Miley Cyrus hits Topshop/Topman party at Paris Club

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/celebrity/aboutlastnight/chi-miley-cyrus-hits-topshop-topman-party-at-paris-club-20110908,0,3475475.story

Miley Cyrus hits Topshop/Topman party at Paris Club
By Luis Gomez

You can't blame me for being skeptical when I heard Miley Cyrus and boyfriend Liam Hemsworth would be appearing at the Topshop/Topman party at Paris Club Wednesday night. People throw out rumored star appearances all the time to get media to cover their events. And most of the time, that star never shows.

Even as readers emailed me photos Wednesday evening of Miley outside the Topshop/Topman clothing store on N. Michigan, which officially opens Thursday, I still took the same stance I take whenever Ronnie says he's done with Sammi: I'll believe it when I see it.

And so when I saw Cyrus stroll into Paris Club for the seated dinner portion of the party with Hemsworth and her entourage, I was surprised that the rumored appearance wasn't just a rumor after all.

The group, including Cyrus' Mom, took a seat at one of the tables in the center of the dining room, which happened to be where RedEye reporter Ernest Wilkins was sitting. Ernest, of course, played it cool, but I knew on the inside he was trying to figure out how to put his feelings into 140 characters or less.

Was I jealous he ended up at that table thanks to the assigned seating? Hell yeah -- but not just because he was sitting with Hannah Montana.

Ernest later told me he was seated right next to the owner of Premier League soccer team Everton. I would've loved to ask the owner aboutTim Howard and also Landon Donovan's brief stint with the club and...you know what? I'll just move on. I'm guessing most of you care as much about soccer as I care about the "Real Housewives."

Following the family-style dinner -- which included a chilled seafood platter, chicken paillard and, my favorite, the steak frites -- guests were invited to the afterparty at Paris Club's upstairs lounge, Studio Paris. Cyrus and Hemsworth stuck around for the afterparty and were later joined by a celebrity whose appearance wasn't rumored:Gerard Butler.

The "300" star, in Chicago promoting "Machine Gun Preacher," arrived after his dinner at Sunda and would later end his night at Cuvee. Me? I went home after dessert. You didn't really expect me to believe there would be two A-listers there that night, did you?

Twitter @aboutluisgomez