Paris Hilton, as demure as a Southern belle. (Photos by Scott Harrison | Retna)

Palazzo’s latest club, Lavo, is now open, officially — and it had the red-carpet extravaganza to prove it. Saturday night saw the affair wind around the center fountain in Palazzo’s lobby before emptying into the club for a packed private affair in the bathhouse-themed nightspot.

Among those checking out the joint were Shannen Doherty, who flew in from Los Angeles just for the opening, Scarlett Johansen fiance/lucky stiff Ryan Reynolds, Angie Harmon and husband Jason Sehorn, Jericho actress Ashley Scott, former Leonardo DiCaprio girlfriend Bar Rafaeli, Enrique Iglesias, Jamie Foxx, Slash, Maksim Chmerkovskiy of Dancing with the Stars, model Cassandra Tan and date for the evening CarrieDee English of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 7, Summer Altice, Veronica Grabowski, Mario Lopez, Antonio Sabato Jr., will.i.am, Stacy Keibler, deposed Miss Nevada 2007 Katie Rees and Pineapple Express actress, the ridiculously thin Amber Heard.

Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard said she was driven to compete with Michael Phelps’ big weekend last week.

“I’m definitely going to be grabbing girls’ butts and stuff,” she said. When pressed if she was going to try to hustle tourists at the Palazzo pool for $20 a lap after a couple of drinks, Beard admitted, “I already tried earlier today. No one would go for it. I tried to pull the ‘I’m just a girl, come on race me,’ but they wouldn’t go for it.”

Kevin Connolly was there as well as his former girlfriend, Nicky Hilton. Hilton was with current boyfriend David Katzenberg. Sister Paris was also at the opening, strolling up the carpet in a pale yellow dress with Jeff Beacher beside her. The bright color would have made an admirable target for the three members of the Blue Man Group who spent their time mercilessly screwing with the media, stealing microphones and lights from camera crews before dolloping blue paint onto victims. Sure, it was funny, but the fact that those guys rarely blink is still super creepy. The Visine bill for that show must be enormous.

Hilton and Beacher were earlier at the Fifth Annual Summer’s End Beach Party benefiting Nevada Cancer Institute held at the home of Jim and Joan Hammer.

Hilton encouraged everyone to donate, and it must’ve worked. The event raised more than $1.5 million and included the announcement of a $20 million gift from the Engelstad Family Foundation to be used to fund a research building under construction on the NVCI campus.

Busta Rhymes was touting new protege and Flipmode Squad member Reek Da Villain. When asked to drop some science on one of the camera crews, Busta steadfastly refused, saying “That’s the part you’ve got to pay for.” We always suspected Busta was a big Samuel Johnson fan.

Kevin Federline raced up the red carpet on his way into the club. He’d been there on Friday and apparently enjoyed it so much he decided to hang around for another night on Saturday, missing his son’s birthday in the meantime, but promising to throw him a second one on Sunday. No word on whether Prive will be taking back his Father of the Year award. He did at least get to drive back and forth between Lavo and Tao in the club’s custom Cadillac Escalade golf cart.

The crew one spot down on the carpet was asking celebs for their keys to success all night. Most chimed in with boilerplate about following your dreams and the like, but Jack Osborne had something actually interesting to say, when he cited posters plastered around London during World War II that read, “Keep calm and carry on.” It’s just a shame Osbourne didn’t give up his true ace in the hole: Be born to Ozzy Osbourne.

After everyone finished up their promenade up the carpet, will.i.am jumped in the downstairs DJ booth to spin a set.

Prior to Saturday’s spin through Lavo, Connolly and Keibler were at Drai’s inside Bill’s Gamblin Hall & Saloon drinking Dom Perignon on Friday. Connolly chatted with boxers Mike Tyson and Ricky Hatton, and apparently liked it so much he was back at the afterhours spot on Saturday along with Chmerkovskiy, Keibler and Tyson. Sister club Tryst at Wynn Las Vegas, meanwhile, got the Gute. Oh, that’s right, fellow Police Academy afficionados: Steve Guttenberg was in the house. Now if only Tackleberry had been around for the evening.

Connolly also was seen at Stack inside The Mirage Saturday night for his usual Stack dinner — two orders of the wings and a Diet Coke. Brad Garrett and Ray Romano also ate there that night

By Jason Scavone

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