Jessica's Birthday Party

Jessica Simpson Photo by: Harsha Gopal / WENN / Landov

Since announcing her split from husband Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson hasn't been staying home and wallowing in her sorrows. She recently threw a birthday dinner for her assistant and best friend CaCee Cobb at the hip steakhouse The Lodge in Beverly Hills. During the three-hour-long dinner, Simpson and her party of 20 dined on – what else? – steak, drank wine and indulged in an array of desserts. The group then sang "Happy Birthday" three times for Cobb, with the first round led by the former Newlywed. At the end of the shindig, Simpson picked up the tab on her Black American Express card.

Afterwards, Simpson, mom Tina and Cobb headed over to the Tropicana Bar at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where they had some more cocktails.

Father Knows Best
American Idol star Bo Bice might love being a musician, but he has other plans for his son, Aidan, who turns 3 months old on Christmas Eve. "I've already told him, 'Go be a doctor. Don't be an attorney, don't be a musician. Just be a doctor,' " he says.

Bice, whose debut album The Real Thing hits stores Dec. 13, admits that he's still wrapping his head around being famous. "When people say, 'You're a celebrity now,' it's like, 'No, I'm a dad.' Everyone knows how fleeting this business is," he told us at the taping of Oxygen's Holiday Custom Concert Special (which will air Dec. 18). "You're here today, gone today. That's one of the things that fatherhood has changed. It's knowing that I’m going to have to be out on the road touring and making albums to make sure my son goes to good schools and has every opportunity in his life to make something out of it."

So, what's the doting father's favorite moment with his son? "If I lay him on my chest he's out in about 30 seconds," Bice says. "And just giving him a bath and seeing this little bitty body – that's just so adorable."

Caught in the Act
• The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody, chowing down at Mr. Cecil's California Ribs in Sherman Oaks, Calif. The couple favored the outdoor patio where, along with four pals, they feasted on barbequed beef ribs, chicken, hush puppies, corn on the cob, cornbread and baked beans.

• Mena Suvari, dining at Japanese eatery Sushi Roku in Las Vegas.

• By MARISA LAUDADIO, KIM LANSING and PAULA KASHTAN