Before the Derby

Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo had a run-in on Friday night at a pre-Kentucky derby party with a guy who was not so representative of Southern hospitality.

According to Nick (via his reps), the couple were making their way through the party at Club Felt, led by Nick’s bodyguard, when some drunk guy yanked Nick’s arm causing Vanessa to fall down. Dude! Don’t push a lady down!

While Vanessa tried to calm her pissed off boy-toy, nearby police took control of the situation and cuffed the guy. They asked Nick if he wanted to press charges, but Lachey and Minnillo were content to just put the night behind them.

I guess Southern hospitality isn’t really the way it looks in the movies, where police handcuff the guy, then Nick punches him the stomach until he pukes.

At the Derby

According to Page Six:

It’s getting serious between Vanessa Minnillo and Nick Lachey. The former MTV veejay is becoming bicoastal and moving into Lachey’s house in Beverly Hills. We hear she’s trying to become an actress and focus on gigs in L.A. – which could endanger her job as New York correspondent for "Entertainment Tonight." Her rep didn’t return calls. But Minnillo should be warned: Maria Menounous, now on "Access Hollywood," was cut from "ET" after she neglected her duties to play roles in the sitcom "One Tree Hill" and the movie "The Fantastic Four."

Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo enjoyed yesterday together at the NASCAR UAW Daimler-Chrysler 400 held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. They were guests of driver Jimmie Johnson, who won the race, and then invited the couple to party with him in victory lane.

No word yet on when they are getting married, and having kids.

Jessica Simpson says seeing Nick Lachey with another woman after their split was painful. My advice, get over Nick Jessica, and move on. Jessica was the one who divorced Nick, so I think she should just shut up about Nick and mind her own business.

"Oh, it hurt me," Simpson tells Elle in its March issue. "Two or three weeks later? Yeah, I’d say it kind of hurt me."

After their November 2005 separation, her ex was photographed with Laguna Beach star Kristin Cavallari. He’s now dating MTV’s Vanessa Minnillo.

But Simpson, 26, says she’s still in touch with Lachey, 33. "He’s so much a part of my life, how could I not be? Any guy who’s going to be with me from this day forward has to understand that."

She won’t say whether that guy could be John Mayer, 29, with whom she’s been linked off and on since the summer.

"I want to tell you everything, but I have to sew my lips together," she says. "It’s hurt me in the past." (Still, a glimpse of her e-mail inbox reveals a block of about 10 e-mails from Mayer, including one with the subject line, "Texas girl.")

When the interviewer comments, "I feel that with this new privacy of yours, I’m going to wake up one morning, pick up the paper and read . . . " Simpson interjects: "That I’m married! Maybe."

Asked if she’s "totally in love right now," Simpson grins and says, "I didn’t say yes."

If she’s taking pains to keep her love life low-profile, it’s because of the tabloid firestorm set off by her split from Lachey after they’d revealed the inner workings of their marriage on Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica.

"I let people in on who I am and how I react to my husband," Simpson says. "That’s a big deal. Celebrities don’t do that. So I think they brought me down just because I stopped talking and because I have not spoken – and will not speak – about my divorce. And I think people feel like I owe them my reality right now."

She will say, though, that she thought there was hope for her marriage up until a few days before she and Lachey announced their split. So what changed? "I watched The Notebook on a plane home to Waco to be with my grandparents," she says. "It’s a great love story."

The movie itself, she says, was "not what sealed it. I just figured out the statement. It was about that moment of desperation. I needed to breathe."

Vanessa Minnillo and Nick Lachey got into a tiff when a Jessica Simpson look-alike tried to slip her number to Lachey Wednesday night at Plumm. Minnillo started yelling, "We have to talk!" before leaving the club in a huff, said a witness. Lachey followed, opening the door of a cab for his miffed gal pal, who ignored him and hopped into another. Meanwhile, the real Jessica dined with her mom at Border Grill inside the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

It doesn’t look like Lachey has much experience with Filipinas like Minnillo. Filipinas have a firey temper, and can be extremely jealous. Yes that’s a stereotype that all of my Filipina and Filipino friends agree with. If the story is true, then Lachey had better move on to another relationship, otherwise he’ll be spending all his time trying to keep Minnillo happy rather than focusing on his career. Minnillo will certainly be focusing on her career, and using Lachey to give it a boost. The great sex isn’t worth the trouble.