Barnstable-Brown Party's still Kentucky Derby's winningest gala

The Barnstable Brown black-tie affair has long been the No. 1 Kentucky Derby party and the most coveted ticket. You, too, can rub shoulders with celebrities on Derby Eve, April 30, for a good cause: diabetes research.

This year, the guest list for the Kentucky Derby party at Patricia Barnstable Brown’s elegant home in Louisville's Highlands neighborhood includes talk-show hosts Jimmy Fallon and Carson Daly, singer and actor Usher, singer and actor Nick Lachey and his girlfriend Vanessa Minnillo, Kentucky-born model and actress Molly Sims and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, among others. Bad-boy singer Kid Rock is back again, having performed last year. Last year socialite Paris Hilton, actress Brooke Shields, hip-hop pioneer Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels of Run-DMC, and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady attended.

Over the years, the annual fund-raising party, hosted by twin sisters Patricia Barnstable Brown and Priscilla “Cyb” Barnstable, the annual Gala has raised millions of dollars for diabetes research and care. Diabetes killed Patricia’s husband, Dr. David Brown, in 2003, and in 2008 the sisters and their mother founded the Barnstable Brown Diabetes & Obesity Center at the University of Kentucky. Some of the money raised also goes toward diabetes research at the University of Louisville.

The sisters, cheerleaders at the University of Kentucky, became famous as the Doublemint Twins in ads for the Wrigley Company’s chewing gum in the 1970s. Patricia had been Miss Kentucky and the sisters also starred in the short-lived science-fiction television show “Quark.”

In addition to the up-close-and-personal encounters with actors, singers and other celebrities, you’ll also be entertained by dancing to music provided by D.J. Tendaji Lathan and D.J. Avi.

You can buy tickets, which start at $900 each, online.

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