Actress Carmen Electra hosted the hottest Strip pool party on New Year’s Eve at Mandalay Bay Beach, where casino resort executives approved warming up the pool to a nice 90 degrees, while the temperature outside the pool dipped into the 30s. Who knows if our contributing photographer Tom Donoghue took a dip in the pool, but he was certainly focused enough to provide this photo gallery as the clocked ticked toward 2010.

Carmen hosted Fox’s special Billboard’s New Year’s Eve Live at Mandalay Bay, and singers Sean Kingston, Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen kept the crowd dancing. American Idol Season 8 winner Kris arrived in town, his first time in Las Vegas, on Wednesday and, with his wife Katy, dined at Stack and watched Cirque du Soleil’s Love before performing at B.B. King’s Blues Club.

On New Year’s Eve, the couple, who wed after Kris passed his audition for American Idol and before they flew to California for Hollywood Week, dined at chef Kerry Simon’s Simon in Palms Place and watched the Maroon 5 concert at The Pearl in the Palms.

Their Las Vegas itinerary was as jam-packed as all the New Year’s Eve parties in the Entertainment Capital of the World!