Entertainment

Restaurateur and professional host Robert Colombo is quickly establishing his Centrum eatery, the Club, as a 21-like spot where the power players exchange the billionaire's secret handshake.

One recent peek in the dining room revealed Dallas Cowboys first lady Gene Jones dining with the mega-wealthy Harold and Annette Simmons, PlainsCapital banker Alan White and his wife, Lee Ann, and Su-Su and Jerry Meyer.

Another chance look found hockey great Brett Hull wining and dining his wife, Darcie.

On New Year's Eve, revelers in the Club included attorney and sometime actor Steve Stodghill with his wife, Ann. (In Luke Wilson's indie film The Wendell Baker Story, Steve was creatively cast as Wendell's attorney.)

What exactly are Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo doing in their private time? During a recent visit to Highland Park Village, Jessica picked up some diaper-rash ointment.

Too much information?

Nah. Here's the deal. Last weekend, Jessica popped into the Kiehl's boutique at HPV with a friend and the friend's 4-month-old baby.

Apparently still in the Christmas spirit, Jessica popped for a bunch of Kiehl's products for her friend, including Baby Gentle Foaming Hair and Body Wash, Baby Nurturing Cream for Face and Body, Baby Lip Balm and some samples of the diaper-rash ointment.

The high-net-worth crowd who frequented the Mansion and the Adolphus when hotelier Jeff Trigger ran them is eagerly awaiting this year's reopening of the Stoneleigh Hotel.

Jeff's company, La Corsha, has been gutting the historic Maple Avenue hotel and restoring it as an elegant jewel. The work is almost done. On Jan. 30, members of the Dallas Museum of Art League will get a sneak peek at the Stoneleigh and its new spa.

"The hotel won't be open yet, but we're giving 250 folks a glimpse at this event to benefit the museum," says Jeff.

Chef David Bull worked for Jeff when he ran the Driskill in Austin, and he is now at the Stoneleigh preparing to open his restaurant, Bolla. He'll be handing out Bolla eats at the museum event.

The Stoneleigh is scheduled to open for business in February, but Jeff reports it will be a little longer to complete the renovation of the famous 7,000-square-foot penthouse. Say, April or May.

Designer Carleton Varney owns Dorothy Draper & Co., the New York firm that originally designed the penthouse. He has been working on the modern-day incarnation of the top-floor suite that hosted countless rock stars when Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Isaac Tigrett lived there in the '80s.

Monaco's current ruler, Prince Albert II, kicked back in the Stoneleigh penthouse in 1994 at a party with soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt when Dallas hosted World Cup soccer at the Cotton Bowl.

When Jeff Trigger and company began tearing out walls at the Stoneleigh, they made a wonderful discovery: the hotel's original ballroom.

Like the St. Regis in New York, the Stoneleigh had its ballroom on the top floor, adjacent to the penthouse apartment. It was later filled in with guest rooms.

"We started tearing things out and found this beautiful tall ceiling, tall windows with amazing views of downtown and a great open floor plan," says Jeff.

So that 11th-floor space has been returned to its original grandeur and is called the Grand Salon.

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