She has a funny name, her parents are divorced and she grew up under the Hollywood microscope, but Rumer Willis seems ridiculously well-adjusted and humble.
Instead of a fancy new car, an exotic vacation abroad or expensive jewelry, all she wanted for her 21st birthday was to have a good time with her friends and family.
Yet with a new movie about to hit theaters and parents like Bruce Willis and Demi Moore (and Ashton Kutcher as a step-dad), Rumer Willis’ 21t birthday party was the opposite of an affair for a few friends and family members. Willis came to Vegas and brought everyone with her for a celebration at Tao last night.
“To be in Vegas on your 21st birthday … could you ask for anything better?” she said last night as she arrived for her birthday dinner.
The young actress’ entire family was waiting for her at the restaurant: Her parents, Willis and Moore, her step-parents, Kutcher and Emma Heming, and younger sisters Tallulah and Scout Willis, too.
Her boyfriend, Micah Alberti, and friend Matt Dallas also joined her, as did Audrina Patridge and other members of cast of their upcoming movie, Sorority Row.
Willis said she hadn’t received any birthday gifts in advance of last night’s party but her dad was responsible for both the best and strangest presents she has ever received.
She smiled as she recalled the day her famous father brought home the golden retriever who she called Daisy.
“I had always wanted a dog and my dad came home one day and he had something wrapped up in a towel,” Willis told, eyes sparking. “He was just holding it and … we were talking in the kitchen for … a good 10 minutes or so and he just said, ‘Oh here, can you hold this for me?’ And it was a puppy.”
“That was probably the best,” she said.
Bruce Willis is also responsible for giving his eldest daughter the worst – or at least, the strangest – gift she can remember.
“My dad got me a statue … like one you would put out by a pond or something,” the birthday girl laughed. “It was just a little girl reaching over a pond.”
The humble up-and-coming actress said she was grateful nonetheless.
“I opened it and I just kind of looked at him and I was like, ‘I don’t really understand it but, you know, I’m happy to take it,’ ” she said.
Willis said her 21st birthday wish list was short and sweet.
She said “getting to come here and have a birthday like this” was all that she could have asked for.
She also noted that Las Vegas was the perfect place for her 21st.
“You get to be in the center of all the things … that you get to try out when you’re 21,” she observed. “I know some people might think it’s sort of cliché or whatever but why not?”
Her party started with a late dinner that included Chilean sea bass, tofu lettuce wraps,and crispy rice, as the group waited for midnight to arrive.
Shots of Patron Platinum were later circulated, and the first of two birthday cakes was brought in as the clock struck 12 and Willis officially turned 21.
After that, it didn’t take the birthday girl long to bid her younger sisters goodnight and move the party to the nightclub upstairs.
Once inside, Willis and her entourage took over a large portion of the club’s moat section as more guests came to wish her a happy birthday.
Former “E!” reality show star and current Peepshow headliner Holly Madison joined the party, as did actress Soleil Moon Frye and her husband, Kutcher’s business partner, Jason Goldberg.
Willis was brought up onto the catwalk at one point in the night as Vegas showgirls and an Elvis impersonator presented her with yet another extravagant cake.
Later, a Madonna impersonator arrived with a bottle of Cristal to help wash it all down.
The birthday girl made the most of her night and partied until the wee hours of the morning – yet she insists she’s no party animal.
“The best part of getting to go out is being able to dance and have a good time,” she said. “I’m definitely not much of a club girl.”
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