Celebrities love a circus

Actresses Anna Jullienne (left) and Fleur Saville arrive for the opening night of Cirque Du Soleil 'Dralion'. Photo / Getty Images

Photos: Celebrities at Cirque du Soleil opening night

"I've never seen so many A, B and C-Listers in place," observed one seasoned social spotter as he sipped on bubbly at Cirque du Soleil's Dralion premiere on Thursday night. Indeed, this was Auckland's biggest party in a long time - although I had to commission my own spies for the occasion because I was at home with the lurgy

Sounds like I missed a fabulous night. The Who's Who and the Who's That of Auckland's social scene showed up to be amazed and bamboozled by the antics of the multi-national circus troupe.

Simon Dallow and daughter Paris arrived late to their seats. So for 10 minutes they had to stand in the stairwell, waiting to be seated in one of the front rows. But Shavaughn Ruakere and her guest were also late and had to linger with the Dallows. I'm told Ruakere was most unhappy at being made to wait. Oh dear.

The show made for great school holiday entertainment, so many celebs took up the multi-tasking offer to appear at an opening night event while toting their child. Jennifer Ward-Lealand was there with son Jack, Paul Henry with daughter Sophie, Dallow with Paris, Niki Caro with daughter Tui, Carol Hirschfeld with daughter Rosa, and Their Worships John and Amanda Banks with their daughter Natalia and son Matthew.

Others spotted were Rhys Darby, Keisha Castle-Hughes, All Black Richard Kahui, Toni Marsh, Wendy Petrie (there was plenty of fist-pumping potential at this show), Carly Flynn, Tamati Coffey, Colin Mathura-Jeffree and Chris Sisarich from Top Model, Greer Robson, Leah Panapa, Alison Leonard, Denise L'Estrange-Corbet, Gilda and Jimmy Kirkpatrick who's no longer sporting specs since his eye operation, Petra Bagust and loads of Shorty St actors.

Even more fun was to be had at the after-party where the performers mingled with the star-struck fans. The lovely Christobelle Grierson-Ryrie from Top Model claim to fame was apparently very impressed (aka celeb crush) when actor Ido Drent (who plays cute Daniel on Shorty St) chatted to her for a while. Oh bless. And one woman spent the night scanning the party tent for the Dralion juggler, whose package, shall we say, was rather eye-catching.

Rachel Glucina