Stars, fireworks and £13 million Dubai hotel opening..What global financial crisis?

(BBC News)

While we are all counting our pennies here in the UK, over in Dubai it’s a completely different story as tycoons and celebrities streamed there last night for the world’s most expensive private party.

Having spent £1 billion, the owners of the new Atlantis hotel, which they hope will become the symbol of excess in a region, splashed out £13.5 million on its opening.

(Celebrity Gossip)

In the lobby of the Atlantis about 2,000 guests sipped Dom Pérignon. Outside, A-list celebrities from Robert De Niro to Lindsay Lohan walked the red carpet. After the pop songstress Kylie Minogue performed on stage the sky lit up with the world’s largest fireworks display, seven times greater than this year’s Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing and extravagant enough to be seen from outer space.

The price tag for the party even embarrassed Sol Kerzner, the chairman and chief executive officer of Kerzner International, “If I had to do it all over again, I might do it recognising the fact that we’re living through a bit of a tough economic environment,” Mr Kerzner, a South African billionaire, told The Times.

What lives of the rich and famous!

The evidence of a global financial crisis is certainly being kept under wraps in Dubai!