My 3-year-old daughter watched her first Kentucky Derby today. She put on her purple pillbox hat and stood in front of the TV leaning on her Easy Ride’Um brown stick horse. (The image still makes me smile.)
The gates opened, the horses took off, and we hooted and hollered. It was great fun. Okay, perhaps, not the same kind of fun that was had by the Hollywood stars who flew east for the Derby festivities… but fun for us non-celebrity types.
For days the media has been reporting on the pre-Derby parties. You know the ones that included appearances by the oft-photographed Nick Lachey, Vanessa Minnillo, Jason Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Gene Simmons, Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Federline, and Jenny McCarthy (to name just a few). Many of the A-list stars turned out for the party that is considered to be the place to be seen the night before the Derby—the Barnstable Brown event, hosted by ’70s Doublemint gum ad twins Patricia Barnstable Brown and Priscilla Barnstable. The event raises money for diabetes research at the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky. The disease claimed Brown’s husband, David E. Brown, in July 2003.
From what I could see on NBC’s Kentucky Derby pre-show, which ran video of last night’s fete, celebrity chef Bobby Flay (he owns thoroughbreds) showed up, as did Kid Rock who flaunted his Danish supermodel date May Anderson. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady stopped by and waved at cameras (his girlfriend Gisele Bundchen was a no show).
What NBC didn’t show (no surprise) was the appearance of “Dancing With the Stars” contestants. According to news sources Joey Fatone and his pro dance partner, Kym Johnson hit the dance floor at the Barnstable Brown shindig. The couple reportedly spent Friday and part of Saturday rehearsing their moves for Monday’s show. Fellow contestant Apolo Ohno and his partner, Julianne Hough, also made the trip to the famed horse race and showed off a few of their moves for the paparazzi parked outside the Barnstable Brown event.
Finally, he may not be a big name movie star or a award-winning singer, but he’s been making headlines for months… and he is a native of Kentucky, so it stands to reason that Larry Birkhead, father of Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn drew a huge following when he showed up to the Barnstable Brown gala.
“I’ve been through more in seven or eight months than most people go through in a lifetime,” Birkhead told reporters. “I didn’t really have the energy to be here tonight, but I wanted to make sure to support the charity and support my memories that I have here of Anna Nicole. It was a chance meeting, and things took off from there.” (Birkhead first met Anna Nicole Smith at the Kentucky Derby in 2004.)
Noticeably absent from the Barnstable Brown affair—Britain’s Queen Elizabeth (though she made it to the Derby). Guess her invitation got lost in the mail…