Plenty of pretties in pink turned out for the Friday night opening of Legally Blonde - The Musical  at the Pantages Theatre in the heart of Hollywood, but Reese Witherspoon was nowhere to be seen. Maybe the original Elle Woods was already aware that the song-and-dance version is a pale imitation of her slyly smart and female-empowering flick?

 

Unlike the clever movie, this Broadway show sets feminism back 50 years--but that didn't faze the legion of girlie-girls who stormed the doors to watch Becky Gulsvig, the show's star, be blonde. With her Betty Boop singing voice and clunky dance moves, it wasn't all that pretty, but the preteen-actress set went wild for it, including Kaylee Dodson, Sammi Hanratty, Raini Rodriguez, and Gracie Stover. Among the 20 to 30-somethings who hit the red carpet (ignoring the fact that pink and red don't mix!) were Danica McKellar, Heather Tom, Christine Lakin, Jennifer Elise Cox, Noureen DeWulf and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition star Paige Hemmis

 

Scary Spice (Mel B.) brought her little girls, Jane Seymour joined her sisters for the painfully overmiked evening, Nia Vardalos didn't get the memo and wore purple, and newlywed Jenna Dewan wisely left new hubby (and GI Joe stud) Channing Tatum at home, joining Haylie Duff instead.

 

The AARP crowd came out in full force, too. Familiar faces from the past included Anne Jeffreys, Anne Rutherford, Stella Stevens, Dick Van Patten, Jo Anne Worley and Priscilla Presley, who really needs to just say no to more plastic surgery. Elvis wouldn't recognize her these days.

 

At the raucous after party at Citrus at Social, the "Legally Blonde" cast--Gulsvig, along with Ken Land, D. B. Bonds, Crystal Joy, and the most talented singer of the bunch, Natalie Joy Johnson--continuously stopped in front of the mirrors decorating the Michel Richard eatery, in full view of their fellow partygoers. As one onlooker snidely said, "They clearly haven't spent enough time in Hollywood, where real stars would never commit such a faux pas at their own bash."

 

No worries, they move on to Costa Mesa after a three-week stint here in Hollywood.