Most people go to Vegas to play 21. Ashlee Simpson went to turn 21, celebrating that landmark coming-of-drinking-age birthday in the booze-fueled environs of Sin City. And while most people get sung to on their big day, it was Ashlee who was doing the singing as she and the Simpson clan hit Vegas for a big birthday blowout bash–and Hollywood.com was on the guest list.
Touring for her new album, Ashlee flew in from Boston on a private jet with her band and headed directly to Caesars Palace where she was ensconced in the most elite suite in the hotel (christened the Rain Man Suite for its appearance in the Dustin Hoffman–Tom Cruise film). Ashlee, her mom Tina and her friends shopped at the Forum Shops and got a pedicure at the hotel’s Venus Spa before an exclusive 6 p.m. performance at Caesars’ Pure Nightclub for family, friends and fans, including her famous big sis, Jessica.
Proud papa Joe Simpson told a story about Ashlee‘s birth 21 years ago (they didn’t think she was coming that night but decided to see the doctor in the middle of the night just in case–she was born only 24 minutes later). Ashlee performed three songs from her new album (“Catch My Fall,” “Boyfriend” and “Coming Back For More”) before dashing off to dinner with approximately 40 guests in a private room at Mesa Grill, including her sister, mom and dad, her rumored paramour Wilmer Valderrama (who blew into town Saturday to support his TV co-star Danny Masterson, who was spinning at pure), Jessica’s kooky “Newlyweds” sidekick Cacee Cobb, and the sisters’ high-profile Hollywood hairstylist Ken Paves. Conspicuously absent was brother-in-law Nick Lachey, a sidenote that surely helped spark a new round of rumors about the state of Jessica’s marriage.
Ashlee arrived back at Pure promptly at the stroke of midnight—which signaled her actual birthday—looking adorable, smoky-eyed and much softer than we usually see her, her hair wavy, blonde and extended, Her birthday ensemble a sexy, short black dress with a plunging neckline that exposed a lot of cleavage and a lacy black bra, along with fishnet stockings and red pumps, with a black satin ribbon tied around own wrist and her favorite new glittery, exquisitely detailed birthday present on the other (“The Rolex watch that I got from my sister Jessica,” she revealed).
“I can finally go up to a bar and order a drink!” Ashlee told me. “It’s pretty exciting. I feel like a true adult now.” The best part of having her big day in Vegas so far? “Just having my family and all my friends out here. They all got flown out, so I’m excited just having their love and support.”
Inside the adjacent, cozy Pussycat Lounge, there was a small circular white stage at the center of the cramped space. Dozens of fans, mostly female, were barricaded on one side of the club while the VIP guests mingled near the Simpsons’ table. Ashlee got up and stage and revealed that she had enjoyed a glass of champagne for the very first time (and we all backed her up, since her parents were present). Sheer white curtains descended from the ceiling to obscure her briefly, then rose again as she sang (decidedly NOT lip-synched, BTW) her new song, “LOVE.”
When the music concluded she told the onlookers she was lonely up on stage by herself without her band, and she insisted that some of her girlfriends come up and join her: Will you come up and dance with me? I don’t have my band with me, and I’m a little bored.” Casee led four other girls on stage, along with one frisky male, and Ashlee sang the song a second time as they gyrated and shook their groove thangs.
Jessica, in a sexy black tank top, tight black slacks and red pumps (and yes, the weekly celeb mags had it right: she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring), whooped and screamed but was committed to keeping it Ashlee’s night even when Ashlee begged her to join her on stage—“Jessie, get your booty up here!!” Jessica demurred while the crowd chanted “Jessica! Jessica!” and happily snapped digital photos, mouthing every word of Ashlee’s song along with Papa Joe and Mama Tina.
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After one more tune, “Boyfriend” (rumored to be inspired by Lindsay Lohan’s insistence that Ashlee stole Lindsay’s ex Wilmer from her) Ashlee gave shout-outs to the random fans in the club who had the same birthday and—after a loud spontaneous rendition of “Happy Birthday” from the fans—she thanked everyone for coming out for her birthday and shouted “Let’s all go have a shot!” After a quick birthday drink and some face time with ever-omnipresent MTV cameras filming the whole event, the birthday girl and Wilmer hit the casino for her first game of blackjack as a 21-year-old.
The party then moved up to the terrace level of Pure, where Ashlee was presented with not one but two birthday cakes designed to look like a blackjack table, and a champagne toast following the cake. At 2 a.m. there was one last surprise – the marquee outside of Caesars was illuminated with a big, bold message: “Happy Birthday Ashlee Simpson from Pure Nightclub and Caesars Palace.”
While MTV shot its footage and scores of clubgoers swarmed around to catch a glimpse of Jessica, I went down to the “White Room” club level, where the Simpson party had commandeered the raised balcony level above the dance floor—it was a private VIP area and their group lined the railing over the dance floor. Wilmer worked the balcony like Evita, trying to pump the crowd up during the lengthy music set from Nicole Richie’s fiancé, DJ AM—soon to be the new in-house spinner at Pure, AM is truly a genius at the turntable, keeping the energy high for hours on end with his fresh, inventive mix of classic and of-the-moment dance tunes.
Wilmer was basking in the glow of the adulation of the crowd, and frequently his bodyguard would take a digital camera from one of the people on the dance floor, snap a photo of Wilmer (Usually making some kind of odd gang-symbolish hand gesture while posing) and hand it back to the dancer. Also working it was Jessica’s increasingly loaded pal Cacee, who hung off the railing shaking her chest at any cute guy she made eye contact with, and, like Wilmer, snatching “fan” cameras and snapping impromptu photos.
Eventually Jessica joined Cacee at the railing and crowd was going INSANE–the combined volume of flashbulbs nearly lit up the entire dance floor, and Jessica joined in the fun snapping photos of herself for her admirers. As the music got funkier, Jessica got looser and started a little demonstration of the kind of hip-wiggling moves she showed in her last video, dancing entangled with Cacee.
If there anything really is anything going on between Ashlee and Wilmer, they kept it coyly under wraps. There was a moment when the birthday girl joined “Fez” at the railing, and the two were very cozy, wrapping their arms around each other’s necks and whispering in each other’s ears. It was a very intimate scene, but difficult to tell if their warmth had a romantic angle or they just needed to be that close to communicate over the music. Later, Ashlee was tucked out of sight with her girlfriends, and didn’t even emerge for the crowd when AM played her hit “Pieces of Me.”
Ashlee and Jessica left the club together with their girlfriends at about 4 a.m. (I later spotted Cacee was playing craps in her bare feet on the casino floor at 4:30). Jessica held her liquor well enough, but the adorably over-served Ashlee was practically carried out of the bar by her friends and bodyguard, singing “Happy Birthday” to herself as she strolled through the casino with her now-shredded nylons.
Casino patrons were shouting “Happy birthday!” to her as she passed by and tried to lure her over to the casino bar for shots on them, but while she cheerfully whooped back to them. As she attempted to get onto the elevator to her room in the Forum Tower, she lost one of her red stilettos. Tipsy, she tried awkwardly to recover it by swiping her foot at it but realized she didn’t quite have the coordination to pull it off. Finally, she ungracefully bent over to retrieve it and slipped it back on her foot, proclaiming victoriously “I GOT IT!” and disappeared into an elevator.
Ashlee’s bash was as fun-filled as anyone’s 21st birthday could be. Let’s just hope that the morning after was as kind to her as Caesars Palace had been.
