Call it Paris in Blunderland.
Richard Branson threw a lavish Mad Hatter-themed 21st birthday party for his son Sam at his Oxfordshire estate on Saturday, and invited Paris Hilton to attend.
The partying heiress agreed and wanted a starring role in the party dressed as Alice, according to reports.
When Branson found out, he ordered the 60 waitresses who would be serving at the party to also dress as Alice, according to the London Daily Mail, which says he pushed the prank further by pretending to mistake Paris for a waitress and ordering a drink from her.
The bash was attended by the U.K.’s A-list, with such guests as Princes William and Harry, Kate Moss, and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. “It was one hell of a party,” a source told the Mirror. “Paris found herself looking more like Tweedledum as she was surrounded by dozens of other Alices.”
But perhaps the prank’s on Branson. Hilton’s rep tells The Scoop that “to the best of my knowledge” the heiress wasn’t even at the party.
Another group is cross with Madonna's crucifixionMadonna’s “Confessions” tour continues to provoke outrage.
The youth chapter of the protestant Dutch party SGP filed a legal complaint against the Material Girl, according to Agence France Presse. The group took the step after Madonna staged at two recent sold out concerts in Amsterdam.
Last week a Dutch priest confessed to making a fake bomb threat to stop what he considered her blasphemous performance, and now religious leaders in Russia — where she is scheduled to perform this week — are furious about aspects of her concert.
Notes from all overElle McPherson threw a hissy fit when she feared rival model Claudia Schiffer was upstaging her at a party. “Elle went nuts, apparently refusing to take off her coat lest Claude’s silver Versace gown take the shine off Elle’s black number,” according to the London Sunday Mirror. . . . Avril Lavigne says she wants to get into acting, but all the scripts she gets are “crappy.” . . . . Will “The Gladiator” rise from the dead? Fans have some hope for a sequel to the 2000 flick; at the Toronto Film Festival, Russell Crowe said that he and director Ridley Scott “talk about it every now and then.” “We did make it kind of tricky for ourselves considering we killed the character at the end of the first one,” he said. “But stranger things have happened in Hollywood.”
Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoop Mondays through Thursdays on MSNBC.com