Let’s Light the Christmas Tree

Tonight, a longtime holiday tradition continues in New York’s Rockefeller Center with the 76th annual tree lighting ceremony. While New Yorkers like myself know better than to brave the crowds in midtown until well into next year, tourists and tree-lovers alike flock to the landmark to take part in the festivities every year.

Jewelry hounds will be happy to note that the glittering star on top of the 8-ton, 72-foot Norway spruce is a miracle in and of itself. The Swarovski sparkler weighs in at a whopping 550 pounds, is over 9 feet tall and is made of 25,000 glittering crystals. What a way to ‘bling’ in the holiday season!

Tony Bennett, Harry Connick, Jr., Jamie Foxx and Beyonce are among the entertainers scheduled to perform, and Britney Spears is expected to officially ‘light’ the 30,000 energy-efficient LED bulbs that sit on over 5 miles of wire.

Other important guests include a Pascagoula, Mississippi family whose new home was built in part with lumber from last year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, an 84-foot-tall Norway spruce.

Light for the holiday season, and light at the end of the tunnel. A wonderful sentiment and a glittering way to mark the official start of the holiday season.

NBC will air the entire ceremony tonight at 8pm.

TRL Takes a Final Glittering Bow

Diamond jewelry made a sparkling appearance at the finale of MTV’s TRL last night– from Hilary Duff’s gorgeous white and black diamond fan earrings to Nelly’s icey dog tags.

For those of you who have been able to successfully ignore the MTV phenomenon over the past ten years, TRL is short for “Total Request Live”, an American Bandstand-type show that helped artists promote their latest offerings and gave screaming fans a chance to burst their vocal chords.

Host Carson Daly (the MTV generation’s Dick Clark) welcomed back a dazzling list of performers, including a gorgeous Beyonce, a blinged out 50 Cent, Kid Rock, Christina Aguilera and my favorite boy band graduate, the cute-as-a-button, Justin Timberlake.

Another highlight was Blink 182’s Travis Barker, who appeared via satellite from Los Angeles in his first televised interview since surviving his Sept. 19 plane crash.

"Every day gets better. I feel better every day," he told fans. "I'm already playing my drums again and am back in the studio. I'm thankful to be able to play."

Former host and Nick Lachey main squeeze, Vanessa Manillo, appeared in glittering diamond star drop earrings but unfortunately wore a dress that Paris Hilton made famous on the David Letterman show a few weeks back. Ouch. New stylist, anyone?

But perhaps the night’s most talked about performance was a surprisingly tight showing by the only boy band still standing, The Backstreet Boys. Also surprising was how I found myself singing every word to their hit, “I Want It That Way”, while watching last night.

OK. Maybe it’s not that surprising…

While youngsters like singer, Taylor Swift, remember coming of age to this television classic, many musicians experienced career-changing experiences on the show.

Perhaps a resurfaced Eminem said it best when he phoned in and said, “I feel like they’re tearing down my home.”

Or as *NSYNC would say, “tearing up my heart”…

Good bye TRL! You will (admittedly) be missed…

Rock of Ages! Beyonce Debuts Diamond Engagement Ring at Fashion Rocks

There are diamond engagement rings, and there are diamond engagement rings. New bride, Beyonce Knowles flashed one blinder of a rock on the Fashion Rocks red carpet this weekend, and jewelry lovers everywhere dropped to their knees.

Weighing in at a mere 18 (yes, you heard it Cindy) carats, the Lorraine Schwartz ring is valued at $5 million and features a flawless, emerald cut diamond. Jay-Z does pretty well for himself, we hear.

The music biz’s royal couple secretly married in April, and the stalkerazzi has been waiting for the diamond to debut ever since. Timing is everything.

Beyonce also wowed the audience with her “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” duet with one Justin Timberlake during the show and appeared in full Etta James garb to pay homage to the chaunteuse, who was in the audience and who Beyonce portrays in her latest film, Cadillac Records.

To see both the bling and the sing, watch Fashion Rocks this Tuesday in a two-hour special on CBS. Proceeds benefit Stand Up To Cancer, a program established by the Entertainment Industry Foundation to raise money for cancer research.