The Show is UP (Really!): Top 10 Moments of 2010

OK, folks. We did it. The LVRocks studio is history, sadly, and we had to learn to podcast the old-fashioned way, at home with cheap equipment. So, seriously, we'd like some feedback on how this sounds. But, any which way, we got it 'er done and we're back in action. Enjoy! Also, there's a new poll and trivia question, too, and the clips from all of 10 top picks (as voted on by you) are available as stand-alone MP3s on TheStripPodcast.Com. As always, you can subscribe to The Strip (it's free!) in iTunes or Zune to get the latest show and various specials. -sf

Jan. 22: The Top 10 Moments of 2010

We know we’ve been gone too long and we’re sorry. But we’re back to count down the 10 best moments of 2010 as voted on by you. And here’s a hint: there’s a dash of Oscar, a dollop of the Wynns and a whole bowl of me beating up on Steve for being an ill-spoken weirdo.
In Banter: Our staycation with PETS at Cosmo, Alex's closure, our newest dog, Aces, our recording troubles, Aria's wrap woes, losing the Trippies, MGM Resorts' M Life and more.

Links to stuff discussed:

The blog post about our show woes
VegasHappensHere.Com on adopting Aces
The show with Sierra Boggess and Sierra’s bio
Our staycation at Cosmo – and what it was like to bring the pets
Yelp on Scarpetta, Holstein’s, and Jaleo
Eric Gladstone and John Curtas think Wynn is downgrading the culinary scene there
Sinatra Dance With Me extended into April
The R-J on the possible 40,000-seat arena from the Silverton owner and UNLV
The Sun on the $20 million Stratosphere renovation and our Jan.3 Tweet on that
Stories about M Life from MGM Resorts from VegasTripping.Com and the Las Vegas Sun
Possible mayoral candidates in Vegas get ready

The show is UP: Tim Gunn!

Despite the troubles I ran into with the publicist for Liz Claiborne who kept interrupting to cut my time with Tim Gunn shorter than promised, the chat was fun and the rest of this show is pretty funny. How funny? While editing, something Miles said made me do this with my coffee. Click on the date below to listen or right-click to download and listen at your leisure or subscribe to get the episodes instantly when they're available via iTunes or Zune.

Sept. 26: Gunning For Vegas

The nattiest man on TV is coming to the naughtiest city in America for the very first time. Tim Gunn, the mentor of TV’s Project Runway, will be here next weekend for an event as part of his role as chief creative director of Liz Claiborne, so Steve spoke to him about the hit fashion show, Vegas style and which celebrities Gunn would like to make over.

In Banter: Oscar's lame Colbert appearance, CBS' lame Defenders show, Palm Springs' lame anti-Vegas campaign, Skoosh.Com's lame biz practces, Hard Rock's lame lawsuit and more.

Links to stuff discussed:

Sites for Project Runway and Tim Gunn
Info about the Oct. 2 event with Tim Gunn at Caesars Palace
Buy Cloris Leachman’s “The North Avenue Irregulars” on Amazon.Com
The Simpsons slot machine images, per Google [NSFW!!!]
Steve’s piece on Cloris Leachman for The Daily Beast
The Review-Journal’s piece on the Vdara death ray
VegasHappensHere.Com on Jason Alexander and Elaine Wynn’s billionaire status
Steve’s AOL News piece on Wayne Newton’s new tourist attraction plan
Skoosh.Com – scam or not?
Hard Rock Café International is suing Hard Rock Casino
Norm Clarke covers Wynn’s vegan proselytizing video
Ritz-Carlton is rebranding, according to Howard Stutz of the R-J
The sucky Defenders lawyer drama based in Vegas on CBS
Palm Springs’ big new effort to steal tourists from Vegas
Cher is almost over and Cosmo’s got big New Year’s Eve entertainment plans
Oscar Goodman, so great on HardTalk, was a dud on Stephen Colbert

The Show is UP: Cloris Leachman

Here's a supersized episode which should tide y'all over because we may be taking a weekend away next week. It's chockful o' great stuff, so enjoy. Click on the date below to listen or right-click to download and listen at your leisure or subscribe to get the episodes instantly when they're available via iTunes or Zune.

Sept. 12: True Cloris, Shining Through

Betty White may be getting all the headlines these days as America’s elder stateswoman of comedy, but has she ever played Vegas? Another randy grandma, Cloris Leachman, hasn’t either, but at 84 she makes her debut on Sept. 18 and 19 at the Suncoast. The Academy Award winner, who has also won more Emmys than any actor ever, spoke to Steve at length in advance of that one-woman show and brace yourself because some of this is almost as sexually explicit as that Tony Curtis chat we gave you a while back. There are many highlights, including Cloris sharing her experiences with Marlon Brando, Jackie Kennedy, Judy Garland, the Reagans and Kathryn Hepburn, although an instant classic is Cloris’ hilarious re-enactment of a call from Joan Collins, who was having an affair with Cloris’ husband George Englund in the 1970s. Leachman also discusses her new Fox sitcom, "Raising Hope."

In Banter: Liberace’s closure raises tough questions, Oscar Goodman faces wacky questions, the NY-NY’s 9/11 Memorial is in questionable shape and more. Also, a special live Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week furnished by Mike Dobranski!

Links to stuff discussed:

Get tickets to see Cloris Leachman on Sept 18-19 at the Suncoast
Cloris Leachman’s website and book
Cloris’ new TV show on Fox, “Raising Hope”
Get the DVD of “Young Frankenstein”
Sheryl Crow’s cancellation at the Joint
Steve’s column about Ted V. Mikels
The AOLNews.Com piece on the Liberace Museum closure
VegasHappensHere.Com exposes the New York-New York 9/11 Memorial decay
MGM Resorts still spins animal attacks, but this time there’s YouTube of it
Oscar’s brilliant interview on the BBC's HARDTalk
The Las Vegas Sun on the possible Wayne Newton home becoming an attraction
The website for Jabbawockeez and the R-J on how they got the Monte Carlo deal
VegasHappensHere.Com on the July gaming and visitation data
The YouTube clips of Cloris Leachman’s Oscar speech and a classic Young Frankenstein scene
The site for the Kimchi Museum in Seoul

The Strip is LIVE noon-2 p.m. PT Saturday!

Remember the bizarre and sexually graphic interview I had with Tony Curtis way back when? Well, things got similarly weird with Cloris Leachman, as you'll hear if you join us live at noon on Saturday at LVRocks.Com.

We'll begin at noon with the normal live show with me and Miles. After the proper show's over, we'll play the full Cloris interview. So we should fill up the whole two hours. Miles has to get to work, so we'll do our parts and then deploy the Cloris-bomb immediately thereafter.

Oh, and here's an awesome little Jimmy Kimmel bit that Cloris did last year. Props to TritonPSH for passing it along:

As always, you can listen live at via LVRocks.Com and join the chat with fellow listeners. Or wait and grab the podcast version via iTunes, Zune or that nifty "Listen Now" player on TheStripPodcast.Com.

This week's LVW Col: Cloris!

Had a helluva chat with the amazing Cloris Leachman. The full interview will be podcast this weekend, but here's the Las Vegas Weekly version. -sf

On the eve of her Vegas debut,
Cloris Leachman looks back on
a life well-lived

BY STEVE FRIESS

I’m about an hour into my 15-minute phone interview with actress Cloris Leachman, and I am finally starting to run out of things to ask her. I’m so treasuring the conversation, however, that I’m not ready for it to be over.

To my surprise, I suddenly realize, neither is she. The list of topics we’ve mulled has become epic: Her ex-husband’s affair in the 1970s with Joan Collins, then a star-fucking actress whom Leachman’s circle of Hollywood friends referred to as “the British Open”; whether Marlon Brando ever had gay sex, which she says is possible because Elia Kazan, their Actor’s Studio instructor, “wanted us to experience absolutely everything”; why she wasn’t scared that time, as a young Broadway actress, when a guy pinned her to a pillar in a New York hotel lobby and humped her until he ejaculated. “It was so remarkable,” she laughed, “It was more bizarre than anything else. It was like, ‘What the fuck?’”

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com