T
his week: World Team of Poker Press Party, Enlightened Master Louix Returns to Las Vegas, Paul Rodriguez at Tropicana, Roman Polanski and a Second Accuser, Woody Allen on Aging, Methuselah Genes Found, How to Survive 2012, and more…
World Team of Poker Press Party. On Tuesday, we went to the inaugural WTP Press Party at Gold Diggers at Golden Nugget, 129 Fremont St. There were 50 of the world’s greatest poker players including the “Godfather of Poker” Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth (the only poker champion I recognized).
On Wednesday at noon began the World Team Poker $50,000 Buy-In Event. Eight international teams of eight did battle at the Golden Nugget. The USA team was captained by Phil Hellmuth.
The event was a five-table shootout with rounds of limit, pot-limit, and no-limit hold’em. The game was streamed live and free at WorldTeamPoker.com and also filmed for TV broadcast at a later date. Thanks to the lovely, efficient Marie-Lizette Public Relations Director for World Team Poker for the invitation. (Photo: From left: Doyle Brunson, Nikki “Lady Neon” Artale, an invited guest, Phil Hellmuth)
Enlightened Master Louix Dor Dempriey. On Wednesday, I was thrilled to be able to take darshan with Louix again in Las Vegas. This is an extraordinary master!
Darshan with Louix is a donation only event—you are not required to leave anything, only if you feel to do so. Louix (known as Bhagavan Sri Pranananda), also runs a day-long retreat when he is visiting here.
On Saturday, May 22nd at 10 a.m., Louix ran a day-long spiritual retreat which is a rare event to spend a day with Louix and like-minded seekers for meditation. The cost of these one-day retreats is $175, due in full upon arrival. This includes a vegetarian lunch. For more information about Louix’s next visit to Las Vegas, go here: www.meetup.com/.
Paul Rodriguez in Las Vegas. On Thursday, May 20th we went to the Tiffany Theater at the newly re-decorated (it needed it!) Tropicana Las Vegas for an 8 p.m. “meet and greet” with legendary comedian Paul Rodriguez. He hosted a media party to kick off his new standup show: “Paul Rodriguez and the Whole Enchilada” featuring opening act Shayla Rivera. Our evening started in the Tropicana’s lounge with a seven piece salsa band, photos with Rodriguez, cocktails, an impressive Mexican mini-buffet (guests had plates piled high), and tips on how to stay in the country legally!
I wanted to know: Where do illegals hide their cash?
“Paul Rodriguez and the Whole Enchilada,” runs May 17–June 20 for a limited engagement with performances completely in Spanish on June 5 and June 12 at 7 p.m., followed by the 9 p.m. show in English.
The entire show, beginning with the 4 hip-hop dancers and the “existential guy” was terrific. Shayla Rivera was very funny and a great lead-in to Rodriguez, who was engaging and very, very funny. I highly recommend “the Whole Enchilada.”
Tickets are on sale now through June 20 and are priced from $39 and $49, plus applicable taxes and handling fees. The public may purchase tickets at the Tropicana Box Office online at www.troplv.com or toll free at 800-829-9034.
Roman Polanski and Another Teen. As directors and celebrities rally around Roman Polanski, actress Charlotte Lewis (pictured, she looks angry!), came forward last week and accused Roman Polanski of sexual abuse. Lewis said the filmmaker told her he slept with all of his actresses.
As RadarOnline.com reported, Lewis “has told London’s Mail on Sunday that Polanski told her, “If you’re not big enough to have sex with me, you’re not big enough to do the screen test. I must sleep with every actress that I work with. That’s how I get to know them, how I mold them.”
Polanski is currently under house arrest in Switzerland facing extradition to the United States. Lewis told the Mail that she turned down Polanski’s advances when they first met in 1983 as she was going to audition for “Pirates.” Lewis was 16 years old at the time.
She told him she had a boyfriend and left Polanski’s apartment. But she came back later and won the role. Lewis says she never told her mother what happened. “I was just too ashamed,” she said.
The actress said she needed the money and has carried around the burden of being sexually abused by Polanski until she finally came forward Friday.
Does this mean that to get their starring roles in Polanski’s films well-known actresses had to have sex with him or was it only the girls who were extras? Miss Lewis had a small speaking part on Pirates. The following actresses starred in Polanski-directed films: Catherine Deneuve (pictured in Replusion, 1965), Mia Farrow (Rosemary’s Baby, 1968), Faye Dunaway (Chinatown, 1974), and pretty Johnny Depp (The Ninth Gate, 1999).
According to the AP, Woody Allen restated his support for Roman Polanski at the Cannes Film Festival. Allen insisted Polanski “was embarrassed by the whole thing,” “has suffered” and “has paid his dues.” He added that Polanski is “an artist and is a nice person” who “did something wrong and he paid for it.”
Woody Allen On Getting Old. I still can’t believe billionaires get old, sick, 
and die. What is money for unless you can spend it on staying alive? It should be a billionaire’s top priority. Sumner Redstone is 87 years old and Las Vegas’s “Kirk” Kerkorian is 92!
Redstone bragged about having sex four times a day with his 47-year-old second wife, Paula, a former New York City public-school teacher. They divorced amiably after 5 years of marriage in 2008—so Redstone could publicly date.
Redstone is the Tiger Woods of very old men!
Kerkorian is also an old fool not happy with being a billionaire. He wants to be known as “sex centenarian napalm”!* I fondly remember his infamous short-lived third marriage (1999) to professional tennis player Lisa Bonder, 48 years his junior, which under a prenuptial agreement lasted only one month. Kerkorian suspected that Bonder’s ex-boyfriend, Steve Bing, was the father of her daughter. Kerkorian hired a private-eye to take dental floss from Bing’s trash can to do DNA paternity testing. It was confirmed that Bing was the father and not Kerkorian.
During the court proceedings, Bonder admitted the then four-year-old girl for whom Kerkorian was being asked to pay more than $320,000 a month in support was not his child and she faked DNA tests.
But Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, 37 at the time, claimed the then 84-year-old casino and media mogul went along with the story to promote the virile image created by having a child with a woman less than half his age. She added she got saliva for the DNA test from one of his daughters. Ms. Bonder Kerkorian demanded a record $3.8-million a year in child support. Mr. Kerkorian was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 46th richest person in the world.
Seeking to counter his former wife’s claims, his lawyers told a court in Los Angeles their client is sterile and could not have fathered Kira.
Woody Allen says aging has zero advantages: “you don’t get smarter, you don’t get wiser, you don’t get more mellow, you don’t get more kindly,” he told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival when promoting his new film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. You only get more bodily decay. “My relationship with death remains the same—I’m strongly against it,” the director says. “All I can do is wait for it.”
Methuselah Genes Found. Scientists have discovered the “Methuselah” genes whose lucky carriers have a much improved chance of living to 100 even if they indulge in an unhealthy lifestyle!
There, you have it! If your parents lived into their 90’s, you can fire up that meth pipe and start drinking!
The genes appear to protect people against the effects of smoking and bad diet and can also delay the onset of age-related illnesses such as cancer and heart disease by up to three decades.
No single gene is a guaranteed fountain of youth. Instead, the secret of longevity probably lies in having the right “suite” of genes, according to new studies of centenarians and their families. Such combinations are extremely rare—only one person in 10,000 reaches the age of 100.
The genes found so far each appear to give a little extra protection against the diseases of old age. “Long-lived people do not have fewer disease genes or ageing genes,” said Eline Slagboom of Leiden University, who is leading a study into 3,500 Dutch nonagenarians. “Instead they have other genes that stop those disease genes from being switched on. Longevity is strongly genetic and inherited.”
How to Survive 2012. If there is any major catastrophe, for $50,000, Robert Vicino says he will guarantee your security in the event of a nuclear blast, tsunami, earthquake or other disaster.
Vicino, a San Diego inventor and real estate entrepreneur has a master plan to build a self-contained shelter to be a safe haven in the case of a catastrophe.
“Would you want to survive or would you want to sit on the porch with chardonnay or Jack Daniels and watch the show?” Vicino asked.
The first site—Vivos—is pretty close to me, at an undisclosed location in the middle of the desert, halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Vicino plans to offer a solution that he calls the ultimate life insurance policy. He says his complex will sustain life in the event of an Armageddon-like disaster, such as a nuclear blast, natural disaster, chemical and biological attacks, or even the predicted end of the world according to the Mayans—2012.
“The only safe place to be will be underground,” Vicino said.
The cost of survival is priced at $50,000 for adults, $25,000 per child and pets are free. The first facility Vicino is converting an old blast-proof Cold War relic, which was designed to keep copper phone lines alive. He plans to spend $10 million to convert the old bunker. There is a 3,000-pound, blast-proof door and a decontamination room.
Vicino said each facility will have food, clothing and supplies for a year for nearly 200 people. Plans even show a detention facility and exercise equipment.
What about WiFi and premium cable?
In the event of a disaster, Vicino said owners would meet at rendezvous points and could be escorted in by helicopters before the facilities would be secured.
Vivos is an ownership network of future survival shelters accessible only to its owner members. The Vivos Selection Committee (that means Vicino) will evaluate each member applicant’s profile for determination and candidacy of their membership. Vivos will then look for those individuals who may best contribute to each Vivos shelter community, for the greatest chance of long-term survival of the entire group.
Each candidate will be reviewed based upon a number of criteria and psychographic information, including: their profession, education, expertise, skills, benefit to the Vivos community, proximity to a Vivos location, current health, and desired family or group ownership. If you feel you merit survival, reserve your spot here: http://www.terravivos.com/
* From John Mayer’s Playboy magazine interview, he said this about his 2006–07 relationship with Jessica Simpson: “That girl, for me, is a drug. And drugs aren’t good for you if you do lots of them. Yeah, that girl is like crack cocaine to me...Sexually it was crazy. That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm...”
