New York, March 27- 28, 2009 – Only in New York do you go to a dull trade show and find Paris Hilton and Mickey Rourke hawking sunglasses.  Eyewear industry trade show Vision Expo East rolled into the Javits Center over the weekend, and on Friday, Paris Hilton plugged her 2009 sunglass collection by Gripping Eyewear.  On Saturday, we found Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke at the Revolution Eyewear booth, happily wearing sunglasses, mingling with models and flipping us the finger while our camera snapped. 

Paris didn’t stay in town long; the next night she was in L.A. at Queen Latifah’s birthday party.

Los Angeles, March 28, 2009 – Queen Latifah celebrated her birthday with a blowout at Club Light in Hollywood on Saturday night.  Latifah’s cosmetics partner Cover Girl Queen Collection hosted, and wisely left her age off the invitations!  But we were too busy watching Queen Latifah perform with Lady of Rage, Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliott and others to dwell on mundane facts.  Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson, Harvey Weinstein, Quincy Jones, Nas, Heavy D and Patricia Field wished Latifah a happy b-day and grooved to tunes from her upcoming album, Persona, due in stores in July. 

Photos: Michael Simon

New York, March 28, 2009 – The New York version of the GLAAD Media Awards took place on Saturday evening, and everyone waited with baited breath to see if recently out and proud Clay Aiken would now be operating on “gay time” (i.e. arrive late), but it was Tyra Banks who fittingly kept everyone waiting like the supermodel that she is.  Clay hung around good naturedly to pose with Tyra on the red carpet.  Tyra and personal finance guru Suze Orman, who must be really, really busy these days, were the honorees at GLAAD’s 20th awards ceremony.  Aiken presented, as did Grey’s Anatomy star T.R. Knight.  Chris Noth, Cherry Jones, S. Epatha Merkerson, Christian Siriano, Stockard Channing and Ugly Betty’s Vanessa Williams, Michael Urie, Judith Light and Ana Ortiz were among the guests. 

Photos: Joy E. Scheller

New York, March 26, 2009 – Influential young Manhattanites got behind the American Museum of Natural History in a big way, pulling in a great crowd for the 2009 dance. Tinsley Mortimer, Katie Lee Joel, Moby, Yigal Azrouel, Amanda Hearst and Sean Avery were just a few of the folks assigned to gala committees, and they gathered their friends.

Julia Restoin Roitfeld insisted that the gala’s green theme had nothing to do with the green dress she chose for the evening.  “Balmain did a green dress,” said her pal Derek Blasberg.  “Yeah, really random; I didn’t do it on purpose,” Roitfeld said. 

Jessica Alba swept in with husband Cash Warren, who said, “We’re here supporting our friend, actually.  He’s an artist, Damien Loeb.”   Loeb was on the host committee. 

Gala chair Milla Jovovich told us she’s a big fan of the museum.  “I’m so happy that everything is green tonight,” she said.  The menu was based on local and organic ingredients, and table décor was designed as “recycled impact”, with centerpieces of honeycomb corrugated cardboard surrounding natural moss and soy candles.

But not everything was earthy.  Guests didn’t feel guilty bidding on auction items like an outfit by Stella McCartney, tickets the designer’s fashion show in Paris and gold baubles from Judith Ripka, because proceeds support the museum. 

Jessica Alba photo: Luisa Johns/PKI