jessica still looked amazing, even unadorned. No one at the party seemed surprised that Quincy Jones, Nelly and Eddie Murphy also weren’t wearing makeup.

Earlier Friday evening we stopped at the legendary Fontainebleau hotel for the 53rd annual BMI Urban Music Awards, where Lil’ Jon, Fat Joe, Christina Milian and many more held court. Rapper The Game, who had to drive down from Orlando thanks to the hurricane, sported a grapefruit-sized medallion bearing the name of his organization, “The Black Wall Street”, and the motto, “Live for Everything, Die for Nothing”.

Among the too-many parties on Saturday night, we hit Ocean Drive’s Music ‘05 bash at the Loews Miami Beach, where, incredibly, pretty young women flocked around a cigar-chomping O.J. Simpson. More eligible bachelors at the party included Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx and his Miami Vice costar Colin Farrell. Nick Lachey had arrived in Miami by Saturday, and joined wife Jessica Simpson at the party.

Things turned ugly Saturday night – Sunday morning, actually – at Kanye West’s party at the Shore Club, when rap mogul Suge Knight was shot in the leg. Knight is in stable condition, and police officers had no suspect at the time. Our source at the party said the shots were loud enough to be heard over the music, and chaos broke out with attendees running around. Wild rumors immediately began flying around the club; some claimed that Snoop Dogg had been the one shot and others speculated that The Game had done the shooting.

Los Angeles, August 25 – Newsflash! We found some people – musicians, yet – who aren’t in Miami for the VMAs. At least they weren’t there yet, as of Thursday evening. Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and the Red Hot Chili Peppers might sound like an odd bill, but these diverse acts came together to play the Greek Theatre in L.A. The concert had a higher purpose for lifting money from your pockets; proceeds from the show benefited The Snoop Youth Football League, which is aimed at underprivileged kids. That oversized check that was forked over to rapper/actor Snoop was made out for $247,514.