Thursday May 29th was declared “Burberry Day” by Mayor Bloomberg to commemorate Burberry’s move to their new Madison Avenue headquarters. To cap off the day, I was invited to an amazing night of star studded fun and festivities in the rooftop suites of the Palace Hotel located directly across from the new space!
There was some initial confusion as Rose McGowan and Justin Long were rushed in and the flustered downstairs clipper routed folks to the wrong elevators. In the elevator, we shared a laugh with Justin and his people who were comically quizzing their PR escort about what awaited us on the roof. Justin was a big sweetheart and a real gentleman. He even chivalrously put his arm out for us to depart the elevator in front of him. As it was a dreary night all wet with misty rain, it was the worst possible weather for an outdoor party. Thus, the two small rooms were jam packed when we arrived. Endless trays of champagne sailed around the rooms and Burberry umbrellas were supplied to stave off the mist. There was an awkward moment on the terrace when Blake Lively hand in hand with her beau, Penn Badgley didn’t initially recognize Justin when he yelled out to her. She kinda swatted him away like a fly! But all was made right when Justin got closer to her and she greeted him warmly.
Seemingly oblivious to the rain, the lovely Claire Danes spent most of the evening on the terrace conversing with her gorgeous fiancé Hugh Dancy and Burberry Creative Director Christopher Bailey. Had a fun conversation with Rose about her campy turn in the cult classic “Planet Terror” and got to catch, up with Bloody Social/Burke frontman and male supermodel Jamie Burke, who I had a beer with at another party last summer. (Although rehabbed from my Band-Aid daze, he ‘s a Rock dream and could definitely get this gal to fall off that wagon!) Also got to meet the gorgeous Orlando Bloom who was charming and affable and posed for two pictures. (Just read the ridiculously vacuous quote from Ashley Simko on NY Post.com where she stated that she would “rather leave with the memory of an inspiring chat than a blurry photo” which is just plain dumb! I mean really, we are journalists chronicling these events. Our readers are not present for the so-called inspiring chats and since writers have vivid imaginations how can they be sure that you even had said chat! Especially since you now have some society bloggers claiming that they personally attended events that they didn’t!)
Met the adorable George Craig,“One Night Only” who is the lead singer of the next big band from the UK and our DJ for the evening, Jamie Biden, who is the nephew of oh so loquacious Vice President Joe Biden. Although I missed their performance, had a fun chat with George. But not crazy about the name of the band which makes the worst song from “Dreamgirls” play over and over in my head! Also in attendance were Molly Sims, Carla Guigno, Lily Donaldson, Helena Christensen, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and esteemed fashion editor, Glenda Bailey.
Since most of the PR interns acted like Burberry clad Mean Girls, I didn’t really get to ask them many questions about their event. However, I did chat with one very nice sista who said that Burberry had given the guests the umbrellas as courtesy loans that they expected to get back at the end of the night. While I witnessed guests greedily sneaking off with two or three of them in tow, Burberry got the last laugh, as most of them were fakes!
The party thinned out and we thought it was time to go. However, the fete simply shifted into the other room for another hour of heavy champagne consumption. As we were leaving I overheard Orlando’s folks say that the afterparty was in suite 5302 (wonder who was staying there?). But, unlike my former 20-something self, I am no longer up for late night parties in hotel rooms with celebs!
