Las Vegas Weekly

August 31, 2009 · 8:28 AM

Photo Gallery: Paris Hilton’s wild ‘wedding’ weekend in Las Vegas

By Robin Leach

Paris Hilton.

Photo: Scott Harrison/Retna/www.harrisonphotos.com

Paris Hilton’s wild Las Vegas party weekend wound up in a wacky wedding! And although Paris “wed” at the Little Church of the West, she still kept her vow not to have a real runaway Vegas wedding.

The mock marriage was for the British TV cameras of Piers Morgan, a judge on America’s Got Talent and the original British version. Piers has been filming the past two weeks in town for a January British TV special about the new economically challenged Las Vegas.

The Paris and Piers wedding sequence will morph in the edit room from the same “cameras only” wedding that Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret filmed for the 1964 classic Viva Las Vegas. They also shot that sequence at the same chapel. In real life, Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford, Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton, David Cassidy and Kay Lenz and Zsa Zsa Gabor and George Sanders wed there.

The first celebrity wedding at the Little Church was actress Betty Grable and bandleader Harry James back in 1949. Other marriages at the chapel, which is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, include Dudley Moore, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Redd Foxx, Telly Savalas, Heather Thomas, Mel Torme, Robert Goulet and David Sanborn.

Photo: Courtesy

Little Church of the West.

Photo: MGM

Viva Las Vegas.

Paris has told me previously that although she loves playing and partying in Las Vegas, when she does get married, it will be a full-blown, romantic white wedding “in every sense of the word,” with a glamorous ceremony and glittering party!

Although she got hitched to Piers solely for the cameras, the marriage mill did show that the socialite, heiress, singer and actress is back with former beau Doug Reinhardt after a breakup earlier this year. There were even rumors early yesterday that they would, in fact, be tying the knot!

Photo: Scott Berry/Hard Rock Hotel

Paris Hilton and Doug Reinhardt.

However, as I was the first to warn on Twitter at 8:30 a.m. yesterday, the celebrity wedding that was in the works was for TV cameras only -- and not the real thing. By 1:30 p.m., I was the first to piece the celebrity wedding mystery together that Paris would be “the bride,” and an hour later, neck-and-neck with my gossip guru pal Norm Clarke, we had both nailed that Piers would be “the groom.” We buzzmeisters were all in high-speed, full alert, go-for-gossip form yesterday!

Piers has been headquartered at Planet Hollywood, where he filmed head honcho and fellow Brit Robert Earl. The still-booming wedding biz here will be one of the segments of his Piers on Vegas special, along with a look at the fall-off in high rollers and free-spending nightclub party guests. His previous telecasts have focused on Dubai and Monte Carlo. While in Las Vegas, Piers also filmed our merry mayor of mirth, Oscar Goodman, but the highlight was the Paris nuptials.

Paris was in fine form for his wrap wedding to cap her nonstop party weekend. Her round-the-clock party festivities began when she was the star attraction along with pop singer Pink’s hubby, stuntman Carey Hart, and the hot, sexy Maxim girls at his Wasted Space in the Hard Rock Hotel for the Top 20 Hometown Hotties of Maxim magazine contest.

Photo: Scott Berry/Hard Rock Hotel

Carey Hart.

Then she turned up at the newly reopened Prive at Planet Hollywood to watch ex-boyfriend Simon Rex as Dirt Nasty with Andre Legacy perform for the crowd. Mickey Avalon returned for a second night to the club and joined them on the mic. Despite the fact that she was tottering in towering sky-high stilettos, the bronzed and buffed beauty climbed atop the DJ booth to join in the party. She sang along to the celebrity parody song “Dropping Names.”

Paris waved and did shout-outs to the Prive crowd in between cuddling up and smooching openly with Doug. Also partying on his 30th birthday there was Friday Night Lights star Scott Porter. Simon wore a TRV$ DJ AM shirt as his own silent tribute to DJ AM, who was found dead on Friday at his New York City apartment. Click HERE and HERE for our Friday and weekend coverage of the DJ AM tragedy.

Photo: Prive

Paris Hilton, Andre Legacy, Dirty Nasty and Mickey Avalon at Prive in Planet Hollywood.

Paris rallied though for her wedding, and tonight even though her British groom has flown home, she’s expected to continue her honeymoon activities with Doug as they turn up for showman Jeff Beacher’s Beacher’s Madhouse welcome back to Vegas party at Jet in The Mirage.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter HERE.

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