MADONNA STRIKES A POSE WITH TOM MUNRO

Tom Munro's photo book turned 2 Madonna's page in good company with Moet & ChandonTom Munro playing with Madonna's hair (photo by Alex Berliner)This past weekend during all of the Oscar madness, Moet & Chandon held a reception in honor of photographer Tom Munro.  The exhibit was held on one of Los Angeles most infamous streets Melrose Place in West Hollywood. 

The photos were amazing and if you were viewing them at the soiree...  You were either famous or wishing you were, just to have a self portrait shot by Tom Munro.

Some guest included Madonna, Dustin Hoffman, Justin Timberlake & Buzz Aldrin to name a few.

The exhibition continues through the 13th of March, at 8445 Melrose Place.  Proceeds go to Raising Malawi and M.E.A.K. with the purchase of one of Tom's photo books.

Lady Gaga Shot by Tom MunroJohnny Depp shot by Tom Munro

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY LAUREN CONRAD

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Penthouse rooftop

Lauren Conrad & NeverWood High's Carlos E. Lopez at Justin Timberlake's concert in Madison Square Garden April 2007NeverWood High would like to wish Lauren Conrad a Happy Belated Birthday (on NWH)!!!

I was introduced to Lauren when she was about 18 or 19 years old and she is still the sweet genuine girl from Laguna Beach I first met.  Now 24, with two shows under her belt, endorsement deals and her own fashion line... I've always admired how she's stayed down to earth and well grounded.  

NeverWood High helped Lauren blow out her birthday candles last Sunday at The Roosevelt Hotel Penthouse. 

NWH invites Lauren Conrad to teach a class titled "The Secret of my Success", next semester.

Would you attend? tweet us @carlosncharge your answer.

Lauren Conrad about to blowout her birthday candles

A friend shares a laugh with Lauren Conrad as she hands her a tiara that says Birthday Girl

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENT BOLTHOUSE

Jewelry Designer - Loree Rodkin and Birthday Boy Brent Bolthouse

For the past 10 years of my life, there has been one man who has made sure my Birthday parties were always legendary.  

That would be because Brent Bolthouse is one of the greats in the book of nightlife legends.  

1987 - Bolthouse moved to Los Angeles from Joshua Tree, California.

1989 - Bolthouse Productions was founded.

1991 - Bolthouse partnered with Jenifer Rosero.

2005 - announced a partnership and became SBE.

Dec. 18, 2009 - Brent turned 40.

And that my friends is what brought 22 years of friendships built in Los Angeles, to celebrate the birth of a man that created so many memories for myself and so many others.

Brent has cornered the LA market and maintained an unparallel reputation for entertaining the world's celebrities, taste makers and industry powerplayers with their weekly soirees.  On any given night Bolthouse clubs catered to Los Angeles' most diverse crowd; including executives, artists, pop stars, children of the rich and famous, Academy Award winners and the affluent general public.  

Worlds collide at Bolthouse clubs: Rap stars mingle with socialites and actors party with CEO's of Fortune 500 companies, making Bolthouse's velvet ropes the toughest line to cross.

I mean... where else would I have seen the Britney and Justin dance off, Prince sing Purple Rain, Drew Barrymore stamping wrists as a cashier, Leo Dicaprio rise to super stardom and a young girl who went by the name of Paris Hilton mesmerize a nation.  A place where Hollywood starlets were friends one week and not the next... (and then friends again).

These truly were places where everyone knew your name (or at least who you were).

For this I thank you Brent and wish you the happiest of Birthdays.  Because of you and Jen Rosero, I have some AMAZING friendships that started from a production known to the world as Bolthouse.

Known to me as family.

Check out photos from Brent's birthday last night.  The live performances were phenomenal (so many other performers went on that were not photographed).

Adam Levine from Maroon 5 singing with Billy Morrison from Camp Freddy

Paullie Z (ZO2), Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Travis Barker (Blink 182) & Billy Morrison (Camp Freddy)

Maroon 5's - Adam Levine singing to the crowd while Blink 182's - Travis Barkers keeps the beat

Adam Levine belting one out along with Paullie Z at Brent Bolthouse's 40th Birthday

Camp Freddy's Billy Morrison on the guitar

Billy Morrison was first with the band the Cult and now plays for Camp Freddy

Camp Freddy's Billy Morrison at Brent Bolthouse's 40th birthday party

Blink 182's Travis Barker

SEX, LIES AND VIDEO DATING

A new type of dating for time crunched and cash strapped singles. Say goodbye to long awkward dinner dates that can cost you a pretty penny and say hello to fast and free video dates.

What happened to the days of folding notes and passing them to the person you like.  Now, a days it's all about texting, BBM-ing, AIM-ing and summing someone up from their facebook profile.  

Well, now you can speed date on video chat by using Skype.   

Skype speed dating is made possible by Skyecandy. They match up your profile and set up up for a five minute chat via Skype and your webcam. If the five minutes flies by and you want to continue, an alert offers this option.  Check out a tutorial on how this works in the video below.

In the video above Justin Timberlake takes it back to the old school way of asking someone out on a date.  Can you guys figure out which one is Britney Spears?

Would you try this service out as an option for dating or just stick to the natural approach of asking someone out on a date.

THE RISE OF A NEW CELEBRITY (part 2 of 2)

Andy Warhol "Everyones Famous for 15 Minutes"In yesterdays article, The Death of Mega Fame, there's been wonderment...is this the end of the "age of celebrity." The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henniger writes:

Marketing runs the world now. Because of marketing the world is overflowing with people who are famous, or anyway familiar. These people aren't celebrities. Not real celebrities.

And he argues the shift to digital technology works against the rise of another mega-celebrity:

It has taken some time to see how modern media squashed the life out of genuine celebrity. Web sites, TV and magazines shot  Michael Jackson and his white glove into the sky like a Roman candle. But in the nature of fireworks, modern media then fired thousands of other people into the same sky - singers, actors, athletes, talk-show hosts, psychologists, comedians, models - and turned them all into . . . familiar faces...

A real celebrity is beyond reach. Today, to hang out with famous people all one needs is the ability to mouse-click. Constant clicking rubs the shine off anyone's glamour. Beautiful people have become a dime a dozen.

NOT SO FAST

There's good reason to suspect that, sooner or later, new technology will spawn an even bigger mega-star with even more global reach. That's been the pattern in the past actually and there's little reason to think it will end now.

With every new technology - from the rise of film, recorded music, talking pictures, transistor radios, FM radio, cable TV, and now the digital revolution - experts have predicted the death of celebrity. But each advance has generated celebrities bigger than the past.

The first big star was Rudy Vallée, whose soft singing voice was amplified by the invention of the electric microphone. He inspired other crooners like Bing Crosby, whose 500 million records sold make him one of the top five selling artists of all time. Next came Frank Sinatra- a true mega-star whose scores of bobby-soxer followers helped solidify the notion of teen pop culture and who was one of the first to capitalize on tie-ins between radio, albums, and feature films. Then came Elvis Presley, the King who took teen culture to a whole new level -his hip-swiveling appearances on Ed Sullivan making national news - and sold more than a billion records over his career.

Noted rock critic David Marsh has said that Elvis ushered in the first major shift in modern popular music culture. The second shift came with the Beatles (who also sold a billion+ records) and the British Invasion, which augured the shift to album-oriented rock featured on FM radio. Michael Jackson defined the third major revolution in popular music, selling some 750 million records and, according to Marsh, giving rise to the heavily produced pop form which is with us to this day. MJ can count everyone from Madonna and Justin Timberlake to Beyoncé, Britney, and Lady Gaga among his disciples.

The digital revolution - from Facebook and Twitter to YouTube - creates a powerful platform for instantaneous global reach that goes beyond what radio, TV, and even cable TV can offer.

James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Elvis PresleyThe NEXT BIG THING is predicted to be more of a global celebrity. Unlike Elvis from the U.S. and the Beatles from the U.K. This next celebrity will rise simultaneously not being tied to one country of origin and be seen as a world mega-star. Glimmers of the new age of global celebrity are peeking through. "Jai Ho," the theme song for the mega-hit Slumdog Millionaire, features lyrics in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and Spanish and has been covered by Americans the Pussycat Dolls and Snoop Dogg. Its composer is A.R. Rahman, a star film composer who has already sold over 200 million records in a career that began only in 1992.

Grammy and Academy Award-nominated rapper M.I.A.'s persona is equally rooted in London and Sri Lanka.  TIME magazine ranks her as one of the world's 100 most influential people and sums up her global appeal:

She's a Sri Lankan refugee who didn't speak a word of English before she was 10, yet she's also a child of Chuck D and the Pixies and Fight Club and MySpace. There are no borders for her. . . You don't have to be from the West to have a favorite Biggie song. We are all listening to the same music.

The end of Mega Fame...you tell me.

The rise of a new technology has led to a celebrity even bigger than the last.

My prediction is that NEVERWOOD HIGH will be the perfect platform for this so called GLOBAL CELEBRITY.