Sneaking Peeks at Cosmo, Part II

Two more shots from inside the Next Big Thing, the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, provided for use by my pals from Chateau D'if Press. The big interior detail of the resort, which opens Dec. 15, is its mammoth centerpiece chandelier. I've been told that these and the shots provided in the prior post are the first to emerge of it in action. Above is a fuller view, but below is colorful as well.


More to come, I am promised.

Sneaking Peeks At Cosmo

That, apparently, is a "virtual" library, inside the Cosmopolitan. This photo and the ones below were sent along by the fine folks of The Chateau D' If Press.

Yup, it's that time of year again. Last year it was CityCenter, the year before it was Encore, the year before that it was Palazzo. Today we're one month out from the opening of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, so of course images are leaking all over the place against the wishes of the publicity staff hoping to keep the place largely underwraps. Even the much-discussed TV ad wasn't filmed at the actual resort and bears no resemblance to any of the property's interiors.

Hunter Hillegas has a whole page of images he's obtained illicitly. So far, those have been more revelatory about the interior decor and what the casino looks like. But this, above, is interesting. Digital bookshelves? How...cerebral. Hmm.

Here are a few more, used with permission. The last one is also inside the casino:


More to come, no doubt. And if you've got some pix you want me to link to or post, feel free to get in touch.

The Strip & Petcast Are Live on Sat

It's that time of week again!

We're doing two new episodes of The Petcast from Noon to 1 p.m. PT and then an hour of The Strip from 1-2 p.m. PT.

For The Petcast, guest host Amy and I will chat in the first half-hour with Mary O'Connor-Shaver of the Coalition to Ban Ohio Dog Auctions. Then we'll hear from Barbara Schmitz, who spearheaded the successful movement to pass Prop B in Missouri, which radically alters the laws regarding dog breeding in that state.

Then, on The Strip, our guests are Jabbawockeez founder Phil Tayag and Mystere clown Brian Dewhurst.

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 or Zune or listen via that nifty "Listen Now" player on TheStripPodcast.Com or ThePetcast.Com. Your call.

Chip to Donny & Marie Osmond: Thanks & Sorry!

In an epic Friday for news dumps, producer Chip Lightman has settled his lawsuit confidentially and in a "mutual satisfactory manner" with Donny and Marie. There's no word on what the payoff settlement entailed, but there was this from Chip:

“I am pleased we were able to resolve this matter and am sorry that, in the heat of battle, comments may have been made that were hurtful to the Osmonds. Both Donny and Marie are talented, hardworking artists and I wish them continuing success in their careers.”

May have? MAY HAVE? How about:

9. During its production, Lightman has gone to great lengths to protect the privacy, confidentiality and reputation of both Donny and Marie in order to further the marketability and popularity of the Donny & Marie Show. As a result, the Donny & Marie Show has since revived the careers of Donny and Marie and taken them to levels they never could have experienced without Lightman's hard work, determination, and confidence.

10. Contrary to the wholesome, all-American, good-natured image that he presents to the public, Defendant Donny's conduct, at least as it relates to Lightman and [Chip Lightman Entertainment], has been anything but. He has conducted himself in a manner that is underhanded, devious, fraudulent and greedy. The clear goal of his actions has been to line his own pockets with ill-gotten gains to fund his lavish lifestyle of exotic cars, luxury hotel suites, and private jets – all off the backs and hard work of those who worked tirelessly to support his career, including Lightman and CLE.

11. Despite Marie’s seemingly innocent nature, she too is liable for the fraud perpetrated by Donny through her acquiescence, awareness, and utter failure to disclose to CLE the steps taken by Donny to deceive CLE and circumvent their contractual obligations.

You mean like that passage, which is from the lawsuit he filed last month over breach of contract? Or the Tweets, now deleted, in which Chip threatened Donny that he'd be writing a tell-all book?

Donny Osmond took, frankly, a little too high a road with this statement:

“My sister and I want to thank Chip Lightman for great contributions he made in launching our show at the Flamingo. We look forward to the opportunity to work with him again in the future.”

Man, that's awfully forgiving. Or, as Sarah Palin said when her daughter got back together with Levi last summer, it shows a belief in "redemption and forgiveness to a degree most of us struggle to put in practice in our daily lives."

The Bristol-Levi thing didn't work out, either. I suggest Chip not wait by the phone for Donny's call.

The R-J's "Successes" Enumerated

I'm in the midst of a debate with a journalist friend who finds it ridiculous that the mighty Stephens clan would bother sucking up to the most powerful senator in America after the largest newspaper they own went on a years-long jeremiad to get him fired. What a crazy idea, huh?

Well, I've listed the other possibilities. But click on this to read it more easily:

That's a scan of a full-page ad the R-J has been running for a few weeks. If these things were true, then the Frederick-Mitchell tenure at the newspaper would not possibly be viewed as anything other than an unmitigated success. It claims the ReviewJournal.Com enjoys the biggest monthly uniques and pageviews, that the paper is read by 720,000 different people a week, that their total monthly online and print audience is more than 3.25 million people. There's been very robust increased web traffic, according to this, to several different R-J-related web properties.

They use the phrase "No one else comes close" after every claim. ("No one can do more" was already taken.)

Perhaps the claims in the ad are suspect -- I understand that part of the R-J's readership spike comes from links from the Drudge Report, which means a huge portion of the audience of is of absolutely no interest to local advertisers anyway -- or there are other things going on here.

More On The Review-Journal's Housecleaning

I'm hearing burblings that Sherman Frederick and Thomas Mitchell will be spinning that Reid victory was not the coup de grace that ended their regime. I'm fairly confident -- and have sources that have provided some proof -- that it played a pretty big part, but the trouble with any spin whatsoever is that the other alternatives at least as equally if not more professionally bad.

You see, Sherm may be leaving because of his health issues, but that doesn't explain Mitchell's reassignment or the sacking of the GM, Allan Fleming. That's a wholesale housecleaning and it was prompted by something. So, if they weren't sacrificed on that altar, what other choices are there?

* Revenues aren't satisfactory.

* Circulation isn't satisfactory.

* The news product isn't satisfactory.

* The Internet presence isn't satisfactory.

* The image of the company isn't satisfactory.

Pick one, boys!

I find it very doubtful the Righthaven lawsuits issue played into this. Mitchell had nothing to do with that, but he did certainly participate in the Reid-bashing and could be seen as having caused many of the above-listed possibilities. Steve Stern of Stern & Co., which is the subject of one of the Righthaven lawsuits, has a different take, but I think he's engaging in some wishful thinking.

There's just a lot that's weird about all of this, most notably the fairly shoddy way Frederick, Mitchell and Fleming are treated in the R-J story that announces the changes. It opens:

The Las Vegas Review-Journal today named a new publisher to replace longtime publisher Sherman Frederick.

Huh. We didn't even know he needed replacing! The guy's been publisher for, well, we don't really know from the story. He's also a major public figure. If this was a mutually happy parting, the lead would have cast Frederick as the main character. You know, like:

Stephens Media CEO and Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick retired today, leaving behind a tenure [insert most important legacy, if any, here.]

The fact that Mitchell's reassignment was held to the last paragraph is just amazing and really, really insulting to him. His own newspaper now thinks of his tenure as an afterthought. And, again, there's no standard-issue biographical information on his tenure, not a thumbnail of his career or a quote about his accomplishments or even his age.

And Fleming? Not even worth a digital inch. After all this time. Awkward!

Oh, by the way, it's been pointed out to me that the comments section for the R-J story has been closed and comments already left -- some mourned Sherm and Mitch's removals -- were removed. So they don't even want the public to be able to express their support for the men who led this enterprise for all those years. That's just cold.

Review-Journal Publisher, Editor AND GM Are Out

News just broke that R-J publisher Sherm Frederick is stepping down as publisher of the newspaper and as CEO of Stephens Media and Thomas Mitchell is out as editor. And yet, there's even more to it than that.

Not in their story? Allan B. Fleming, the Review-Journal's general manager, is also out. And Mitchell is getting a new gig created for him, some sort of senior editorial page editor role.

The article published by the R-J announcing this posits that Sherm is leaving for health reasons, and he certainly has had a rough year with surgeries for prostate and heart ailments this summer.

But the real explanation of what's happening here? Harry Reid won.

An extremely knowledgable source at the paper called this move a "shakeout" and a "head slap" from the top, meaning the owners back in Arkansas. He reminded me that the Stephens family are big Washington D.C. players, with banking interests and other issues to deal with in Congress. They may have supported Republican candidates, but the over-the-top efforts by Sherm Frederick and Thomas Mitchell to support Sharron Angle and unrelentingly beat up on the Senate Majority Leader was exceptional. It was nasty and personal and harmed the reporters' ability to have their work taken credibly, but even more importantly, if the Stephens clan wanted to make nice with Harry Reid, the only way to do it was to get rid of Frederick and Mitchell.

It's entertaining that the newspaper tried to soft-pedal this news, leaving out the Fleming angle and reducing to the very last paragraph the fact that Mitchell was also departing from his role. Those are the clues that this is a much bigger change than just an ailing publisher choosing to reduce his stress load.

Two of the announced changes, though, look like Titanic deck chair shuffling. The company's chief operating officer Michael Ferguson ascends CEO of Stephens Media and advertising director Bob Brown will be publisher of the R-J. Brown has no significant journalism experience, and what this paper needs is someone in control of the purse who understands why they need more reporters and more resources. I fear an ad guy won't have that sensibility.

Still, there is one huge reason to be encouraged: They're going out looking for a replacement for Mitchell as editor. That means that for the first time in a couple of decades, that newsroom's leadership will have some serious new energy and ideas.

The stagnation has been crippling. If Stephens is courageous, they will bring in someone young and sharp from the outside who understands (or at least doesn't openly despise) the Internet, who can give that rudderless features section a solid redo, who can advocate for more resources so reporters can spend more time digging into important stories.

Plenty of questions left:

* Will Sherm, who will retain his Sunday column, keep up the feud with the Greenspuns and the Sun, or is there a chance for a little class and maturity to break out in Vegas newspaperland?

* Will the dramatic efforts to sue to protect copyrights continue via Righthaven?

* What becomes of "Director of Visuals" Al Gibes, City Editor Mary Hynes, Features Editor Frank Fertado and Managing Editor Charlie Zobell, all of whom have been in their posts for unusually long stints?

* If Mitchell had been outright fired, would he have filed for welfare unemployment benefits?