Wednesday, October 15, 2008

PRINCE PERFORMS ON HOTEL ROOFTOP: Intimate show included about 100 guests, including Spike Lee and Dave Chappelle.


*Prince performed before such celebs as Spike Lee, Dave Chappelle and Dennis Rodman over the weekend at New York's Gansevoort Hotel rooftop in an event benefiting his Love 4 One Another and Urban Farming charities.
Presented by Inocente Tequila, the show took place before about 100 guests to celebrate the release of "21 Nights," his Randee St. Nicholas book of photos. The concert was nearly cut short after interference from guests' cell phones in the room knocked out Prince's high-tech sound system, according to the New York Post.
Before the show began, an emcee took the stage and begged guests to turn off their phones or "there may not be a show." Some did, the Post's Page Six reported, but many ignored the plea - including one publicist involved with the concert - claiming they had to have them on at all times.
"It was so obnoxious," one fan told the column. "To think a bunch of idiots can't exist without their precious cells for an hour."
Also among the celebrity crowd was radio jock Howard Stern and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.
Sitting in for Regis Philbin on Tuesday's "Live with Regis and Kelly," Cooper told the story of how he and Chappelle helped themselves to Prince's guitar picks that were sitting unattended backstage. Anderson showed off his souvenir to the studio audience.
A source told Page Six that earlier in the evening, Prince had Gansevoort staffers working hard to meet his pre-show demands. "He's very anal and required a humidifier in every room of his suite and the windows blacked out," said the spy.