Garden party

By Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan, Globe Staff  |  May 19, 2008

Considering that the New Kids on the Block had to perform last night at the KISS 108 concert in Mansfield, we were a little surprised to see Donnie Wahlberg sitting in his usual courtside seat at the Garden yesterday. Then again, you won't find a bigger Celts fans than Wahlberg, who watched Game 7 with his bandmate Danny Wood. Also in the house were actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who stayed out of sight in a suite high above the court; Maroon 5's Adam Levine; Ellen Pompeo's husband, Chris Ivery; Pats QB Tom Brady; and several of No. 12's teammates, including Kevin Faulk, Laurence Maroney, Randy Moss, Richard Seymour, Ben Watson, and Vince Wilfork. Other ringers rooting for the Celts - we hope - included ESPN's Steve Levy, "American Idol" also-ran Ayla Brown, BC football coach Jeff Jagodzinski, Memphis basketball coach John Calipari, San Francisco 49ers bigwig Jed York, and former NFL player Tony Siragusa.

A Grand turnout

Ed Kane's come a long way from his days cleaning his old man's bar in Quincy. The Harvard grad, along with his business partner brother Joe, has built a small empire, which includes three restaurants - Tosca, Stars, and FireKing Baking Co. - and three nightclubs - Marina Bay Beach Club (formerly WaterWorks), Estate, and Suite. Ed's latest endeavor is Shrine, a two-story, 21,000-square-foot nightclub at the splashy new MGM Grand at Foxwoods, which opened Saturday night. Kane's $10 million club attracted a celeb-heavy crowd, including reality TV type Kim Kardashian, singer Mariah Carey's new man, Nick Cannon, "Sopranos" actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, former Playmate Jenny McCarthy, Brett Favre, current and former Pats Wes Welker, Richard Seymour, Lonie Paxton, Matt Light, Rosevelt Colvin, and Tebucky Jones, "Top Chef" Tom Colicchio, and Boston's own culinary king Michael Schlow, whose latest restaurant, Alta Strada, is also part of the MGM Grand complex. Investors in Kane's club include several prominent Bostonians, including auto dealer Herb Chambers, Granite City Electric CEO Phyllis Godwin, radio host Matt Siegel, Kowloon owner Stanley Wong, Sox chairman Tom Werner, and Kane's BFF, BoSox owner John Henry. Saturday's unveiling of the $700 million luxury hotel and nightclub featured performances by Alicia Keys, Josh Groban, and John Mayer, who was sans his new girlfriend Jennifer Aniston. (Do you prefer Janiston or Johnifer?) Others making the scene included Sean (Diddy) Combs, Whoopi Goldberg, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and husband Michael Douglas.

While Big Papi was playing baseball Saturday, his wife Tiffany and son D'Angelo were at the Reebok tent at the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Boston. In all, some 2,900 people took part in the two-day event, which raised $6.9 million for breast cancer prevention and research. Accompanied by her dad, Philip, actress Eliza Dushku of Watertown walked in honor of her grandmother.

Is Boston ready for Britney Spears? Mel Gibson is helping Spears resuscitate her career, and word is he wants to cast the pop star in his next film, "Edge of Darkness," which is due to shoot in Boston later this summer. Britney is currently vacationing with Gibson and his wife, Robyn, at the "Braveheart" actor's surfside ranch in Costa Rica. Based on a 1985 miniseries, "Edge of Darkness" follows a police investigator whose activist daughter is killed in mysterious circumstances. It's being produced by Graham King and written by William Monahan, who last worked together on "The Departed."

Cambridge native and onetime record exec Joel Menzin hosted a dinner for his actor buddy Ryan Reynolds at Scampo the other night. Reynolds, who recently got engaged to actress Scarlett Johansson, is in town shooting "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock. . . . Longtime Globe photographer Bill Brett wasn't in the audience Saturday when his brother, New England Council President Jim Brett, received an honorary degree from Westfield State College. Bill was busy getting his own honorary degree from the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. Congrats to both.

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