When SBE Entertainment Group’s new supper club, Foxtail, opened last week in West Hollywood, it included the company’s usual offerings: slick drinks and a slick setting. What’s unusual about the supper club other than the A-list entertainment industry guys backing it is the way it got started.
The nightspot is the creation of L.A. nightlife impresario Brent Bolthouse, SBE’s president of nightlight concepts. Bolthouse said he and a group of friends were meeting for lunch a couple of years ago to plan an annual Oscar party when he dreamed up the idea for a supper club “where the boys have fun.”
“It was more of a concept with my friends in mind,” said Bolthouse. He pitched the concept to his colleague SBE CEO Sam Nazarian, who approved. Bolthouse brought together a group of friendly investors that includes film director Brett Ratner, NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman, film producer Scott Stuber and Patrick Whitesell of talent agency Endeavor, who was at the lunch that spawned the concept.
“It was a group of guys that gets along they go to Lakers games together,” Bolthouse said.
Surgery Spokesman
Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. David Alessi and wife Deborah got more than they expected from the former patient they asked to serve as spokesman for their new foundation.
The hope was that celebrity socialite Fabian Basabe could help educate a younger audience about the work of Face Forward, which provides facial surgical reconstructive services for victims of domestic and gang violence.
It’s a passion of Alessi, who has performed similar pro bono work for years. A percentage of profits from Alessi Skin Care, a product line of which Deborah Alessi is chief executive, goes toward the foundation’s work.
They wanted Basabe to speak at public events and the like. However, a member of Basabe’s posse with reality TV connections arranged for a party celebrating his spokesmanship to be featured on Lifetime Network’s “Top This Party” series. The event, held several weeks ago at the Bellagio’s Club Priv & #233; in Las Vegas, is scheduled to have its first airing this month.
The Alessis couldn’t make the party due to previous commitments, but both were thrilled by Basabe’s initiative. “All of our expectations were exceeded,” said Deborah Alessi.
Britney Ban
As Page Three has noted before, felon and controversial Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight has been spotted at posh hotel bars, including one at the Peninsula.
Britney Spears is another matter.
Where the troubled pop star goes, the paparazzi and chaos follow. And Spencer Yeo, the director of marketing for the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, doesn’t want Spears’ pandemonium at his posh hotel.
Yeo said the starlet has been barred.
“The problem with Spears is she just shows up with a five-car entourage and doesn’t call in advance. It attracts too much attention and causes a big disruption for staff and guests,” Yeo said.
Staff reporters Deborah Crowe and Sharifah Chammas contributed to this column. Daniel Miller can be reached at
[email protected]
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