July '08 Notes from Norm — Norm Clarke Column

Saturday 6-28-08

	Curtain falling on Stage Deli Any way you slice it, the closing of Stage Deli on Sunday is a sad day for cheesecake-and-corned beef lovers. An original tenant of the Forum Shops at Caesars, the deli closes at 5 p.m. Sunday after a 15-year lease. Pete Rose's spirits are reportedly in a slump. "He's our No. 1 regular. He eats here every day he's in town. In fact he's in here right now," general manager Gary Bogel said Friday. The most popular item on the menu, an artery-clogging breakfast platter called "The Hit King," is named after the former baseball star, who signs memorabilia every weekend at the nearby Field of Dreams collectibles store. Rose showed his appreciation to Stage Deli's longest-serving waiter, Jack Norman, by hiring him as an assistant. A tough-to-swallow rent deal is closing the doors. Rumor has it a high-profile retailer will fill the space. The deli, operated by Ark Restaurants, is a spinoff of the off-Broadway landmark. The Scene And Heard Lindsay Lohan alert: Her galpal DJ Samantha Ronson is playing at the Palms Pool & Bungalows on July 8. She's part of the new four-week Tuesday night party series featuring 26,000 rubber ducks with prizes taped to them. The first installment of the party series is Tuesday. The last time Ronson was in town Lohan accompanied her to Las Vegas but didn't go out in the public... Louis Prima Jr. brings back his father's black magic on Sunday at the Las Vegas Hilton's main showroom. The show starts at 7 p.m. ... David Walzog, executive chef at SW Steakhouse at Wynn Las Vegas, is in New York City taping an episode on the Food Channel's "Iron Chef." He missed a fashion show appearance featuring Wynn chefs at Thursday's appreciation event for local concierge and media members. Modeling the latest fashions from Wynn's boutique stores were: Wesley Holton (Daniel Boulud Brasserie); Masa Ishizawa (Okada); Rene Lenger (Country Club Steakhouse); Richard Chen (Wing Lei); James Benson (Wynn Catering) and Pierre Catel (Wynn Pastry) along with nightlife impresarios Cy and Jesse Waits (Tryst); Ronn Nicolli (Tryst marketing director) and Patricia Richards (Wynn master mixologist.)

Sunday 6-29-08

Elvis fan club will have star its way

A local Elvis fan club isn't feeling a whole lot of love from the Elvis Presley Estate.

The cold shoulder includes efforts to obtain a donation for Elvis' celebrity star on Las Vegas Boulevard and silence as far as offering input on where to install the star.

Letters were sent to everyone from Robert Sillerman, who purchased 85 percent of Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2004 for $114 million, to Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley.

"We have heard nothing in response," said Sue Laurenz, head of the Viva Las Vegas Club, the fundraising force behind getting Elvis a star.

The club has about $13,000 of the required $15,000.

"We're moving on. The fans have made it happen, and it's all fan money," said Laurenz, adding that she's seen donations as small as $2 and $5.

The Las Vegas Walk of Stars announced last week that Elvis' star will go in front of the Riviera on Sept. 26, the 27th star on the Strip.

Laurenz said Pete "Big Elvis" Vallee has been a saint in the effort, frequently promoting the fundraising drive during his show at Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon. All the proceeds have been raised since Feb. 28, a good share from foreign countries through the Internet.

The Web site is www.astarforelvis.com. E-mail astar4elvis@yahoo.com for more information.

As for the oft-asked question: Why the Riviera?

The Riviera, Laurenz noted, is the closest casino property to the Hilton (then The International), where Elvis was a sensation from 1969 to 1977. She added that the county gave authorization to the Walk of Stars only along Las Vegas Boulevard.

"For what it's worth, Elvis was with Liberace in November 1956 at the Riv when those famous photographs were taken of the switched jackets and instruments," Laurenz said.

Stars for Sammy Davis Jr. and Liberace are in front of the Riv, "and I do believe Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin will be there, too. Elvis will be among his friends, and that is pretty special."

WINNING 'EM OVER

Nothing turns around your show-biz image quite like a toddler, says Penn Jillette, the talking half of Penn & Teller, the Rio headliners.

During his appearance last week with E! late-night host Chelsea Handler, Jillette said everything changed after his daughter, Moxie, now 3, appeared on "The View" in October 2006.

Before Moxie's appearance, "I believe every woman on that panel hated me," he told Handler. "Then I had a child, and we brought Moxie in to do some cheesy magic trick, and all of a sudden the women of 'The View' love me."

Penn & Teller were back on "The View" last Monday during the show's five-episode shoot at Caesars Palace.

Talking with Jillette that evening, Handler brought up illusionist Criss Angel, whose Cirque du Soleil show opens in September at the Luxor.

"What I like most about Criss Angel," said Jillette, "is that cross he wears around his neck is big enough to actually staple a Jew to it."

Handler asked: Is he really a magician?

Jillette responded: "He's 'I Dream of Jeanie.' He does camera tricks."


Monday 6-30-08

Kirshner works on big Vegas project Pop-music icon Don Kirshner is in talks with several Strip properties about a major Las Vegas project involving a new twist to entertainment. Local deal-maker Jack Wishna confirmed Sunday that he is partnering with Kirshner on what Wishna characterized as an "unprecedented" project. Kirshner will be in Las Vegas this week, Wishna said, to discuss the deal, which could bring some of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll history to the Strip. They're keeping the details under wraps, but Kirshner, who has been plotting a comeback for years, might have revealed his ambitions during an interview with The Washington Post four years ago. His idea at the time was the creation of a global entertainment company, tapping into his deep musical industry ties and Wishna's local knowledge. Wishna put together Wayne Newton's long-term deal with the Stardust in 1999 and has met with Britney Spears and Michael Jackson to discuss Las Vegas headliner deals. Wishna brokered the deal that recently brought Donald Trump into the Las Vegas real estate market. Kirshner, 74, was nicknamed "the man with the golden ear" by Time magazine after he produced scores of hits. He is credited with discovering Bobby Darin and taking The Monkees, among others, to the top. The Scene And Heard That Tuesday party at the Palms featuring 26,000 rubber ducks is being held at the pool outside Simon at Palms Place, not the Palms Pool & Bungalows.

Tuesday 7-01-08

Norm is taking Tuesdays off

Wednesday 7-02-08

Steve Wynn goes for Mega-Yacht

Casino developer Steve Wynn has put dueling pirate ships and a faux volcano on the Strip. Now the Disney of the Desert is pursuing another passion: a mega-yacht.

Several sources confirmed that Wynn recently purchased the 183-foot Allegro, which was spotted in the Port of Nice, France, last week. Here's the Web site: http://yachts.monacoeye.com/yachtsbysize/pages/allegro01.html

Wynn was on the Riviera on Tuesday, according to spies.

He reportedly has plans to add his own brand of luxury to the Allegro, which was built three years ago in Italy.

The price tag wasn't available, but mega-yachts are known to fetch more than $100 million.

It's not the biggest in the world: That title belongs to the Dubai, a 524-foot motor yacht owned by the sheik of Dubai.

Donald Trump paid $30 million in 1987 for a 282-foot yacht owned by the sultan of Brunei, who had secured it as collateral for a multimillion-dollar loan to Adnan M. Khashoggi.

Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian arms dealer and legendary Las Vegas high roller, reportedly spent $85 million to build and outfit the vessel. It featured a helicopter landing pad, a theater, a discotheque, a hospital, sleeping quarters for a crew of 52 and refrigerators that could hold a three-month supply of food for 100 people.

Trump renamed it the Trump Princess and later sold it.

THE QUEEN OF PARIS

Happy 80th birthday to French film and singing icon Line Renaud, who was such an international star that Elvis kept a promise to her by attending the opening of "Casino de Paris" at the Dunes in 1965.

She met him while she was performing at the famed Moulin Rouge in Paris. Elvis, then stationed in the Army in Germany, came to the show, and not only did he meet her, but he serenaded her with his guitar backstage.

Renaud, who calls Las Vegas her second home, was recently featured on the cover of Paris Match magazine, which dedicated an eight-page spread to the Grand Dame of Paris.

Fittingly, her star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars is at the front door of the Paris Las Vegas.

The Scene And Heard

Clint Holmes will be a special guest when the Las Vegas Tenors kick off a Fourth of July engagement Friday at the Suncoast. Tenor George DeMotte will join the group on Saturday night, and Chris Coyne, longtime lead singer for "Les Folies Bergere" at the Tropicana, performs on Sunday. Teddy Davey, one of the founding members with Bill Fayne, Mark Giovi and Bobby Black, is back after an emergency surgery.

Thursday 7-03-08

Playboy models in state spotlight

Don Chairez's campaign for the Nevada Supreme Court is getting some unwanted exposure: Photos of his 21-year-old daughter have surfaced on Playboy.com.

The story went public Wednesday when ESPN affiliate KWWN-AM, 1100, and several prominent sports Web sites reported that Monica Chairez, a Las Vegas model, had posed for Playboy.

It was the second political controversy in recent weeks involving a Playboy model.

The Nevada Appeal in Carson City published photos last week of Gov. Jim Gibbons embracing a woman and holding hands at the Reno Rodeo. Reports identified the woman as Leslie Durant, a former Playboy model who was married to Reno Mayor Pete Sferrazza in the mid-1980s.

Gibbons, who has been in a divorce battle with his wife, Dawn, told reporters that Durant was a longtime friend.

Angered that her Playboy connection was being aired, Chairez's daughter fired off threatening text messages to her ex-boyfriend, Pauly Howard. In an interview with Vegas Confidential, Howard said Monica Chairez and her boyfriend accused him of revealing her Playboy connection.

"I had nothing to do with it," said Howard, 31. "I have no control over the blogs. She's the one who posed. Being in Playboy has always been a dream of hers."

Howard, who said he dated Monica Chairez for about two years, said she threatened to file a restraining order against the radio station and create a Web site with embarrassing sexual details about the sports-talk host.

Don Chairez is a former Clark County District Court judge who lost a bid for state attorney general in 2006. A request for comment left on his telephone was not returned by deadline.

A former Clark County deputy district attorney from 1990 to 1994, he was appointed judge in 1994 by Gov. Bob Miller.

According to his Internet bio, Chairez "wasted no time" in taking the lead "when smut peddlers were creating a nuisance on the Las Vegas Strip."

The bio said Chairez "was the first to rule that the aggressive smut peddlers were trespassing on private property and were not exercising free speech protected by the First Amendment."

Chairez is one of four candidates running for the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice William Maupin. An August primary will narrow the list to two, followed by a November runoff.

Howard said he and Chairez's daughter parted ways earlier this year when she "wanted to move in and get engaged."

Friday 7-04-08

Playboy 'coed': Dad's OK with it

Playboy model Monica Chairez said Thursday that her father, Nevada Supreme Court candidate Don Chairez, was aware that she was posing for the magazine and supported her decision.

The 21-year-old UNLV journalism graduate appears nude in a Playboy.com pictorial titled "Playboy Coed of the Week" for the week of June 26.

Her Playboy photo shoot was April 30, and "my family has always known about this and are 100% supportive of me."

Her father is a former Clark County District Court judge who unsuccessfully ran for state attorney general in 1996. He is one of four candidates seeking the seat of retiring state Supreme Court Justice William Maupin.

As a district judge, Chairez became known as "Maximum Don" after ruling that smut peddlers had no First Amendment protection when they trespassed on private property along Las Vegas Boulevard.

Monica Chairez, in an e-mailed response to an article that appeared here Thursday, said, "My parents raised me with the highest standard of values. Posing in Playboy does not compromise what my morals and beliefs are. It's 2008 and this is Las Vegas. Our own Oscar Goodman shot a Playboy pictorial."

She was referring to the mayor's 2005 stint as a guest photographer for Playboy. He photographed 19-year-old Las Vegas model Destiny Davis, who was Playboy's Miss January that year.

Monica Chairez said her father is her No. 1 fan, "always teaching me that beautiful women can be brilliant." An honor student at Bishop Gorman High School, she completed her UNLV studies in three years.

She said she was angry at Pauly Howard, talk show host at local ESPN affiliate KWWN-AM, 1100, because a blog item by one of his former colleagues was headlined "Talk Show Host Has Sex with Playboy Playmate."

"I've never had sex with him (Howard)," she said. "Our relationship was strictly platonic. And I'm not a Playmate."

The Scene And Heard

French designer Christian Audigier opens his new nightclub venture tonight, and he told me Thursday that he is "very confident" Michael Jackson will be among the big celebrity turnout. Christian Audigier The Nightclub takes over the former Tangerine space at Treasure Island, and it's likely a lot of major corporate brands will be watching how the brand-expansion venture works out. It's a partnership between Pure Management Group, MGM Mirage and Audigier, a fashion phenom who becomes the first designer to jump into the Las Vegas nightclub industry. He hoped to have a deal in place by today with Jackson to team up on a new clothing line that would draw fashion inspirations from Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury and other music icons. ...

The blogosphere is abuzz over Gov. Jim Gibbons' explanation that he and former Playboy model Leslie Durant are just friends because nothing "takes the romance out of a friendship" like witnessing childbirth. Ada Calhoun, one of AOL's featured bloggers, called it "the most unique defense ever against sexual impropriety." Calhoun wrote: "Try it the next time you get accused of an affair: I couldn't have slept with her! I saw her give birth!"

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