The Midnight Rambler: Gossip and Unsubstantiated Rumors for Oct 16

Updated October 19, 13:15  So who hung out with socialite Paris Hilton during her visit to Beijing to launch the new club Boombar? Here she is before her gig:

Paris spent some quality time with some of her fans in the elevator on the way to the gig. It seems the China View lift stopped for almost an hour, leaving Ms. Hilton and the assembled trapped. Apparently she said some things no appropriate for a family publication like this one.

For those of you who didn't fork out RMB 3880 to see the heiress spin discs, she stayed in the penthouse at the W Hotel (check her crotch shot selfie on the W's revolving bed here), hugged some babies (who gives Paris Hilton their toddler?) and spent a lot of her time stuck in traffic like the rest of us (though no sweat for Paris, given the wheels she typically cruises in). What, you didn't know Paris DJs? Shame on you, she's even ranked third in the world on this prestigious list! Alas if you missed her then you're SOL as she's already back to Shanghai for a gig that starts at 11:30pm tonight.

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Panic ensued this week as The Den, one of Beijing's longest-running bars and one that has been open 24 hours almost continuously for 18 years, was rumored to have closed its doors. Turns out it was only a temporary closure.

Long known as one of the best places to turn up for a full English breakfast at 4am, to watch all-night sporting matches or just to hang out for a pint, The Den is one of the last remaining connections to Sanlitun's distant origins as an unpaved row of shantytown shacks selling 10 kuai shots in the area now occupied by Sanlitun Soho.

One reviewer perhaps summarized its charms thusly: "The Den. Dirty draught beer, sells fake cigarettes and needs a lick of paint but I like it. Never go to the Den sober, it is a much greater experience drunk at the end of the night. If you arrive drunk, drink bottled lager and bring plenty of your own cigarettes then you will have great fun ... but be warned before you know it the sun has come up and you will spend all day hungover."

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Forty-nine-year-old Gong Li didn't look long in the tooth during a recent photo opp -- but she did look gapped in the tooth. For a woman who was once the face of L'Oreal in China -- and the face of all of Chinese cinema for about a decade -- you would think someone in her entourage would have wanted to address the black tooth or gap clearly visible in the photo above. Enterprising dentists: would anyone care to right this dental wrong for free in exchange for some good publicity and a comely spokesmodel?

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Numerous leading lights of Beijing expat society came out for the press party for what has become the seen-and-be-seen event of the November expat social calendar: Chi Fan for Charity. Some of the notables who will be hosting tables this year include Roberta Lipson, founder of United Family Hospitals (Nobu); Ami Li, founder of Susu and Pak Pak (Pak Pak); hat chick Elisabeth Koch (Factory), and Duck de Chine by wine guy Mike Signorelli. The co-founder of Chi Fan himself, Michael Crain, will be returning to Beijing to host a table at Palms LA Kitchen (he and his family relocated to Texas last year). Seats at great tables are still available, see the list and buy your tickets for the November 7 event here.

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Speaking of the Hoi Palloi, rumor has it that the Capital Club, once considered the "in" club for any important expat, is losing members at a brisk clip. Still atop Capital Mansions, once the city's tallest building, tales of long-time members cutting up their cards are pouring out, citing a lack of management since the departure of "General" Bertrand Petton two years ago.

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We don't know who is going to win this year's Pizza Cup (come out for the big launch party this weekend, Oct 17-18), but some people think Gabrielle Chau, the owner of Whale's Pizza, would win "Cutest Proprietor" if there was such a category. What's your take?

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