Cuba Gooding Jr. gets paid to do things like Rat Race (above) and show at Ghostbar grand openings. That's one hell of a way to make a living.

Friday night's part-two opening of Ghostbar atop the W Hotel provided the most interesting Dallas crowd I've seen in a long time. You had dancers (no, not ballerinas), models and Mavs--mostly benchwarmers, but Mavs all the same. Speaking of, backup center D.J. Mbenga was in the house flanked by one of those not-a-ballerinas; don't you tell me

. Cuba Gooding Jr., among the few celebs on hand for the grand gala Thursday, was back Friday night, and I was curious why he decided to grace us with his presence. I tried to ask him, but a dutiful PR person for the N9NE group, owners of Ghostbar, played offensive tackle. I'm thinking she'd had a few too many, though, because she spilled the beans: Basically, the star of

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and Radio and

's Mekhi Pfeiffer (who she said was also there, but I didn't see him) work for the N9NE group, meaning they go to all of their grand openings around the country. So if you were feeling kinda special because Cuba came down here to kick it with us, not so much; he's getting paid so us local yokels can brag about all the celebrity guests with whom we got to take a few snapshot keepsakes. No worries, we had our very own local celebrities in the house Friday night, by which I mean, uh, Alexa Conomos, Mike Castellucci and Justin Farmer from WFAA-Channel 8.