Other than that I have a few British friends who are fans, I don't really know too much about Russell Brand. I still haven't seen “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and after attending the MTV VMA Awards three times, I didn't even watch them this year when he hosted the show. That said, when I met the comical British actor at GQ’s 2008 Men of the Year Awards at the Chateau Marmont Wednesday night, I didn't have any expectations.

Our interaction began when I saw Russell being persuaded by a friend to leave the party still pretty early on. I only knew he was leaving because I heard him loudly exclaim/whine, “But I may never see her again!” I couldn’t help myself and told him he sounded straight out of a romantic comedy. He corrected me and said, ‘It’s more of a Checkhov play.” Within a few minutes of idle banter and introductions to a circle of my friends he awkwardly put his hand in my wine glass. When I gave him a reactive odd look he said, ‘”I was putting sex drugs in your drink.” That provoked an even odder look leading him to say, “No, no, I don’t do that, I would never do that, if I can’t charm a woman to have sex with me without drugs, I don’t deserve to have sex with her at all.” How chivalrous. But entertaining.

Elsewhere at the party…My friend was crushing on Matthew Fox, googled him on her new Blackberry BOLD and the picture she found was of him and the woman he was with – who turned out to be his wife. Next. Jimmy Kimmel was walking hand-in-hand with Sarah Silverman, it’s nice to see them together again. Leo, one of the ‘Men of the Year,’ seemed like he and not Mark Wahlberg was the inspiration for “Entourage,” sitting at a patio table chatting with Kate Bosworth while surrounded by his longtime pals Lukas Haas and Kevin Connolly. Jerry Ferrara was a few tables away with his made-on-HBO girlfriend Jamie Lynn Sigler and GQ’s ‘obsession of the year’ Megan Fox turned heads when she waltzed through with fiancé Brian Austin Green.

When I lived in NYC Monday night was generally my biggest night out of the week. A creature of  habit, Monday would often be Stanton Social (you haven’t lived until you’ve tried a French Onion Soup Dumpling) and then Butter.

Since moving to LA, where people actually go out on the weekends (I’m still adjusting to this culture shock) coupled with having to be up for work at 5:30am Monday mornings, I no longer go out on Monday nights. This may change. Ryan Gosling and his friend Zach Shields have been doing some deejay gigs under the name Dead Man’s Bones and seem to have a Monday night residency at Bardot, although friends say, ‘It’s not really a regular thing for Ryan, he just does it to have fun and hang out with friends.” Whatever his reasons, I think I have to start getting out more on Monday. How many more Monday nights can I go sitting on my couch watching “Gossip Girl” and the (tears) soon-to-be-ceased “My Own Worst Enemy” when I’m getting texts from friends that Casey Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix and fresh from the set Lance Bass are all dancing at Bardot.

Oddly, I’m told the normally low-key Joaquin Phoenix even went to Bardot with cameras in tow last night. Someone said that Joaquin, who announced on a red carpet last week that he was retiring from acting to focus on music, was filming his transition from acting to music. Is documentary the bridge between the two?

Miami sizzled this weekend. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is usually in NYC, was temporarily moved to LA last year – and in Miami this year, with an after party that doubled as the Fontainebleau Hotel opening. I was invited to this event several times, by several people, and I declined. A girl’s gotta pick her battles and I don’t claim to always make the right choices. This time I clearly made the wrong one. There was a time when I’d jump at every complimentary trip that might result in a coverage-worthy story, but since moving to LA I have had less of an impulse to leave so often without really good reason and the guest list was a bit tepid – until it wasn’t – and a who’s who of A-listers from Diddy to Martha Stewart showed up to dot the front row and watch Heidi Klum sashay down the runway. You can read our interview with Heidi in the Nov. 27 OK! and see the show when it airs Dec. 3 on ABC…What you won’t see if you watch the show is Heidi unwind post-show at the hotel’s club LIV, located in the lobby of the Fontainbleau, with a pink Belvedere vodka martini (guess you can drink and stay thin) or the pre-party Friday night when Mariah Carey did a surprise performance with Terrance Howard and Madonna friend Gwyneth Paltrow caught up for a 20-minute chat with her friend’s loudly rumored new beau A-Rod at the hotel’s restaurant Blade.

You also won’t see Paris Hilton make out with her ex Stavros Niarchos -like I hear they did at Mokai Friday night- (her Boyfriend Benj Madden was in NYC with his brothers, DJing at 1OAK Saturday) or Gossip Girl’s Jessica Szohr making out with Absolut hunk Jason Lewis.

 

Tune in for more buzz out of Miami tomorrow once my spywitnesses recover a bit themselves to spill a bit more ;) xo

We did a double issue of OK! last week, the issue with the Obama clan on the cover that’s currently on-stands now – so our next issue won’t hit stands until Nov. 27. That said, it was a busy event weekend and lots of what’s cool and new today will be dated by then, so I thought today, on a day when I’m usually up at 5:30am to close another issue of the magazine, I’d use the time to beat everyone to the punch and write about the weekend that was…

-Prince, showed up at Bardot in LA Friday night and like a comedian stopping by a club to try out new material on an unsuspecting crowd, he put on one of his not-yet-released tracks and as one patron described to me ‘was jamming out!’ - odd for a guy who has a habit of showing up unannounced at nightclubs, but rarely dancing. He also danced to Stevie Wonder. Ryan Gosling and Mischa Barton were there too, no word on whether they danced. Mischa Barton seems to be at Bardot nearly every night, she’s certainly been there every time I’ve been there. Saturday night, post Chez Jacques, I was at Bardot in a bathroom stall and overheard her giving a young actress advice on the biz. Um, hmm, is Mischa (who was decked in her usual near costume-esque hippie attire) still in the biz? Just asking.

The next night Prince brought a lady friend to Las Vegas where he sipped a Long Island Iced Tea and munched on French Fries as he peered down from his balcony table at Tao…Mandy Moore was down the block hosting a soiree at PURE while her boyfriend DJ AM provided the music. They could be the new two for one party team like Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson.

-Pop stars the Jonas Brothers played private concert at rock venue The Roxy in LA Friday night for stars like Jenny McCarthy and Joe Torre to celebrate their new clothing line 77kids by American Eagle…I was actually scheduled to be at “The Annual Oxfam Party” at the Esquire House in the Hollywood Hills, where I’d hoped to interview the oddly dreamy Colin Firth, but I heard Colin might be caught filming late, and I faded with the sun (that sets sooo early here in the winter) and never made it out. Guests that did were treated to a dinner created by host Giada De Laurentiis and learned about Oxfam America’s Green Gifts that gift back, like the gift of planting a garden or 50 trees. To learn about how you can give family and friends green gifts this season you can check them out at www.oxfamamericaunwrapped.com