By Maureen O'Connor

The Party King of Scottsdale's $500,000 Christmas Fete

Jason Hope is a Scottsdale, Arizona entrepreneur. He recently made headlines for throwing a $500,000 Christmas party featuring Ludacris ($100,000 performance fee) and Snooki ($17,500 appearance fee). Why would he do that? We asked his publicist.

By day, Jason Hope runs a mobile technology company called Jawa, among other "pursuits in industries that leverage technology and computer information systems." On the side, he operates at least ten vanity websites, including JasonHope.com, JasonHopeScience.com, JasonHopeSpace.com, JasonHopeCures.com, JasonHopeAZ.com, JasonRandalHope.com, JasonRHope.com, JasonHope.net, JasonHope.me, and Jason-Hope.com. (Yes, each of those links go to a separate site.)

By night, Jason Hope is the party king of Scottsdale. Earlier this week, he issued a press release about the $500,000 Christmas party he held last Saturday. It featured the following attractions:

Ludacris ($100,000, included performance)
Snooki ($17,500)
Lo Bosworth ($12,500)
Stephanie Pratt ($12,500)
Aaron Paul, the cute one from Breaking Bad ($16,000)
Bruce Jenner ($15,000)
Giuliani and Bill Rancic ($15,00 together)
Dean Cain ($5000)

Curious, I filled out the "contact" form at JasonHope.com to ask a few more questions. A pleasant lady named Melissa Gieringer wrote back right away. Melissa does public relations for Jason's mobile company. But she was also happy to field questions about Jason's personal life. She told me that Jason had "close to 400 guests" at his party, which was held in his Scottsdale home last Saturday. But why?

This holiday season, Jason made the decision to pull out all the stops to throw his friends and employees an amazing, star-studded Christmas party. Jason threw the party for his employees and his friends; the goal was to show his friends/family and employees how much he appreciates them.

Or, to quote Ludacris, "Southern hospitality." Also, sexy ladies and fast cars. [Images via Jason Hope's Flickr and Getty]