Paris Hilton stars at Dubai restaurant anniversary

The American socialite and hotel chain heiress visited the city for a party celebrating the second anniversary of the Japanese restaurant Okku.

UAE - Dubai - May 20- 2011:   Paris Hilton pose for the photographers at the inaguration of Okku restaurant at The Monarch Hotel. ( Jaime Puebla - The National Newspaper )
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Paris Hilton walked the red carpet at Okku late on Thursday night to celebrate the Japanese restaurant's second anniversary.

The American socialite and hotel chain heiress arrived at the restaurant at the five-star Monarch Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road a fashionable 35 minutes late in a blue and silver full length dress.

Hilton arrived in Dubai on Wednesday. Before her arrival she tweeted, "My first trip in Dubai was great, but I can already tell my second trip here will be even better! I love Dubai, such an incredible place!".

She spent part of Thursday afternoon at Dubai Mall. From there she tweeted, "At The Dubai Mall Aquarium. So beautiful! This mall is so big and has the best stores! Huge! :)".

At 12:35am on Friday morning, she arrived at Okku accompanied by two friends, Gelareh Monajemi and Marta Vezzaro, both from Italy. The two were contestants on Hilton's competitive reality show, Paris Hilton's Dubai BFF, which was filmed here in 2009.

Although the show aired on several MTV channels around the world, it has yet to air here because of litigation between the show's UAE-based producers and its US-based distributors. According to an MTV representative, there are no plans to show the series on MTV Arabia.

On the red carpet outside Okku, Hilton posed briefly for photographers, before being whisked inside the restaurant for a private party. Security was tight and several members of the public who hoped to party the night away with Ms Hilton were turned away, including Samir, 21, from Jordan.

"I am a huge fan of Paris," he said. "It would have been absolutely divine to party with her, but I couldn't get in. At least I got to see her in person."

From inside Okku, Ms Hilton tweeted, "Partying @OkkuRestaurant with my Dubai BFFs Gelareh @ReemyPie and @martitabff. Love my girls!".

ealghalib@thenational.ae