Celebs of varying degree and caliber made their way out to the Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY for the 135th Kentucky Derby to bet on the horses, drink their mint julips and show off their fancy hats. Here are a few pics of some of the celebs who walked the red carpet at the Derby today:

I gotta say, I love Betheny from The Real Housewives of NYC (mostly because she isn’t a housewife at all and still manages to make that show work … oh yeah, and she’s about 10 secs. away from beating the shizz out of Kelly Bensimone) but I totally hate her entire outfit. I don’t know what she was thinking by wearing that bell-bottomed pantsuit but … yeah. Everyone else looked pretty OK with their snazzy hats. Because of the failing US economy, there is much less glitz at this year’s Derby but still, the celebs are makin’ it work. I don’t know shizz about horse racing but I can appreciate any event where the women are compelled to wear the most ostentatious hats they can find for our mere amusement. No Aretha Franklin hat sightings just yet … but I’ll keep my eye out.

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David and I finally got to spend some time with Darion last night after going a couple of weeks without any of us getting to hang out. Because of our travel schedule and Darion’s travel schedule, we just couldn’t get it together … but last night we finally met up for dinner a movie. We also finally got to check out Darion’s new apartment which is prett swank. It’s great having him live so much closer. Because he lives Beverly Hills adjacent, we decided to grab dinner at Chin Chin before making our way to the ArcLight (best theater ever) to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine:

The good news is that Wolverine is much better than X-Men 3: The Last Stand but, unfortch, it is not as good as X-Men and X2: X-Men United. The problem with origin story movies is that you have a whole lotta information that you need to pack into a ridiculously short amount of time … that way you can get thru the history and still have time to tell the story at hand. Wolverine’s entire family history is told in the opening credits which leaves all the rest of the time to flesh out how he came to be the adamantium X-Men superhero. Overall, the movie is entertaining but there are a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies that really keep the film from being spectacular. I was also less than impressed with some of the CGI special effects … tho the motorcycle scene with the helicopter was pretty damn cool. I think Wolverine fits in nicely with the canon of X-Men movies that have been released but I kinda wish there was more character development involved. Each of the X-Men (both good and evil) is such a complex and rich character worthy of their own movie … Wolverine doesn’t focus enough on developing his character and instead shoves in a bunch of extraneous characters that are also not developed and, oftentimes, cast aside way too soon. But, again, when you only have a 2-hour PG-13 movie to work with … you are extremely limited. The movie is fun and deffo worth watching … but by the end of the film you’re kinda left wanting more. By that I don’t mean more as in wanting another film, I mean more as in I wish the movie I just watched delivered, well, more. We had fun tho, I guess that is all that matters (tho, it should be confessed, David slept thru 80% of the movie). I’m glad I saw it but I don’t think I need to watch it again.

I believe the plan for tonight is to make our way out to Dodger Stadium to take in a baseball game. We’ve been talking about seeing a game for some time … methinks tonight will be the night.

• Casey Aldridge has been released from the hospital.
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine makes $35 million just on opening day.
• Speidi is hoping to have four children … all boys … all little Spencer Pratts.
• Amy Winehouse reportedly collapses in St. Lucia.
• The mobile phone assault case against Foxy Brown has been dismissed.
• Is American Idol ready to crown a gay winner?
• The movie version of The Road finally gets a release date.
• Lily Allen is 24, David Beckham is 34, Dwayne The Rock Johnson is 37, Lesley Gore is 63 and Engelbert Humperdinck is 73 years old today. Click HERE to see who else is celebrating a birthday today.
• Nicole Kidman reveals that her marriage to Tom Cruise was a lot of times for show.
• Watch THIS.

Here is this week’s batch of photos sent in by Pink is the new Blog readers — Kristen sends in a cute photo of her adorable little girl Kaylie posing with the Chick-Fil-A cow during their Friday night ritual of deliciousness — Travis and Brenda from Sioux Falls, SD — who you may recall showed us their engagement photo last year here on the blog — send in a pic from their recent wedding! The couple were wed on April 25, the same day that Speidi got hitched — Scooter from Atlanta, GA sends in a pic with 18 of his closest friends as they invaded The Price is Right in Las Vegas, NV — Jessica in Houston, TX sends in a pic with Broadway star/author Anthony Rapp at a booksigning at Books-A-Million, she also got to see him perform in Rent later that night — Saya and Destiny send in a cute pic from the recent Britney Spears concert at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA where the girls showed off their awesome DIY Britney shirts:

Much love and congrats goes out to Travis and Brenda on their nuptials … I cannot believe that it’s been a year since we saw you two engaged and how you’re all hitched! May you live a long and happy life of wedded bliss! Much love and thanks goes out to all y’all for another batch of fun photos … I really love receiving and sharing these photos. Please keep ‘em coming!!! xoxox

Last month we saw photos of Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford on the NYC set of his new movie Twelve and today we get to see a few pics of GG star Leighton Meester (newly blondeish) on the LA set of her new film The Roommate. I understand the film is a new take on the premise of the creepily brills 90’s film Single White Female starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bridget Fonda. Here are pics of Leighton doing her thang on set:

Leighton will play Sara who gets saddled with a college roommate named Rebecca who invades her life and, presumably, tries to steal it/kill her … or some such variation on the theme. I understand that Leighton will be spending her Summer here in SoCal because she is also working on her as-yet-untitled debut album which is scheduled to be released this Fall. I’m not sure how I feel about her attempt at a singing career but I am intrigued by this new movie. Meh, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to win any awards but if watching Beyoncé go at it with Ali Later in Obsessed has taught me anything it’s never discount a terribly fun-looking terrible movie. The Roommate is due in theaters next year.

[Photo credit: INFdaily]

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra promises to be a big superhero/comic book blockbuster smash Summer film and from the looks of the new trailer that has just been released, the movie looks like it’s gonna be totally action packed. While I’m still having a hard time with some of the effects and plot devices, I am hopeful that the movie will manage to successfully turn a beloved childhood memory into a loud, raucous time at the movies. Here are a few screencaps from the new movie trailer:

Unforth there isn’t too much new footage in this trailer that wasn’t seen in the teaser trailer that was released last January … but we do get more shots of Channing Tatum as Duke and Sienna Miller as The Baroness. Man, I want this movie to be good soooooo bad. After the jump, check out the movie trailer in full and judge for yourself …

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9 to 5: The Musical, which had its debut here in LA last Fall during a short run at the Ahmanson Theater, officially made its Broadway debut at the Marquis Theater in NYC this week. Original stars of the film version of 9 to 5 (Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda) met the new stars of the theater version (Allison Janney, Megan Hilty and Stephanie J. Block) on the red carpet at the star-studded opening night affair. Here are a few pics from the red carpet arrivals and of the spirited curtain call along with some deets about the show’s opening:

Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin clocked on again last night almost 30 years after the release of their hit 9 to 5. The original castmates reunited for the opening night of the Broadway musical version of their 1980 feminist revenge comedy. Fonda, 71, and Tomlin, 69, turned out to support country star Parton, 63, who supplied the entire score for the production. She of course wrote the film’s famous theme tune by the same name. The West Wing’s Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty now play the three women who kidnap their sexist boss. Hilty steps into Parton’s high heels to play perky blond Doralee, who at one point performs a song penned by the star called Backwoods Barbie. Block plays Fonda’s character – an office worker who get a new lease on life after her husband who dumped her for a 19-year-old – while Janney takes on Tomlin’s role. Critic Michael Kuchwara gave it a lukewarm review, saying: “You kinda want 9 to 5: The Musical to be better than it is.” While he complains that director Joe Mantello plays out the show “in the key of frantic” he admits it is “a certified crowd-pleaser.” He concludes: “Savor it for Parton’s songs and the three women who sing most of them. They make the case for the show being more than just another workday event.”

I was fortunate enough to see the show here in LA last October and I completely agree with the review critic … I, too, felt that I wanted to love the show more but it was lacking in something. It is a crowd-pleaser and altho it’s not the perfect Broadway production, it is very entertaining and very true to the original film 9 to 5. If you are a fan of the movie, you will most likely love the Broadway version as well. The strengths of the show reall do rest on Dolly Parton’s songs and the strong performances of the principle cast. It remains to be seen if a show like this will be able to survive this tough economic market but I’m sure it’ll give Broadway a pretty good run.

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]