RSVIP: Indulged Tweens Rock Z100's The Jingle Ball

by Jeffrey Slonim (RSS feed)
Dec 13th 2010 at 7:01AM

Once a year, Manhattan's media elite get a request from young power brokers . . . tweens, in fact. Z100's The Jingle Ball, a concert sponsored by the local radio station and H&M at Madison Square Garden, included the sizzling youth acts of 2010: Justin Bieber, right, B.o.B, Bruno Mars, Michael Bublé, Taio Cruz ("Break Your Heart"), Selena Gomez, Enrique Iglesias, and Katy Perry.

As the date of the concert approaches, the children of stars and media moguls begin asking for tickets from their power Moms and Dads. Harvey Weinstein, of the Weinstein Company film studio, currently lobbying for such Oscar hopefuls as "Blue Valentine," and "The King's Speech," took time out to usher his brood. Luxist also spotted Charlie Walk, former head of Epic Records, with his family.

"My 11-year-old said, 'Mom, the Jingle Ball is coming. And I want you to take me to that, because you didn't take me to Eminem,'" Rosie O'Donnell told Luxist backstage on Friday. "And then I called and said, 'It's Rosie. Can I have four tickets?' And they said, 'No. You can't get the tickets. You have to win them. They're all given away.' So I went to a charity, and I bought them. And my son had the nerve to ask me if I had good seats. Does that mean I'm spoiling him?"

"I'd never come here before," said Zoe Oz, the beautiful young daughter of health guru Dr. Mehmet Oz. "And my dad got us tickets for my birthday. I listen to Z100 literally every day when I go to school. I know every single song they're going to play tonight."

"It is so hard to get brownie points from my 16-year-old daughter," admitted Dr. Oz backstage. "She's actually happy. I went on Z100, and Zoe heard me. She very subtly said, 'You know, they have this concert.' I played dumb and asked for tickets. For once, I knew what to get her for her birthday.

Pauly D. of "Jersey Shore" fame, a special guest onstage, wore chains of diamonds. "I have an obsession with diamonds," said the reality star recently interviewed by Barbara Walters. "They're for deejaying, with all the flashing lights," he continued on the subject of the gems. "They look good for pictures."

Bling was also available backstage in the H&M Artists Gifting lounge, where London Jewelers was passing out onyx bracelets with diamonds and a ruby accent as if they were free popcorn for the stars.

Stars began their swag tours by picking up a bag from Le Sport Sac to transport the loot. Next came a station where they were offered a phone from AT&T made of recycled materials. Justin Beiber's rep requested and received one for both Bieber and his mom. A suite of Infusium 23 hair-care products added weight to the totes. Performers also nabbed a mini-bottle of Coke while signing a Squire bass guitar for an upcoming Musicians on Call charity event; and they nabbed a Kim Kardashian makeup kit (Bieber's rep also grabbed this item, saying "Kim's a friend"). Splat gifted packages of bright Day-Glo hair color, while Stride offered packs of Mega Mystery gum. The gimmick: one has to guess the flavor, but there is no right answer. Selena Gomez suggested, "Pineapple." And Paper Jamz handed out "Instant Rock Star" plastic guitars, in the $20 range, that nearly play themselves. "Blink 182 had a song on it," offered the rep from WowWee, which manufactures the item, "and they were really happy."

katy perry

Onstage, the performers, did not disappoint. A sweaty Enrique Iglesias, above, grabbed a high school junior out of the audience who eventually had to be hoisted up onto the stage by her arms.

"Do you have a prom date?" he asked. Negative. "Well, you do now. I'm taking you." He then began singing while touching her neck and face and wrapping her up in his arms, causing every young girl in the audience to blush and shriek.

Between songs, Justin Bieber played part of an upcoming documentary about his rise to fame. And with pyrotechnics shooting up from the front of the stage, Katy Perry, left, dressed as a toy soldier, played song after song, including "Kissed a Girl" and "California Gurls." At one point, confetti blasted out of the ceiling, papering the house with a blanket of colored tissue squares.

After the concert, Perry had only a moment backstage to exclusively tell Luxist her upcoming plans. We expected (a) to meet up with Russell Brand, or possibly (b) to take time on an island in the Pacific. But no--still squeezed into shimmering shorts and a soldier hat, nearly an hour after performing, the down-to-earth celeb chose a more practical tack: (c) ". . . take off this outfit."

For those deprived youths who didn't win tickets, The Jingle Ball will air Thursday, December 16, at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. C on Fuse.

Tags: enrique iglesias, jingle ball, justin bieber, katy perry, rsvip, z-100

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Chase Dec 13th 2010 8:02AM

My younger sisters have been going for years, I guess that puts my family in the "power" section of the demographic spectrum... hadn't really thought of it like that. I honestly didn't know much about the whole thing. I preferred the jazz clubs in lower Manhattan when I was in high school (wait... I still prefer them). So it's interesting to hear a writer refer to the event as one for the "young power brokers."