HARRAH'S BUYING PALMS?!?

The Financial Times has a frightening piece online indicating that Texas Pacific Group, one of the private equity firms that own Harrah's Entertainment, has been buying up the debt of the Palms. The piece relies on anonymous sources, albeit more than one, and notes that "the investment points toward a systematic strategy by Harrah’s to acquire other casinos through their distressed debt."

You know, like how Harrah's just took over Planet Hollywood. Cue scary music.

The report indicates that the Palms is taking a massive hit from the recession and that "the Palms Place condo-hotel launched in 2008 is a poster child for the recent wave of overambitious casino projects as it had only leased one-third of its condo-hotel units by late 2009."

And this:

"Harrah’s might take a more utilitarian approach with Palms and Planet Hollywood, by toning down some of the glitz and boosting appeal to middle market customers. Then the idea would be to feed those customers to other properties in the Harrah’s portfolio."

Now, I'm no Harrah's basher. They do what they do quite well. But come on, Mr. Loveman, not the Palms. No. Please no. It is a special, unique entity operated by a rare owner-operator (George Maloof) who does not have any evident ambition to take over Asia or Pennsylvania or the Republican Party. He just wants to make his one place a cool, fun place to be. That's all. Is that so wrong?

I've got a call in to George Maloof. I'm hoping he can clarify. A top Harrah's executive source of mine said he/she hasn't heard anything at all and this was one of the first to know about the Planet Hollywood deal. So who knows. But the whole idea just makes me break out in hives.

One Bizarre Lunch with Joe Jackson

I've had many odd days in my career. Yesterday belongs in the Top Five.

I've just come from lunch with Joe Jackson, father of Michael Jackson, at Simon at Palms Place. Erich Bergen and I were there to meet with him about "Las Vegas Celebrates The Music of Michael Jackson," the massive Aug. 29 charity benefit tribute featuring the stars of the Strip we're doing to raise $100,000 for public school music programs. Joe Jackson will be at the Palms that day as well to accept a celebrity star in Michael's honor to be bestowed by Brenden Theatres, the cinema that MJ and his children once frequented.

At first, it seemed I had missed what was to be a very brief encounter. Erich got there first and told him our plans as the two took a ride up an elevator to the famed and elaborate Brenden Celebrity Suite (BCS) above the Brenden Theatre box office that Johnny Brenden uses to entertain celebrities and VIPs who visit for Cinevegas and other events. Brenden's folks had wanted us to walk him there to show Joe Jackson a massive Swarovski-framed mirror (see it to your left) because Brenden plans to get a smaller but similar one to frame a photo of Michael that shall forever hang in said fancy suite.

Erich told me that when they were in the elevator to that suite, Joe Jackson took a photo of Michael out of his pocket, looked at it sadly, said, "I can't believe he's gone," and then just as suddenly snapped out of that.

By the time I arrived, the encounter was all of 5 minutes old and Erich assumed it was over. Joe nodded sagely about our plans, said he thought it was great, took a phone call and wandered off without saying goodbye.

A little while later, I found him sitting alone staring into space in the food court at the Palms. We sat down with him and he told us he hopes to be at the concert but that the family had decided to (finally) bury MJ at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in L.A. at 10 a.m. that morning. (This was actually pretty big news, and I am breaking it via the New York Daily News tonight. I have timed this post to appear after that story goes up on NYDailyNews.Com.)

I asked how his wife, Katherine Jackson, was faring and he said she bursts into tears regularly. He also said that he tried to see his son in the months before his death but “the security guards wouldn’t let me get to him.”

He was then joined by Crystal Marven, a Vegas-based singer he has signed to his record label, and her mother. He wanted to show the women that ornate frame, so we went back up to the BCS and I got to snap this image of Erich (above) with his idol's dad. I got loads of other photos of the special Brenden suite that I'll share in a separate post.

By now, Joe was hungry, so we led him over to Simon at Palms Place for brunch where the namesake, Kerry Simon, greeted us. Joe chowed down on ribs and jalapeno cornbread and enjoyed the view of the all the hot women in bikinis cavorting at the pool right outside.

I quizzed him about a few other outstanding MJ issues. On the subject of the LAPD's investigation, he said he has now asked U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, to open a Congressional investigation, too. He thinks Dr. Conrad Murray, the Vegas-based doctor whose home and business have been searched in raids aimed at linking him and his possible administering of propofol to MJ's death, is a fall guy "for a whole lot of people." And he dismissed LaToya's claim that Neverland would be moved to Las Vegas. "How would they do that?" Jackson asked.

By the end, Joe Jackson promised to get to the Palms for at least the end of our show, the after-party and to be on hand to receive a celebrity star from Brenden Theatres around 7 p.m. There's also a charity showing of "Moonwalker" at the theater at 8 p.m., with proceeds of that, too, going to the Clark County Public Education Foundation.

One final post-script. Erich and I handled the lunch check and tip, of course. But Joe pulled out his money and seemed genuinely surprised by the gesture. I was, in turn, surprised by his surprise. I would think after all these years he would be accustomed to people falling all over themselves to treat him. Joe Jackson was a very odd fellow, to be sure, and there's a lot about him that makes one scratch their heads. But I found it interesting that he evidently was not expecting to get a free pass.

This Week's Col: How Top Chef Can Save Vegas

Here's this week's "Strip Sense" column. Eat it up. -sf

Now we're cooking
Top Chef is filming its latest season in Vegas -- could it be the answer to our prayers?
By STEVE FRIESS

We’ve been waiting for a lifeline. The obituaries are being written, and, unless you’re Oscar B. Goodman or Pollyanna or someone allergic to statistics, they hardly seem premature. Las Vegas is drowning in debt and red ink, our houses are rapidly approaching worthless, our unemployment rate is speeding toward a record, our casinos are echo chambers, and our taxes are, regardless of what the Review-Journal thinks, going up. Pretty soon the obits are going to become autopsies.

Something needs to change. Something big. Something game-changing. And late last week, that wished-for antidote may have arrived.

Top Chef began filming Season 6 in Las Vegas on Monday. This could easily be the start of the recovery.

Stop. Hear me out. It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds.

Remember how seminal that 2002 season of MTV’s The Real World at the Palms turned out to be, not just for George Maloof’s nascent themeless off-Strip resort but also for kicking off the What Happens Here Stays Here Decade? Remember how watching those silly characters cavort and mate in that fantastical suite imprinted upon a generation the impression of Vegas as the coolest, most creative place on the planet to party?

Yes, one phenomenally successful TV show did all that. And it could happen again.

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com.

The Strip is LIVE on WEDNESDAY This Week

Sorry, folks. I've gotta go to a reception at the Palms prior to a preview screening of Love in the Time of Cholera that I'm not getting to stay for because I've got to race to the Las Vegas Hilton for a dinner with one of their soon-to-be-announced new headliners.

Anyhow, our show will be live on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. with game show hosts Chuck Woolery and Bob Eubanks. Expect some breaking news from the Woolery chat. Plus, tons of Vegas news.

OJ Room Rate Discount!!!

So congrats to the Palace Station and the Palms for opting not to exploit the OJ hysteria, but today the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas proved the whole mess to be an irresistible opportunity.

The court has scheduled the next hearings in the armed-robbery case for Nov. 8 and 9, so today we get a press release from the Nugget announcing that there are special media room rates starting at $79 for Thursday and $159 for that Friday for "members of the press covering these hearings." And there's more!

"Along with this special hotel room rate, the hotel will host a furnished media hospitality room which will offer office amenities such as complimentary internet access and fax, as well as refreshments such as coffee and chilled bottled water. This hospitality room will be available to media hotel guests, 24-hours-a-day."

How nice, huh? I don't know how you're supposed to prove you're a journalist when you reserve, so I imagine anyone who's in for those days can "mention this offer" at 1-800-634-3454, as the release states.

Tacky.

From the NYT Blog "The Lede"...

September 28, 2007, 7:07 pm

Refusing to Exploit O.J. Simpson Buzz
By Steve Friess

LAS VEGAS — As might have been expected, the previously little-known Palace Station Hotel-Casino is getting a lot of calls these days asking about renting Room 1203.

But the hotel is turning them all away, a surprising rejection of attention in the same town that has allowed the iconic Luxor pyramid to be obscured by a 20-story high advertisement for Absolut vodka.

Oh, the cops are done with the otherwise uninteresting hotel room where police say O.J. Simpson and an armed band of five men tried to strong-arm two sports memorabilia dealers into handing over a litany of material that the ex-football star believed to be his.

But contrary to published rumors, Room 1203 won’t be re-christened the O.J. Suite, said Lori Nelson, spokeswoman for the 31-year-old, 1,100-room property a mile east of the Strip that caters mostly to locals.

“We’re taking it off line for now because we don’t want it to become a thing,” Ms. Nelson said. “People think they’re clever asking for it, though.”

Read the rest here

Palms Marquee is Punny

So the marquee is up, as previously reported. But down a the bottom is the catch. Click on the image to read the fine print. Very cute. We hear it's some sort of promotion for the hotel-casino's new buffet.

Palms Marquee: "Free Paris"

Miles text-messaged me to let me know there's a marquee at the Palms, where Paris Hilton loves to chill with her pals and owner George Maloof, that reads: "Free Paris."

Will get a photo for the blog later today when I'm on that side of town.

Reminds me a little of the folks who wrote "Free OJ" in masking tape on the top of their mortar boards at my graduation in June 1994 from Northwestern, the morning after the famed OJ car chase.

The Moron Strikes Again

There is a fellow in Las Vegas who fancies himself a journalist named Michael Politz who runs a trade magazine for the food and beverage industry, Las Vegas Food & Beverage. Yeah, that's him looking awful silly to your right. He traffics in rumor, occasionally getting one right, and he's has made a zillion enemies in Vegas not by being hard-hitting or overly fair but by playing favorites and frequently making an ass out of himself in public.

Each week, he publishes a column called The Vegas Eye in which he reports, re-reports and speculates on all manner of Vegas club and food scene happenings, sightings, etc. He desperately wanted to get onto the Party At The Palms With Perez symposium on celebrity journalism that we at the "The Strip" podcast organized at the Palms' ghostbar in January that included Perez Hilton, Norm Clarke, Robin Leach and Kate Bennett, but some of the other panelists refused to appear if he was going to be involved. Swell guy.

Today, Mr. Politz wrote a long paragraph about my coverage of Las Vegas in the current Conde Nast Traveler, which features the vaunted Hot List. That is, a worldwide listing and write-up of the best of the prior year's new restaurants, hotels, nightclubs and spas.

The operative word there is "new." Altogether now: New. We spotlighted out of Vegas in this year's edition Nove, Rao's and Guy Savoy for restaurants; the spas at Caesars and Red Rock; the Playboy Club/Moon bar for nightclubs; and the Red Rock Resort and Casino for hotels.

Politz's critique is the same as it was last year, based on a persistent inability to comprehend that this list is not a citywide verdict but only a commentary on this particular year's best of the newest:

"It's a seemingly odd bunch with some glaring omissions and somehow only touches three properties in the entire city. Oh well, perhaps the editorial and advertising departments are taking their lunch a little too closely together. ... While we appreciate the attention the magazine is bringing to Las Vegas, we just ask them to widen their scope next time around."

While I can -- and have -- argued for the inclusion of more new restaurants, the fact that Vegas got three when a town like Chicago only got two and the gastronomic Mecca of San Francisco got four out of the total of 95 worldwide is some evidence that my effort to represent this city's amazing food scene is starting to pay off. It was actually more of a challenge the year before because Wynn Las Vegas had just opened and I could have done four on their restaurants alone but had to be very selective in order to give Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand his props, too.

Anyhow, the point of this rant is that I explained that to Politz last year when he made similar snarks. So this year, there's no excuse. He's just willfully ignorant. And that drives me bananas.

By the way, if you want to hear the audio from the superb panel discussion that Politz was not involved with and therefore chose not to cover, click here or save it to your computer by right-clicking here.

Wow.

Anyone out there who is married knows what's packed into that "Wow."

Wow, we stood up in front of all those people and said some unbearably intimate things and exchanged rings and kissed and are now married. Wow that the rabbi's speech was largely about how our evident devotion forced him to realize as he prepared for his first gay wedding that same-sex and straight relationships are equal in every important way. Wow that the SkyVilla at the Palms was the perfect setting for a totally non-cliche Vegas wedding. Wow that all the nifty little details we threw in -- my mother singing, the poker chips, laminates and yarmulkes with our names on it, the slideshow of pictures, the blown-up photo of us for everyone to sign the matting of -- all came off perfectly. Wow that we received such generous gifts, saw so many wonderful people in one place and actually had the chance to chat with pretty much everyone.

And wow, we're now in a hotel room in Anchorage about to take on our big week on our honeymoon! It's already so beautiful -- and s0 cold. Flying usually makes Miles cranky, but this time he grinned and grinned even as our suitcase took excruciatingly long to arrive.

Married life agrees with us!