Sunday 12-02-07

Carson's gay jokes provoked Newton

Wayne Newton has reignited his feud with Johnny Carson, calling the late talk-show king "a mean-spirited man."

In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Newton said the bad blood began when Carson began joking "a lot" that Newton was gay.

"I had done his show many, many times and considered him a friend of mine," Newton told King on Thursday. "And all of a sudden, a whole new brand of humor started to be displayed by him. And he was in that humor questioning my masculinity."

When all efforts to reach Carson failed over a year a half, Newton said, "I went to see him."

Newton went to NBC in Burbank, Calif., found Carson in his office meeting with producer Fred de Cordova and asked de Cordova to leave the room.

"And I said to Mr. Carson, I said, 'I don't know what friend of yours I've killed. I don't know what child of yours I've hurt. I don't know what food I've taken out of your mouth. But these jokes about me will stop, and they'll stop now or I will kick your ass.' "

Newton told King, "I'm going to say something I've never said on television, Mr. King. Johnny Carson was a mean-spirited human being. And there are people that he has hurt that people will never know about. And for some reason, at some point, he decided to turn that kind of negative attention toward me. And I refused to have it."

When King asked Newton if the confrontation hurt his career, Newton said, "In retrospect, no. I think, probably, there was a time that it could have hurt my career. But I think ultimately, the whole thing that evolved later on, around 1980, where I was accused of fronting for the Mafia and being a member of the Mafia, and then being extorted by the Mafia and all of that, all of that emanated from Johnny Carson's influence."

Newton won a $5.2 million libel suit against NBC for linking him with organized crime. But a federal court overturned the award in 1990, ruling the reports were not deliberately or recklessly false. Carson died in 2005.

Remembering Evel

If a replica of the Pantheon is ever built in Las Vegas, daredevil Evel Knievel would be among the engraved names of the most colorful characters.

His horrific motorcycle crash while jumping the fountains at Caesars Palace in 1967 was only part of it.

Knievel lived in the penthouse of the Maxim hotel here for about three years in the early 1990s.

"He loved Las Vegas; the action, the booze, the broads, the lights," recalled Las Vegas entertainment agent Joey Battig, who partied with Knievel up and down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and along the Strip.

Knievel bought his costumes from the same Los Angeles designer who dressed Elvis and Cher, Battig said, and "he had an expensive black cane that had a solid silver top that screwed off. He always had a half a pint of booze in it.

"He'd do anything on a dare. He'd bet on anything -- wheelies in the parking lot -- and it wasn't a few hundred dollars," Battig said.

"He was one of a kind. He just lived by the seat of his pants and lived day by day. He was one of those guys who dove off the board and didn't care if water was in the pool."

Their last conversation was about two months ago.

"He told me, 'When I go, I got no regrets. I've lived 10 lives.'"

If you have a memorable story of Knievel's days in Las Vegas, call me or e-mail me. We'll publish them on Monday.

Monday 12-03-07

Hoping for a star and happy landing

Plans were in place to have motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel inducted into the Las Vegas Walk of Stars in front of Caesars Palace in October.

But the effort fell apart, said local singer Grant Griffin, one of the organizers.

Knievel died Friday at age 69 in Florida.

Griffin said he was contacted in January by friends of Knievel who wanted to make it happen.

With assistance from Ed Swindle, a member of the Las Vegas Walk of Stars selection committee, Griffin said, organizers got approval from Caesars Palace to have the star placed near the fountains, site of his famous motorcycle crash on Dec. 31, 1967.

"Even though Evel was not well," Griffin said in an e-mail, "he insisted on overseeing and master minding the entire event."

However, "due to Evel's paranoia of having his name used and lack of financial support of his so-called close and dear friends, the entire effort became just dialogue," Griffin said.

I agree with Griffin that it's sad Knievel didn't live to see his star at the site. I hope it's not too late, with efforts redoubled, to pull everyone together and have a star ceremony on the crash's 40th anniversary, four weeks away.

Griffin wasn't the only Review-Journal reader who responded to my call for favorite Knievel stories.

Lou Mack of Las Vegas also e-mailed, saying he was "a 21-year-old punk kid" in a Los Angeles jail in the 1970s when he met Knievel, who was doing time for attacking his promoter with a bat for writing an unflattering book.

Mack, who was jailed for fighting and drug-related incidents, said Knievel befriended him and preached "positive goals like a wild motivational speaker."

Knievel made so many friends in jail that he announced he would arrange to have a limo waiting when some were released. But the media got wind of it, and there was pressure to call it off.

Mack credits Knievel for turning his life around and getting him involved in "something that I really enjoyed and to this day (I am) running a successful stunt dog thrill show," said Mack, who ran the Sooper Dog Show at the Excalibur for years.

Jim Tofte, a member of the morning show on KKLZ-FM, 96.3, said Knievel, in a 2001 interview, was excited about the prospect of opening a museum and cafe in Primm with MGM mogul Kirk Kerkorian. It didn't pan out.

The next time I talked to him was about a decade later, after he came out of retirement to jump 14 Greyhound buses Oct. 25, 1975, in Kings Island, Ohio. I was covering it as an Associated Press sportswriter out of Cincinnati. That's me in the AP photo, the guy with the Elvis sneer in dire need of a haircut and a fashion makeover. Dig those hip bell-bottom jeans.

Knievel, an international phenom by now, helped ABC's "Wide World of Sports" score its highest viewer ratings ever.

Years later, after he moved to Las Vegas in the 1990s, he was a regular at the Pasta Shop on Tropicana.

"The first time he came in, I had my Harley-Davidson parked out front," said co-owner David Alenik. "He complimented me on my bike and told me to get my helmet so he could sign it. I thought he would write something spiritual like 'ride safely,' or 'keep your eyes open.'

"Instead," Alenik said, "he wrote 'happy landing.'"

Tuesday 12-04-07

Wednesday 12-05-07

Still no sympathy for Marie Osmond

Maksim Chmerkovskiy of "Dancing with the Stars" isn't backing away from his criticism of Marie Osmond as he prepares to bring the ballroom-dancing craze to a Las Vegas showroom.

Three couples coached by Chmerkovskiy will be featured in "Le Reve," the aquatic extravaganza at Wynn Las Vegas, starting Dec. 22.

A couple of days before the "Dancing" finals, a blunt Chmerkovskiy delivered what some saw as a pre-emptive strike when he accused Osmond and her brother Donny of repeatedly playing the sympathy card.

After fainting during one show and then losing her father, Marie Osmond disclosed that her teenage son is in rehab. Chmerkovskiy saw it as an unfair advantage and spoke out.

The professional dancer, who teamed up with Spice Girl Melanie Brown, was quoted as saying "we decided not to burden people with our personal issues. I think that is why our fan base carries us through, because they vote for our dancing, not whatever happens in our life."

"Frankly," he said, "I think there are a lot of other people better than Marie."

During a telephone interview Tuesday, he said "every week it was something. She definitely played that card."

His criticism was not intended to be personal, he said.

"I love her. But everybody saw that she was going to win. It was not fair to others."

He added, "If you ask me about dancing I'm very critical. This is my job to critique and improve."

Chmerkovskiy and Brown finished second to IndyCar champ Helio Castroneves and 19-year-old Julianne Hough, who attended Las Vegas Academy in her mid-teens.

He's not ready to name the three couples going into "Le Reve" because the competition isn't over.

Candidates include some performers in Celine Dion's show, which ends Dec. 15.

Asked if Las Vegas will be represented among his group, he said, "Absolutely."

BROADWAY BOUND

University of Nevada Las Vegas graduate student Zonya Love Johnson is heading for the bright lights of Broadway.

She has landed the lead role in "The Color Purple," which is co-produced by Oprah Winfrey.

Johnson, 26, was informed about four weeks ago, after making it to the fourth callback.

After working with Nate Bynum and Glenn Casala in UNLV's theater department, she moved to New York in September and taught theater and Head Start classes

She intended to pursue a music career but switched to theater as a freshman in high school in Durham, N.C.

Thursday 12-06-07

The brother-sister act is considering a deal that would run 40 to 44 weeks a year, said Alicia Jacobs, KVBC-TV, Channel 3, entertainment reporter. The Osmonds would replace Toni Braxton, who opened in August 2006.

Mirage headliner Danny Gans and Chip Lightman reportedly would produce the show.

Marie, 48, is coming off months of prime-time exposure on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," in which she finished third after a controversial run.

Both have had No. 1 hits, and they teamed up on the "Donny & Marie Show" on ABC from 1976 to 1979. Marie's debut single, "Paper Roses," became the No. 1 country hit in 1973, and she topped the country charts with "Meet Me in Montana" and "There's No Stopping Your Heart."

Donny, who turns 50 on Sunday, went to the top with "Go Away Little Girl" and "Puppy Love."

In 1974, they teamed up on pop hits "I'm Leaving It All Up to You" and "Morning Side of the Mountain."

Mexican Star Mourned

Sergio Gomez, the lead singer of the Mexican band K-Paz de la Sierra whose body was discovered Monday, received an honorary celebrity star on Las Vegas Boulevard late last month.

Gomez was so grateful for the recognition that he was planning a free concert at Thomas & Mack Center, said Pablo Castro-Zavala, a local Hispanic leader.

"We are in shock," said Castro-Zavala, who is vice president of Hispanics affairs for the Las Vegas Walk of Stars.

Gomez and his group were presented with the star during their concert May 25 at The Orleans. Afterwards, an "emotional" Gomez told Castro-Zavala to start planning the free concert.

Gomez asked to be notified when the star was installed in front of New York-New York "so he could bring the singers and families," Castro-Zavala said.

They returned Nov. 20 for a ceremony at ESPN Zone and a concert at South Point, and they rode the roller coaster at the Stratosphere.

Gomez was kidnapped, tortured and killed near the Michoacan state capital of Morelia, not far from his home of Ciudad Hidalgo.

Castro-Zavala said Gomez's camp hinted that the frontman and founder had received warnings not to return to his home state.

"I was told that he mentioned to his family and manager that he received e-mails and phone calls telling him not to go to certain concerts because 'someone wants to hurt you.' One of the cities was Morelia," Castro-Zavala said.

A new day: ABC is reporting that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has replaced the Celine Dion theme song with Big Head Todd and the Monsters'

Bette Midler has titled her upcoming Caesars Palace production "Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On." And now we know why the stage will be level when she opens Feb. 20 in The Colosseum: She's reviving one of her favorite characters, Delores Delago, the wheelchair-bound mermaid. The stage has been sloped for Dion's show, which would require quite a workout in a wheelchair.

Friday 12-07-07

Wynn: Pieces didn't fit for Midler deal

Those rumors were true: Steve Wynn is confirming rumblings that surfaced here about two years ago that he was close to signing Bette Midler.

Wynn tells local podcasters Steve Friess and Miles Smith that he had a tentative deal with Midler that included building a new theater.

"I had an arrangement. I was gonna build a theater. I had a tentative deal with Bette," Wynn said in the interview at TheStripPodcast.com.

"But in the deal was the proviso that if I couldn't book the rest of the weeks, that I didn't have to go forward.

"And her agents at CAA had promised that they would help. We had discussed a group of artists that they would be able to get at a price range that we had proscribed, which would allow me to build this theater for Bette which would be like the one at Caesars.

"And I was thrilled because I think Bette Midler is the most spectacular performer there is today. ... But the other acts did not come into focus. I could not fill 40 weeks a year with acceptable alternatives at prices that represented any chance of recovering the cost of operations and making a buck. I had (the theater) designed and everything. It would've gone behind Encore. But at the end of the day, I stopped the deal, and that freed Bette up to do what she wanted."

(She signed a two-year deal with Caesars Palace that begins next year.)

Wynn also disclosed that Andrew Lloyd Webber has written a song for "Le Reve" that Wynn plans to have inserted into the show soon. The two have become friends but have not been discussing bringing a Webber show to Wynn or Encore. Webber, Wynn said, wrote the song after seeing "Le Reve."

"Lord Webber is a helluva guy, and we've become friends. He wrote a theme song for me. I'm gonna get an orchestration. He just said to me, 'Here, Steve, after seeing 'Le Reve,' this melody reminds me of 'Le Reve' and he sent it to me on a tape."

Webber told Friess last year that he believed "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" could make a good Vegas show. However, Wynn disagreed in his podcast interview, saying, "It strikes me that 'Joseph' is for young people. It's for children."

The Scene And Heard

Eighties group Spandau Ballet is reported to be re-forming for a one-shot deal in Las Vegas. The English band had a major hit with "True" in 1983 but split in 1990 after a long-simmering feud. ...

Caesars Palace has given a big break to The Clydesdale, a local band on the brink of a breakout. The punky country group has been booked to play at Cleopatra's Barge through Sunday. The show is from 10:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. daily. "This definitely takes us to another level," said Paige Overton, the beehive-coiffed lead singer. There's no cover charge. ...

Matt McCarthy, a member of the little people troupe in Beacher's Madhouse, is up in arms over Floyd Mayweather Jr. for using the m-word. Mayweather called British fighter Ricky Hatton a midget this week during the runup to Saturday's fight at the MGM Grand. McCarthy is threatening to "kick his ass ... on behalf of all the little people in the world" who find the word offensive. McCarthy was hauled out of Hogs and Heifers Saloon last week in his Oompa Loompa costume after he slugged the backside of a patron who called him a midget.

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