The Show is UP: Cirque's Big Top Man

Hope y'all enjoyed the Super Bowl. Look what I did while I was using my betting slips as toilet tissue. (Ouch, actually.) Anyhow, Click on the date below to make it play or right-click to save it and listen at your leisure. You can subscribe, too, (it's free!) in iTunes or in Zune.

Feb. 8: Cirque's Big Top Man

The head-scratching and bellyaching began way, way back in 2003 with Zumanity. Then came Ka, Love and Criss Angel Believe. But despite naysayers who think Cirque du Soleil is overextended in Las Vegas, here comes show No. 7, Viva Elvis at Aria, officially opening on Feb. 19. What’s the deal? Steve sat down in Montreal last month with Cirque CEO Daniel Lamarre, who says he wouldn’t mind having 50 shows on the Strip, if only they had the time and available showrooms. But the company is busy elsewhere these days, planning permanent productions at Radio City Music Hall and the Kodak Theatre, not to mention trying to fix the disastrous Criss Angel show at the Luxor.

In Banter: An incredibly sexist remark from an oddsmaker, Aria room rates falling some more, Super Bowl weekend is up, Obama steps in Vegas poop again and Bill Clinton is a headliner.

Links to Stuff Discussed:

Buy the CD “Cirque du Soleil Collections” for the music used on this show
The Trippies winners, including our honors
The episode with Doyle Brunson when Steve won a bet
The latest Aria room rate price chart from Robert LaFleur of Susquehanna Financial Group
VegasHappensHere.Com on the Super Bowl impact on Vegas versus Miami
Steve’s AOLNews.Com piece going inside the Vegas sportsbooks
Steve’s AOLNews.Com piece on the Obama-Vegas drama
VegasHappensHere.Com on the booking of Bill Clinton at the Colosseum
Read the Las Vegas Weekly cover on Cirque and VegasHappensHere.Com’s pictorial from the Cirque HQ
Richard Abowitz’s blog, GoldPlatedDoor.Com

Bye Bette + Buffet! Hi, Viva Elvis!

Some comings and goings today.

* Bette Midler announced today she's done with the Colosseum after two years. Her last show is Jan. 31. Her statement was peculiar in scrambled backhanded slaps at Las Vegas and inscrutable explanation of her future plans:

"What a fabulous two years this has been, and I thank AEG and Caesars Palace for the best partnership a showgirl could imagine. Who knows? These legs have had such a great run in the desert -- it may be time to haul them to places with more humidity and fewer slot machines. But first I need to finish recording my album of the sexiest new love songs that only a showgirl could sing."

Huh? First, what does that "Who knows?" mean? What is that in response to? Was someone asking her a question? Is it "Who knows, I may end up at the Wynn by Labor Day?" Second, really, she had to observe the humidity and slots? Is this news to her? Was she here THAT much that it grated on her? And, third, when she says, "But first" before the shameless plug for her new album, does that mean she has to record the album BEFORE she vacates the effing-arid den of gambling? Couldn't she have come up with anything more clear and graceful?

* Someone who is always clear and graceful? Richard Abowitz. I'm so sorry to report that Richard's "Movable Buffet" blog on the L.A. Times' website has been halted. This comes a year after my weekly celebrity interview pieces for the L.A. Times were halted because the section I was writing was eliminated. So these are tough times for that newspaper, to be sure, but it did seem that every time the L.A. Times does a significant piece on Las Vegas, those pieces rank high on their most-read lists. Hopefully Vegas-obsessed Los Angelinos will find their fill elsewhere, but the more voices the better and this change is really a shame.

* There's good news, though, too. Cirque du Soleil finally unveiled the name of the new show at Aria. It is -- wait for it -- Viva Elvis. What's that? Oh, yeah. That's right. I broke that two months ago. But, still, they're making a big to-do about it. They posted this utterly idiotic video, too, of the cast shouting the name. Here's hoping their dance movements are in better synch:


Here's an interesting tidbit from my CityCenter tour the other day, though. The directional signage inside Aria just reads "Elvis Theater." Kind of silly of Cirque to go to such lengths to keep a non-secret under wraps to the point of not even having the show's name on the signage, especially when that video seems to show that the cast recorded that moment in June in Graceland.

Also, something that would send Steve Wynn through the roof: Scalpers have already set up shop! Check it out! This is the third entry when you Google "Viva Elvis" right now and tickets haven't even gone on sale yet!

Take a GOOD look, Aubrey O'Day...

...cuz if ya keep this crapola up, this is the only sort of Peepshow that's gonna hire you. (I walked by that earlier tonight in New York and thought it would be funny, given the drama I'm missing back west. Something weird ALWAYS happens when I'm gone!)

If you haven't heard yet, O'Day -- whose claim to fame I still am unclear of -- called in sick on her second night as the singing lead of "Peepshow" at Planet Hollywood because someone in the audience took a photo of her topless and posted it online. Then she posted this bizarro YouTube clip...



...that defies logic and reason. And, Aubrey, trying to make sense of what you say is not being a hater. It's an earnest effort to figure out if you have any brains, is all.

In that vid, Ms. O'Day goes on about being insecure about her body. Yet she's the lead of a topless show in Las Vegas, a role that I'm pretty sure she consented to perform. Whatever might have been in the illicit photos -- and I honestly don't care enough to find them and see for myself -- had to have been what the audience saw at the show, so how exactly is she the new Erin Andrews?

Sure, nobody should've taken photos and posted them, but what exact damage was done? Daniel Radcliffe appeared in "Equus" and was not at all surprised when photos of [NSFW link ahead!!!] Harry Potter's magic wand ended up online. What century does this O'Day babe think she's living in? Even Patti LuPone coulda told her this was gonna happen. And then she slaps back and scores one for the female race by, uh, showing off her boobs on YouTube? (Aha! So NOW you're going to click on that video, is that how it is?)

Beyond that, her consternation over the predictable leakage of these photos was enough for her to skip a show?!? But my favorite part was what Richard Abowitz learned as he reported on the situation for his L.A. Times blog: Only two ticketholders asked for refunds. So what's worse, Aubrey, the fact that one audience member thought your goods were exciting enough to post online or the fact that 1,700 didn't care if you were there or not?

Finally, I just wonder. Is it just me or does this image of the clearly quite modest and insecure O'Day from her website...


...kinda remind you of...


...Lucy the Slut from Avenue Q?

OK, that qualifies me as a hater. Guilty as charged.

The Erich Bergen Drama

As you all might expect, I'm getting quite a few emails and texts asking me what's up with Erich Bergen, my co-producer of the Michael Jackson tribute show last month and now one of my best friends.

Yes, the reports are true: Erich was fired by Dodger Theatrical Productions last week after nearly three years of performing the role of Bob Gaudio in "Jersey Boys" on tour and then since May 2008 in Las Vegas. His final performance in the role, strangely, was on Sept. 9, when the four Vegas leads appeared on "America's Got Talent." He was placed on vacation the next day -- his first in his three years, although there were absences due to injury and sickness -- and then let go while he was visiting his folks in New York. His last official on-stage utterance as a member of that cast, then, was beckoning millions of people to come to the Palazzo and see the show. Contrary to my friend and colleague John Katsilometes' blog post at LasVegasSun.Com, this turn of events was, indeed, a surprise to Erich and to many in the cast.

Because Erich and I are obviously close, I am not at liberty to discuss publicly more than the bare facts as I've recited them. Erich has, however, allowed me to be the first to publish the statement he is releasing to the press:

"While I am no longer involved with Jersey Boys, I wish nothing but the best for the show. It's been my home and family for the past 3 years, and I'm proud all of the accomplishments we achieved together. It saddens me to think that I won't get the chance to perform in the show anymore, but all I can do is look forward. I love Las Vegas with all my heart and am proud of my work there. I won't be gone for long."

All that being said, I have a little bone to pick with my friend and Las Vegas Weekly colleague Richard Abowitz. Richard wrote a very peculiar item for his Los Angeles Times blog about Erich's departure in which he puzzled over why this particular casting change was newsworthy and called it a "media kerfluffle."

You would have thought that the matter was garnering massive headlines or something when, in fact, evidently what amounts these days to a "kerfluffle" was a few exercised Tweets from KVBC's Alicia Jacobs and the aforementioned blog post by Kats. That's it. That is all that has been written or said in anything vaguely related to the mainstream press. In fact, Richard is personally responsible for the biggest and most extensive discussion of the matter to date!

And then there was his explanation for why this isn't really news, that cast changes are routine. Except that departures of leads of major Vegas shows generally don't go unnoticed, even when they're not as sudden and unusual as this. The exits of Tina Walsh from "Mamma Mia!", Sierra Boggess and Brent Barrett from "Phantom" and Elijah Johnson from "Lion King" all received ink, and those are only a few.

Plus, it's odd to me that Abowitz overlooks the fact that Erich's name has been in the papers for most of the time he's been in Vegas, an unusual feat for even the stars of shows with more singular performers. He's been pivotal in turning the Liberace Museum's showroom into a hip place for young Strip talent to jam, he raised $103,000+ less than a month ago for Las Vegas schoolkids in a show that drew massive amounts of international news coverage and he was the mouthpiece for "Jersey Boys" only a fortnight ago on one of the most-watched TV shows of the summer.

When someone makes a name for themselves, we call them celebrities. And when celebrities are summarily dismissed from the jobs that made them celebrities, the public is understandably curious. Fame + Controversy = Newsworthiness. Is it really that baffling?

Of course, I have a personal bias because another close friend is probably leaving Vegas and that bums me out. But I think my news judgment sensor is still intact and some scuttlebutt in the entertainment press seems about right to me for this situation.

I'm also bummed that the closing note of this Las Vegas Weekly column -- written when I barely knew him personally -- is coming to pass far sooner than I could have known. In that piece, I warned the public that they ought to get out and see him when he was small Vegas fry so "you can say you knew him when."

I hope some of you heeded that.

This week's LVW col: Defending the mob...museum

Here's this week's column in the Las Vegas Weekly defending not the idea of stimulus money paying for the mob museum but the idea of the museum itself. Believe it or not -- and I didn't quite believe it at first -- lots of people think it would be a clunker with tourists.

Lawyers, guns ... and money

Why a mob museum in Las Vegas would be criminally successful

By STEVE FRIESS

Every so often, I’m surprised to be holding a minority opinion among friends and journalism colleagues. There are truths that seem so blatantly obvious that it doesn’t even occur to me that anyone would disagree.

So here’s one: A legitimate mob museum at the beautiful, restored historic old federal building Downtown would be an enormous success for Las Vegas.

Now, that’s not the same as saying I support using money from the federal stimulus package to pay for the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. Aside from the fact that I can’t touch that matter because I’ve been covering it as a controversy for some of my newspaper clients, I don’t have a strong opinion anyway.

As I’ve covered that debate, though, I’ve been stunned to realize people actually question whether it could be an appealing tourist attraction.

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, for instance, was such a full-throated advocate for the Atomic Testing Museum that there’s a room that bears her name in the same building. Yet she detoured from the funding question in my interview with her to groan, “You know, we’re trying to show the world that Las Vegas is moving beyond its past, and then we do something like a mob museum.”

A few days later, my Las Vegas Weekly colleague Richard Abowitz came out on his Los Angeles Times blog as believing a mob museum “is a horrible idea. In 2009, Vegas has reinvented itself in so many ways and so many times that a mob museum already sounds quaint and dated.”

But the big epiphany came during last Friday’s taping of Nevada Week in Review, when I went 4-on-1 on this very question in a fiery scrum that resulted in 10 unusually entertaining minutes for PBS. Fox 5’s John Huck called a mob museum a potential “white elephant,” the Review-Journal’s Howard Stutz suggested it was Oscar Goodman’s legacy hail Mary, and show host Mitch Fox was baffled over what one would even put in such a place. And, most fun of all, Las Vegas Sun political maestro Jon Ralston nearly shouted his belief that people aren’t going to go Downtown for something like this.

Read the rest HERE

Reason No. 456,011 Why ReviewJournal.Com Sucks

Every week about now, I prowl the Web for discussion topics for the banter portion of "The Strip," which we record on Tuesday nights. Beyond reading the dead-tree versions of the local newspapers, I regularly look to certain sites for inspiration and perhaps some news I missed. Among those, I always visit Hunter Hillegas' Two Way Hard Three (and congrats to HH for his Best Vegas Blog Trippie!!!)...


...Robin Leach's Vegas DeLuxe..


...Dave McKee's Stiffs & Georges...


...and Richard Abowitz's Moveable Buffet...


I used to also look at NormClarke.Com, but it doesn't seem like he posts any news there that's not in his print columns.

And then there's this...


That's the R-J's megablog. The DREAM TEAM. It says so. A multi-disciplinary blog that has eight different contributors. Eight highly trained roving eyes unearthing all sorts of interesting new wrinkles, some too big to wait for the next day's paper and some too small to have a home in print. Something to keep us coming back again and again.

The total number of new blog posts from the DREAM TEAM in the past week? ONE. Uno. 1. Yi. Un. Ehad. The hot scoop? Channel 8 has a new weatherwoman! Well, that couldn't wait until morning, huh?

To which I say: WTF? I praised this Vegas Voice idea back in August, when I called it "the consistently updated and interesting Vegas Voice blog." At that point, I was finding some real bits of news on there. But I've broken more news on this blog in the past two weeks than the EIGHT of them have broken combined on theirs since then. How is that even possible?

But hey, we're gonna all have ol' Nate Tannenbaum on our smart phones pretty soon reading us the newspaper, right? Can't get much more cutting edge than that! Woo hoo!

And hey, LasVegasSun.Com. Quit your giggling. You're not doing much better, and you people have real pros running your dot-com show over there who should know better. Sure, you're up to speed on political blogging, but your Culture Blog breaks no entertainment news, your Gaming & Business blog hasn't had a new post in 27 days and my pal Joe Brown, who just last week praised me in his one-year retrospective so it pains me to say this, hasn't offered up a blog item in 17 days and counting.


Hey, guys and gals in the dead-tree press. Get with the program or you'll end up on here:


Shape up or don't bitch and moan when your jobs disappear along with your circulation and your web traffic. And I say this with love. Really.

P.S. to the ReviewJournal.Com nitwits: First-quarter UNLV basketball scores are still not "breaking news." Stop sending me Twitters that say so.

R-J Bafflingly Sucks Up To Criss Angel

Yesterday, tickets for Criss Angel's new Cirque show went on sale. That, evidently, is considered important news to the local media. I can't figure out on what journalistic planet that ought to be the case, but whatever.

The trouble is, Criss Angel stands accused by Norm Clarke of the R-J of having shoved and threatened him over his coverage. Several very credible eyewitnesses saw the incident. Angel has refused to answer questions about it, then whined to me on the carpet at the ACMAs the other day that people don't know the whole story.

Imagine, then, my surprise when the normally excellent Mike Weatherford ran this embarrassing puff piece on Angel and his ticket sales in yesterday's newspaper. There is nary a question, comment or no-comment in it about the most significant, most newsworthy relevance of Criss Angel at this point in time, his alleged threat to a journalist.

I asked Mike about this omission and here is his response, which was also sent to Richard Abowitz of the L.A. Times' Vegas blog when he, too, asked:

"This hasn't been actively discussed, but I think it has gone unsaid that since Norm and I mostly work independently already, I need to keep doing my thing (cover this show all the way through its opening) and let him do his. Besides, the interviews weren't one-on-one and there was a sense of the meter running in the presence of Kats and the AP on my side of the table, and the show's director and choreographer on the other, none of whom would probably appreciate the limited window of time sidetracked by Norm talk."

Wow. There are so many things wrong with this I can't get my head wrapped around them all. First, all journalists at all times are responsible for asking the most newsworthy questions. It doesn't matter if others are covering it and it doesn't matter if you're sharing access with other people.

And particular in this circumstance, why does Mike, Kats and the AP think they were invited to sit down with these people? Oh! That's right! To promote their forthcoming $100 million show. Something tells me they were going to sit right where they were as long as it took to give the journalists the promotional bits they wanted to get out there in the ether. They were using the journalists in no uncertain terms, but the journalists owe it to the public to ask the hard, uncomfortable questions and not just go along for the ride.

Think of the case of Martha Stewart thinking she'd get a free pass at the height of her tax-evasion scandals when she went on the CBS morning show and got badgered by the anchor during a food segment. Martha didn't get to decide what sorts of questions she answered or to merely focus on her salad just because she thinks that she picked a softball forum. And if she wouldn't answer the questions, then she didn't get to do her little self-promotional thing.

That this hasn't been "actively discussed" within the halls of the Review-Journal is even more shocking, although not surprising given the famous contempt for Clarke possessed by R-J Editor Thomas Mitchell. Violence and threats of violence against reporters are not small matters. They weren't back in the day when journalists were being threatened for covering the Mafia and they're not today when a star with thousands of rabid goth-crazed followers can cause serious harm that even the star himself doesn't intend.

It also does not matter if the subject matter is celebrity gossip nor the regard with which anyone holds journalist involved. (In this case, I happen to hold Norm Clarke in quite high regard because he's pretty much the only journalist in Las Vegas who actually credits others for stories they break. That's a level of uncommon integrity and generosity that deserves a great deal of respect.)

I do wonder, too, how such excellent reporters as Greenspun's John Katsilometes and whomever was sent by the Associated Press similarly fail to understand the gravity of the matter. Threats against journalists can cause a chilling impact on their comfort level in covering someone in the appropriate manner. It's a serious situation.

No self-respecting journalist ought to be asking Angel anything else until he at least responds to this situation and disavows any violence, suggested or otherwise, against journalists.

Criss Angel: I Didn't Threaten Norm

It's hard to believe that it's been more than a month since Norm Clarke of the Review-Journal wrote that he was threatened by Cirque du Soleil star Criss Angel at the Miss USA contest and, so far as I can tell, nobody has directly asked Angel for comment. I mean, the guy goes to more openings than a can opener.

So I did it last night while on the carpet at the ACMAs for USA Today, right after Dippy from HollyScoop (see earlier post) asked him what "country" is to him and let him pimp some trick he's planning to do on TV where he walks on Lake Mead. Has it dried up even sooner than predicted?

Here's how it went:

Friess: Are you planning to apologize for the threat you made against Norm Clarke of the Review-Journal?

Angel: The problem is, some people got their lines crossed. And if some people got the whole story, they would see that what he wrote is actually not what really happened. So there’s nothing to apologize for.

Friess: What really happened?

Angel: I’d need a while to explain that to you and now is not the appropriate time.

That's odd. For a full month, this story's been out there. Richard Abowitz of the L.A. Times' Vegas blog put in some unreturned calls and emails and heard nothing. Sherman Frederick, Norm's boss as publisher of the Review-Journal, finally peeled himself away a full week after the alleged threat from misleading his Sunday readers about a circulation increase that was actually a decrease to stand up on behalf of his journalist.

And yet in the face of such a PR nightmare, Mr. Angel -- neither of his own volition nor encouraged firmly by the companies that have tethered $100 million+ to his mercurial persona in Vegas -- bothered to issue a statement, do an interview, write a letter to the editor. Not only that, but he's scolding "people" for not having the whole story when ample opportunities have been provided him to give it?

Hey, Criss. Here's yet another chance. I've got all the time in the world. Whatcha waiting for?

Show is UP!: Deux Chefs du Jour

This week's episode of "The Strip" is up. Click here to hear it or right-click here to download it to your computer, or click here to subscribe in iTunes. We're also now in the Zune directory as well.

On this week's program, find out why Kerry Simon left the Hard Rock and why the Cathouse had to close for a while (now reopened!) because of a structural concern. Simon opens his newest restaurant inside the Palms Place hotel-condo tower this month. Then, hear chef Charlie Trotter explain why he left the MGM Grand and is happier at the Palazzo. And both chefs answer our favorite chef question: What fast food do you eat?

In banter: Perez Hilton sucks, the Donnie and Marie idea sucks, a Hustler hotel-casino would suck and the broken Encore sign sucks. Also, news on Tamara.

Show links:

Kerry Simon’s website is here
Simon’s Cathouse is here and Simon at Palms Place is here
Charlie Trotter’s Las Vegas site is here
A CBS piece about the Chicago foie gras law is here
Steve’s USA Today piece on the Oprah-Tina-Cher event is here
Kerry Simon’s local favorite place, Go Raw, is here
VegasTripping.Com’s amusing take on Donnie and Marie is here
Steve’s post about the Perez Hilton rip-off is here
Richard Abowitz’s item about the Hustler idea is here
The Las Vegas Sun’s piece on Vegoose’s cancellation is here
Steve’s LVW column on Tamara is here

From The Bad Idea Files...

Evidently not learning from the failed Hooters Hotel experiment, the folks at Hustler are looking to get into the Vegas hotel-casino game. Richard Abowitz has this breaking item on his blog today.

(I actually reported on "The Strip" podcast in Jan 2007 -- and Norm wrote it up -- that Flynt was seeking a liquor license for the former Chez Moi strip club, but I don't know what ever came of that.)

Sounds like a wretched, wretched idea. There's a reason there are no strip clubs in Vegas casinos, because there's something about them that offends the gaming-license dudes. And what the heck would be the point of a Hustler hotel without some hard-core nudity to uphold the branding?

Not to mention, if wives wouldn't book at Hooters, which is campy-sexy with redeeming chicken wings, how likely are they to book at Hustler, which is porno-sexy with unredeeming chicken hawks?

BREAKING: Tina Turner To Tour, Oprah Hearts the CP Toilet

I'm just in from the taping of the May 8 "Oprah Winfrey Show" at Caesars Palace where Tina Turner announced she's going back on tour at age 68 for the first time in eight years. Tickets go on sale on May 12 for a tour that kicks off from Kansas City on Oct. 1.

I must say, I'm a little confused about whether there was an embargo on that news. The woman who prepped the audience told the thousands who filled Cher's new performing home, Caesars Palace's Colosseum, not to tell anyone. But a group of us journalists were invited to attend -- including Robin Leach, the L.A. Times columnist/blogger Richard Abowitz and Review-Journal columnist Doug Elfman as well as the local CBS affiliate that airs "Oprah" -- and I was given no preconditions whatsoever.

So, that said, Tina's going on tour having been prodded, she said, by Sophia Loren to stop lolling about her Swiss home and go back to work. But first, Cher came out to perform "Take Me Home" in a shredded blue dress with a matching blue headpiece and about a dozen dancers in 1970s outfits including, unlike the all-female Bette show, a few male dancers. Later, Tina did "Nutbush City Limit" on her own and then the two divas -- Oprah, being Vegasy, called them "a pair of queens" -- shared the stage for a rousing (is there any other version?) "Proud Mary." Cher looked particularly fetching in a shiny red mini-dress and a long-straight-black-hair wig.

The "Oprah" show also includes some video of Cher with designer Bob Mackie showing a few of the 17 daring costumes she'll sport when she opens in Vegas on May 6. There's a body-length Indian headdress, something Cher refers to as "Cleopatra comes to Caesars Palace" and a "warrior goddess" look she'll don for the Pat Benatar classic "Love Is A Battlefield." Cher said the show will span her pre-Sonny career and include the Sonny & Cher tunes "It's The Little Things" and "The Beat Goes On" as well as a rendition of the Sammy Davis Jr. standard "I Gotta Be Me."

Cher also went on a bit about having dated Tom Cruise, which I hadn't heard but which has been out for a month or so and has a lot of online skeptics scratching their heads about when this could've been and how nobody would've known it until Cher said it. It's further baffling because Cher told Oprah about some incident where Cher and young Tom went to a restaurant in New York, I think, and some waitress turned out to be an old schoolmate of Tom's who, Tom told Cher, wouldn't have spoken to him back in the day. I suppose that's possible since Tom crew up in Syracuse, but kind of amazing nonetheless.

The most interesting stuff, though, was what Oprah rambled on about OFF CAMERA. First, she'd just come from visiting Tom Cruise's home in Telluride, Colo., where she rode on a snowmobile with him and spoke of his firm buttocks and how hot he was to grip as they took their spin. "You're like, 'Take me home, Tom,' " she enthused. There was no discussion of Suri or Katie, but someone shouted out from the audience something related to Cruise's infamous I-love-Katie meltdown because Oprah replied, "I didn't jump on his couch." Good to know. She said that episode airs May 2.

NOT as good to know, but perversely fascinating nonetheless, was Oprah's lengthy aside to the crowd about the high-tech toilets in her Caesars Palace suite. As it happens, the thing lifts the lid automatically when you enter the bathroom and, she explained in shocking detail, it is capable of washing and blow-drying your butt and other parts. "I swear, I gotta get one of these on the show and show everybody," she said. "I'm coming back here! I'm cleaned up AND cleaned out!"

I wondered what she was referring to, so I Googled "butt-cleaning toilet" and found this. There. We're done. Oprah, you need not ever speak of this again. In fact, please, please, please don't!

That said, quite a fun show. I was a little worried in the beginning when it seemed every Vegas cliche was coming into play -- "Viva Las Vegas" blared as the audience prepper came on, there was much to-do about the Tina and Cher impersonators in the audience and the prepper did lay that tired "What Happens in Vegas" line. Yes, she got it wrong. She must've read Christina Binkley's book.

This week's Weekly Column

Here's this week's Las Vegas Weekly "The Strip Sense" column, a look in part at why Danny Gans IS a risk for Steve Wynn, and likely a bad one. But the part of the piece that drew Richard Abowitz's attention on his blog today was the look at the risk that Cirque is taking with Criss Angel...

Risks With No Rewards
The Perilous World of Vegas Entertainment
By STEVE FRIESS

Alrighty! Finally some real action!

After a year of surefire success stories announced for Vegas, from Bette and Cher to the Elvis-themed Cirque du Soleil show, there is finally a sign on two significant fronts that some genuine gambling is going on with Vegas showrooms.

The first piece of news, that Steve Wynn is dumping Spamalot and bringing over Mirage headliner Danny Gans, has been received by most as a sign that the granddaddy of Vegas innovation has given up on experimentation after two successive Broadway flops.

It was cause for fellow Weekly scribe Richard Abowitz to conclude on his LA Times blog that “Vegas is all about playing it safe.” A fellow on my blog commented of Wynn, “It’s like he went out on a limb, took a real risk, retreated to the same-old.” Hunter Hillegas of RateVegas.com wrote, “Wynn got burned by Broadway (and an O derivative), so he’s going back to the tried and true.”

But even if that’s how Wynn sees it, he’s actually quite wrong: The Gans move is extremely risky precisely because it is a horrible idea. And you know it’s a huge risk when you consider how likely it is to be a mammoth embarrassment.

Read the rest HERE

Where's The Vegas Paparazzi?

A while back, I started wondering why the celebrity media in Vegas wasn't more aggressive, why there is no paparazzi here the way there is in LA and NY. And so, as I am wont to do, I turned my question into a major New York Times piece that appears on Sunday.

The piece is already online, so check it out here.

Of course, no sooner than we put this piece to bed did something happen to slightly contradict the premise -- or forward its conclusion? See Richard Abowitz's blog item about a pic of Michael Jackson and his kids that made it onto one of the big celeb-news wire services.

Judd Apatow Hearts Hans Klok?

I'm feeling lazy today, so rather than bother to give you a blog entry of my own, I refer you to Richard Abowitz's item on his Movable Buffet blog for the L.A. Times. Seems he cornered Judd Apatow at the P-Ho thing on Saturday night and Apatow professed great love for Hans' silly show. Hans' comments about Apatow, though, are the clincher.

Read it here.