Vegas

I arrived in Vegas around sundown yesterday. Love how pretty the sky looks here when the sun sets.

We're here for the Britney concert, so we decided to stay nearby at the Elara. (formerly known as the Planet Hollywood Westgate towers, the property that was featured going through default in The Queen of Versailles.)

The decor is kind of modern-hideous...but the room is spacious and comfy...

We're in the 55th floor penthouse which is kind of sweet...wish there was a balcony though.

The COOLEST thing about the room...is this living room window...which, when the screen comes down...

Becomes a giant projector screen! Pretty cool....doubt we're gonna get any use out of it though.

For dinner I met up with Erik and went to Morel's at the Palazzo...where I ate the delicious Brick Chicken and everyone else ordered steaks.

Morel's has a great patio that features beauuuutiful views of Treasure Island. Wooo fancy.

Also joining us were PeterSmathers and his minion, in town for a fashion trade show. (If you have the strange feeling that you just saw PeterSmathers, it's true, I stayed with him a week ago when I was in DC.)

Peter calls Piper, his little minion here, "The Gay Man's Worst Nightmare", basically because he is short and bald and hairy and really REALLY sweaty. I think it's the funniest nickname I've ever heard.

Love me some Smathers & Bransons!

Also...I love things that are tall.

If you would like to buy some pretty new items (and make Peter richer than he already is) visit:
www.smathersandbranson.com

Gays to the Rescue / Pasadena Wedding

The wedding we were at Sunday was really fun. Although it started with a tiny snafu.

It was a daytime wedding, ceremony was at noon. So we started hair and makeup at 6am. And they were keeping it simple so there was no bridal party. So the morning was quiet. Just me and the lovely bride and makeup artist/hair stylist.

At 8am, 2 hours into hair and makeup, the bride's INSANE aunt/mother-figure walked into the room.

And what does she say? "Oh my god, your hair looks so UGLY! It looks like a rat's nest!"

Her hair looked wonderful. It was teased a bit for volume, so up close the little flyaways and tendrils looked maybe a little messy...but the shape was great and the intricate updo looked fabulous.

I was like, "Um...Aunt Christy...can we please NOT use the word UGLY to describe anything related to the bride ON HER WEDDING DAY?!?!?!?"

"No no no! We have to do it over. Like this picture!" She says to the makeup artist, showing her a grainy-ass picture of some random chick where you can barely make out the hairdo...

Within minutes, poor Liz was in tears. 

 I stood by...somewhat helpless to do anything...as we started re-doing the hair from scratch...

I sent out an SOS/Mayday Mayday...

Within the hour, the gays arrived with champagne and Whitney Houston playlists, becoming Liz's impromptu unofficial bridesmaids and LITERALLY saving the day.

(I honestly think we deserve the congressional medal of honor.)

The venue, the Athenaeum at CalTech, was gorgeous...

And the couple was happy and beautiful.

So glad everything worked out in the end!

Of course the gays MADE the party!

Such fun. Congrats Liz, David, Smileyjohn and **Dannysmith2!!!!!!!!!

** - not to be confused with DannySmith1

Smileyjohn's Engagement!!!!!

Smileyjohn got engaged to DannySmith2** last night after the wedding we were all at (I was shooting).

A little irritated that he didn't tell me to shoot the secret proposal that happened on the grounds of CalTech (where our wedding was and where they first met)...but glad I at least saw them immediately after and was able to catch this pic...

So happy for you guys!!!

** - not to be confused with DannySmith1

Beauty and the Feast

Natalie and I have known each other as acquaintance-buddies for years - ever since I lived here in LA and we were all crazy young twenty-somethings acting like idiots around Hollywood.

We had a bunch of mutual friends (her BFF Jess dated William forever ago), and I distinctly remember a handful of times I've run into her because she's always such a warm welcome sight.

There was a night out at Les Deux w/ Smershy where she happened to be doing bottle service.

There was a delicious dinner w/ Bobbo at Gjelina, where she happened to be the hostess.

And there was a really fortuitous encounter at the Dave Matthews Concert in 2006 where she saved us from having to wait in a thousand-person line to get in.

Over the past few years we've become Social-Media BFFs.

Even though we rarely see each other, we are always up to date on each other's activities and are constantly "like"-ing each others posts on Facebook/Instagram etc. and are generally just huge fans of one another's work and lives.

So FINALLY we set up a date to bring our mutual admiration for each other off of the interwebs and into the real world.

Since Nat is the host of numerous food shows, and since I just LOVE food...we decided that for our first official date, we needed to go make some porn.

Foodporn!

Natalie chose Milo and Olive, an awesome little spot in Santa Monica with communal dining tables and beautiful delicious food.

Meatballs were on the menu, so OBVIOUSLY we ordered those...

(Loves me a pretty girl that appreciates a good meatball!)

We also had the Wood-Fired Butternut Squash with honey date butter, vanilla, sea salt, crispy sage, and hazelnuts...

Parmesan Cauliflowers...

And THEN (no "and then"!)...

Sausage and Kale Lasagna which was SOOOOOOOO DELICIOUS.

After lunch we drove around West LA and took some photos. .

Nat is so bubbly and smiley...sometimes she has a hard time doing fierce face...so I coached her a little.

But mostly we just chatted and giggled and gossiped because over the course of her career she's gotten the inside scoop on tons of amazing things (e.g. The Katie Holmes / Tom Cruise contract. OMG.)

One of my favoritest photos from our quickie shoot is actually an outtake.

Probably because it reminds me of my favorite One Direction lyrics:

"Cause when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell, you don't knowwww---oh--oh....
"You don't know you're beautiful..."
"Ohhhh---ohhh-ohhhhh...."
"That's what makes you beautiful!"

Wanna see more Natalie?

Here's her hosting reel. I CHALLENGE you not to fall in love.



I guarantee it's only a matter of time before she has her own Food Network show that makes her a household name.

You can also view her food blog here: The Food Magician

LA / Matt's Tranny Past

I left NYC ass-early on Wednesday morning. Never have I ever been so thrilled to be leaving the city for warmer climates. We took off just as the sun was rising and I haven't looked back.

Upon landing I went over to Matt & Kelli's to meet their new little baby. She was sleeping so I didn't get to take any pictures. And Matt & Kelli were busy in some health insurance customer service battle which left me some time to snoop through some old photo albums and OMG am I glad I did!!!

Looking through I found some vintage pictures of Matt... in women's clothing!!!!

W.T.F??!??!?!?!?!??!

Seriously. I was like "MATT WTF IS THIS?!?!?!?"

Turns out in 2004 when they did the poster art for the movie White Chicks, the Wayans brothers were too lazy to dress up in drag themselves for the photoshoot, so their heads were just photoshopped onto some supermodel bodies.

Amaaaazing.

In the evening I met up with David Alan and Rebecca and we hit up SoHo House for a special (terrible) movie screening.

The SoHo House WeHo screening room is EPIC. (I did not take this picture. It's directly from their website.)

The movie starred Vanessa from Gossip Girl. She is the most annoying character on that show. And she was annoying in this.

Girlfriend is cute but CANNOT act.

It feels really awful walking out of a movie screening when the film's director was sitting directly behind us. But it had to be done.

Since SoHo House doesn't allow pictures, EXCEPT in the Photobooth, we did lots of Photobooth.

Oooh and we had a celeb sighting. Getting out of the photobooth as we were getting into it was Anna Faris!

Love her!!!!