Thursday was ladies' night for the Simpson wedding party.
Jessica and mother Tina Simpson hosted a bachelorette bash for imminent bride-to-be Ashlee Simpson last night, E! News has exclusively learned. The hen party started off at the Encino home of parents Joe and Tina, where tents were spotted being erected earlier in the day, and made stops at a swanky West Hollywood lingerie shop and an A-list watering hole before winding down around midnight.
A source said the balloon-decorated party at the Simpson house was a "mellow" affair attended by a dozen or so of the youngest Simpson's nearest and dearest. The bash began in the early evening and, sometime before 8 p.m., the group—which we hear included the mother of the groom—left to hit up the Kiki de Montparnasse boutique on Melrose Avenue for...well, you know.
Eventually it was off to the Tropicana Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, where Group XX met up with Group XY...
Doing their bit to detract attention from the bachelorette party, soon-to-be in-laws Pete Wentz and Joe Simpson dined with a few of Wentz's pals at the paparazzi hot spot Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills for a two-hour guys-only bachelor dinner.
Beer and wine were in steady supply at the table, and the tab, totaling nearly $1,000, was magnanimously picked up by the future father-in-law.
The group left the photographer-swarmed eatery after 11 p.m. through separate exits—Papa Simpson out the front and Wentz & Co. through the back.
"I'm a happy camper," Simpson said as he made his departure.
Wentz, meanwhile, eschewed questions about his rapidly forthcoming nuptials, taking place on Saturday, or his fiancée's possible baby bump, instead joking that the group spent the night discussing the finer points of his facial hair.
When asked what he and Simpson discussed, the Fall Out Boy quipped that the patriarch was "only concerned with my mustache."
Oh, well. Better to talk about a hairy situation than have one. Right, Tony Romo?
After dinner, the dynamic duo was spotted at the Tropicana bar, where Ashlee was also spotted across the room.
—Reporting by Ken Baker and Marc Malkin
(Originally published on May 16, 2008 at 6:58 a.m.)