Hanging with the Beautiful People

The first person to walk the red carpet that I recognized was Chopper. He became known locally for his television advertising antics, and is now starring in a reality show on A&E called King of Cars. More celebrities, models and beautiful people then steadily began to enter the club. Foot traffic into Tryst peaked around 11:00pm as many people attended the UFC event and then came straight to Wynn afterwards. Many people expected to attend from the press release, in fact, did show up including: Haylie Duff, Shannon Elizabeth, Joel Madden, Kelly Hu, James Franco, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Lucy Lawless, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Criss Angel, Kelly Monaco, Taye Diggs, Anne Heche and Vanessa Minillo.

After posing for us photographers, the last media stop for the VIP guests was to be interviewed on Maxim radio, their own Sirius channel. Even though these interviews were going on just a few feet away, I couldn't hear anything over the music coming from inside Tryst.

I read earlier that day on Perez Hilton's website that Christina Aguilera was going to be a surprise guest and he was correct. Other surprise guest appearances included Tori Spelling (who was laughing while doing the "Paris Hilton" pose), Usher, Lil' Jon, Carey Hart, Rick Fox, Omarosa (former contestant on The Apprentice who kept grabbing her chest and made me wonder if it is new), Leann Tweeden, Summer Altice, and many more that I'm not hip enough to recognize. There were so many beautiful women that walked past, it felt like I was inside the pages of a Maxim magazine.

There was one surprise guest that stood out among everyone else I saw that night. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Steve Wynn approaching the red carpet. He seemed to be in good spirits as he quickly stopped and posed for the photographers before heading inside

Lil' Jon was the last of the surprise arrivals, and just after he went inside I could hear him start to perform "Lovers and Friends" along with Usher and Ludacris. As much as I wanted to head inside to watch, I stayed to take pictures until  it was announced that the club was at maximum capacity and the photo opportunities were over.

When I walked in Usher and the others were just finishing up on stage. I didn't actually see them while they were performing, but it was a pleasant surprise to my ears just to hear live artists in a small club like Tryst. What I could see was the backdrop to the stage, the large waterfall that pours into a brightly lit pool that is overlooked by the patio areas.

Since it was so crowded I decided to go outside to get some fresh air. As I was making my way through the masses of people I realized that the man who had just brushed up against me was none other than Ludacris.  I don't know how I could have missed him coming in on the red carpet, so I wonder if he came in a back way. I'd been taking pictures of celebrities all night, but since I'm a huge fan of Ludacris I was overwhelmed with excitement had to resist the urge to reach out and touch him.

As I walked around some more, I saw both Lil' Jon and Gabrielle Union dancing on tables, and many of the other celebrities that I had just photographed were now comfortably settled in their booths or tables, dancing, or grabbing a drink at the bar. While in most ways it looked like any other night in a Vegas club filled with people, I think this was by far the best looking group of people I have ever seen assembled at once in all the events I've ever been to in my life."

photos by Sarah Gerke