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Paris Hilton Continues Love Affair With Vegas & Criss Angel; Dennis Rodman Sells Himself on eBayThursday, October 26, 2006
In
This Issue:
Surprise, surprise: Paris Hilton is on her way
back to Vegas, and is coming for Criss
Angel.Bid on a wild night
with Dennis Rodman, who is
putting himself up for auction on
eBay.
Nathan Burton saws 'Will and
Grace' actress Megan Mullally in
half!
Find out who will be representing Vegas on Bravo's 'Top
Chef.'
LEFT: Check out Paris' bling-bling watch George
Maloof gave to her. RIGHT: Paris and brief-beau
James Leate.
The
ultimate party princess Paris Hilton
heads back here
tomorrow afternoon and this time she's planning to stay until
Halloween. Five
nights in Sin City right through All Hallows Eve! Ah,
we'll all be burning the midnight oil! This past weekend's two-day
visit for Paris (click
here for our Monday coverage) extended into
4-days before she returned home to Hollywood
on a private plane 7PM Monday night. Scandalous stories about her 5AM,
Sunday
morning steamy smooch session with magician Criss Angel in a very
private area
of the
Empire
Ballroom have begun circulating around town. She'd
originally
flown in with new model boyfriend James Leate from
New York for her best
girlfriend Kim Kardashian's 25th birthday party at
TAO.
But he
must have become history when she and Criss hit it off at JET
24-hours-later, and it was their pre-dawn tryst at Empire that caused
her to
stay an extra 48-hours with two late night dance stops at Body
English in the
Hard Rock. She's expected to be out on the town all weekend again,
through
Tuesday night, with her new lip-locked love mate magic man!!!
Paris spends
"quality time" with
'Mindfreak' magician Criss
Angel, who she'll be with again this
weekend.
THE WORM FOR
SALE
All-around bad boy Dennis "The Worm" Rodman is offering
himself to you for a wild
night.
It might
just be the most unusual showbiz offer in eBay's history. The on-line
auction
house is now hosting a wild and wacky offer from basketball's bad boy
Dennis
Rodman, who arrives in Vegas this weekend to celebrate
Halloween in scandalous and shocking style. He's offering himself to
you and,
if you like, two of your friends, for a night on the town. He'll treat
you to
dinner and then take you off to the Scores
topless club for the decadent
dancing. He's OK'd you taking photos of everything that goes on through
the
night, so you have the ultimate souvenir of whatever saucy shenanigans
you find
yourself in. If it's instant romance, you can also have instant
marriage and a
divorce by dawn!! He's also willing to give you an autographed Chicago
Bulls
jersey for the final keepsake! Sounds like the perfect bachelorette
party and
since it'll take place right here you just know Luxe
Life
swill have every intimate detail of Dennis' dilly-dallying!
CUT
IN HALF!
LEFT: Magician Nathan Burton and actress Megan Mullally.
RIGHT: Burton and
"assistants."
'Will and
Grace' actress Megan Mullally landed her own TV talk
show and
promptly booked Vegas magician Nathan
Burton to cut her in
half, and NBC's lawyers and top executives insisted on "standing watch
over her" to ensure nothing went wrong. "They couldn't believe that I'd
chopped her in half," Nathan told Luxe Life. "They
wanted her back in one piece as fast as possible. They were very
protective,
thinking it was actually happening right before their eyes. They were
really
worried the electric buzz saw would hurt her skin!! But everything was
safe and
OK. After all, I am the magician." For Megan's talk show, Nathan made
her
and 'The OC''s Peter Gallagher appear to start the
opening and
then, later, he performed several other illusions in his own segment.
Earlier
this summer, Nathan gained national recognition as the most featured
magician
on NBC's 'America's
Got Talent.' He performed more than any other competitor and was even
brought
back after being voted off. He made host Regis
Philbin
appear wearing a hot-pink corset, escaped from the "Microwave of Death"
and flushed a police officer down a toilet. Now our hometown hero has
become
such a hit he's been signed for the 2nd season of 'America's Got
Talent' as a guest
star and he'll also coach the contestants. All in addition to his own
daily
show that he's hosted since May in the V
Theatre at the Aladdin! I said "abracadabra"
and conjured up a chat with the illusionist, exclusively for
Luxe
Life:
RL:
Talk to me for a minute about cutting Megan Mullaley in half.
NB:
NBC called me and asked me to be on the show. They said she was a huge
fan of
mine on 'America's
Got Talent.' Every time she would watch the show she would say I want
that guy
on my show. They wanted to do something that was very interactive. I
said 'well,
we could do this' and I ran the idea of cutting her in half and they
said that
was great, but then we had to go through all of this legal stuff with
NBC. They
were like this is the star of the show and she maybe in danger. I said
it was a
magic trick and there is more of a chance of a light falling on her
than her
getting hurt by my buzz-saw.
RL:
I can just imagine their faces, thinking she was actually going to be
cut in
half and she wouldn't be able to do the show anymore.
NB:
There were six people in a roomand they were on a conference call and I
told
them it was just a magic trick, don't worry, and I told them I would
put my
mother in this thing. Even when I was on set, the guy had to see the
saw and I
told him that I would have to cut through steel. And the first time we
did it,
that people in the audience screamed and Megan laughed because she
doesn't feel
anything at all. She was great. She was a total sweetheart. They loved
it.
RL:
In a sense, even though you did not win 'America's Got Talent,' you
ended up so
often on that show it was like you were becoming the star of it.
NB:
You know, most people would see it as an opportunity and then working
hard and
taking advantage of it. Out of all the acts, they said I should have
been the
most difficult. I brought in 10 people each week, I had all of these
different
big props and I had stuff coming in each week. I just wanted to provide
good
television for them and after the first 2 episodes they kind of got me
and I
said I want to bring the show girls, I want to do this and that. They
just went
with it and they loved it. The average contestant up to the finale,
they did 3
performances. I did 6, and after I was off the show they brought me
back to do
the finale. I was a paid performer and I came back and I plugged my
show in
Vegas and I had people say that I won more than a million dollars in
publicity.
Back when I did the show, in the back of my head I would have loved to
do the
show, but it was never about winning. It was about going on there and
showing
what I can do and getting as much exposure as possible and you know for
a lot
of shows, it dies off fairly quick after the show. And there were 100
people
that came to my show here last week purely because of 'America's Got
Talent.'
RL:
Then we featured you in 'Surreal Life: Fame Games' which will begin
airing on
VH1 this winter. So you are hot and getting hotter! But of all the
illusions
that you perform, which is your favorite and what is the one challenge
you are
still thinking of that you would like to accomplish?
NB:
One of my favorites is the microwave of death that I actually came up
with in
high school. I would always get bored and write skits in class. Tthe
original
skit was I would drink a soda, fall behind a desk and then turn into a
black
guy and it was all the stereotypes. I go in the microwaveand get burnt
and
come out black and he is a cool, funny guy and I am the white guy and
it is
kind of something I am known for. It is a little edgy and I like to
have fun
with my stuff. There are a couple big outdoor things that I am working
on. They
go with 'America's Got Talent' and I have a flatbed truck, with show
girls,
driving right down the center of the Strip and we are going to pull up
in front
of a crowd of people at the Aladdin or Bellagio and then just vanish.
Then for
the summertime, I will be frozen in a block of ice with a showgirl for
24-hours
in August and that should be real fun. I am very excited about the Fame
Game
episode also. I had a competition with Emmanuel
Lewis, Vern
Troyer, Chyna, and Tracy
Bingham
where they had to put an act together and the audience cast the votes.
There
was good footage particularly when Traci Bingham had a wardrobe
malfunction! It
will be interesting to see how it is cut.
RL:
Magic definitely belongs in Vegas. This is the number one city for
magic. But,
do we reach a point when we have too much magic with Steve
Wyrick
opening his own magic theatre and ultra-lounge and Criss
Angel
starring in a new Cirque spectacular?
NB:
There has always been magic in Vegas and, with my knowledge of 20
years, there
was magic everywhere, and then it died off, Now it is coming back, but
I think
we are coming back in a different way. Criss Angel is a totally
different
breed. I think in every category, there is room for the best. You have
Amazing
Johnathan, which is outrageous comedy; you have
Lance
Burton, which
is traditional. I fill a niche of not traditional; I am kind of like
the boy
next door, with all the toys. I actually came off as a nice guy from
the show. I
never got shown in a bad light or anything. I really won the lottery on
'America's Got
Talent' and I may not be the most talented magician, but I am the
hardest
working."
CHEF
CONTESTANTS
LEFT: 'Top Chef' host Tom Colicchio of Craftsteak. RIGHT:
Chef Hubert Keller from Fleur de
Lys.
Four local
chefs are in a kitchen counter culinary showdown with $100,000 at stake
forthe
2nd season of Bravo's 'Top Chef' and
star chef Tom Colicchio of MGM's Craftsteak
is the head
judge, also welcoming back fellow chef Hubert Keller
from
Fleur
de Lys in the Mandalay Bay who hosted last season. All told,
15 chefs
from around the country are doing battle over the bouillabaisse, but
we're
rooting for our local favorites: Emily Sprissler, a
line
chef at Michael Mina's Nobhill;
Elia Abroumrad
who is an asst. room chef at THEHotel in Mandalay Bay,
Otto Borsich
who is an instructor at the Vegas Culinary Institute and
Marcel
Vigneron who toils for Joel
Robuchon also at MGM.
Last year Vegas had only one representative, Tiffany
Faison
and she placed 2nd! Incidentally, my pal Hubert just completed filming
13
episodes of the new PBS 'Kitchen Couture' series to air in February,
showcasing
many recipes from his Burger
Bar on the shopping plaza bridge walkway Mandalay Place
between Mandalay and the Luxor.
HALLLOWEEN
HITS
Comic DJ Adam
Carolla hosts a haunted Playboy mansion party at Scores
tonight and
from tonight until next Tuesday, ghosts and goblins frighten the heck
out of
everybody as Studio
54's haunted playhouse springs to death in the spookiest
and hippest Strip party. The infamous danceteria has been decorated
with aerial
spider webs, with a special sinful version of Michael
Jackson's
'Thriller' and Dr. Frankenfurter's 'Sweet Transvestite' from the 'Rocky
Horror
Picture Show' to make it a true Nightmare
on 54th Street. Body-painted models
will host three nights of costume contests, all winding up next Tuesday
with
the 40th annual Beaux
Arts Ball to benefit the Golden rainbow organization
helping adults and children living with HIV/AIDS throughout the valley.
STRIP
SCRIBBLES
The tete-a-tete
dinner that PURE
management principals, Robert Frey, Stevie
D. and Gregg J. had late night at NOVE
in the Palms
Fantasy Tower with Strip showman Jeff Beacher has
insiders
guessing they will partner to manage his newly opened Beacher's
Rockhouse at
Strip Central because the location is one of the best on the block at
Harrah's
and Imperial
Palace. Meantime, Jeff launches his Tiny Kiss tribute band
tomorrow at the Rockhouse directly across from PURE, where long-tongued
rocker Gene
Simmons will be partying. That's masterful marketing, because
you
just know curiosity has to get the better of Simmons. ... The other
rumor worth
mentioning is that movie mogul Jerry Bruckheimer,
who throws
an annual ice-hockey weekend here for his Hollywood movie star macho
mates on
skates, is supposedly planning on bringing a NHL franchise to our
sizzling
hot-city!
TONIGHT'S
TIP
Join us on
the blood-red carpet at Brenden Theaters in the Palms for the world
premiere of
super-scary 'Saw 3' as I
do the emcee duties with every member of the star-cast
in attendance. After the movie there's a soundtrack party at Rain.
Then
Halloween horrors continue with Amazing Johnathan's official haunted
house. It's
the final countdown of the Stardust
with Steve
Lawrence and Eydie
Gorme starting to wrap up the famed resort's final
weekend before
shutdown after midnight October 31 festivities end next Wednesday
morning.The
Smothers
Brothers with special guest Yo Yo
Man start a run
thru Sunday night at The
Orleans.
TOMORROW'S
TEASE
The
ultimate clash of cultures: Fox News celebrates its 10th anniversary
with
conservative commentators Greta Van Susteren and
Shepard Smith
broadcasting live from wild and crazy PURE nightclub as the wild and
wicked
revelers plot Halloween in the wildest outrageous stripped-down flesh
and
fantasy weekend of the year. Plus, we'll say a respectful farewell to
the
legendary Stardust Hotel on its last weekend before closing its doors
for good
forever!
Read previous columns from Robin Leach at:
journals.aol.com/robinsvegas/LuxeLifeVegas.
Articles and photos from Robin Leach's Luxe Life: Vegas column on AOL cityguide are copyright and reprinted with permission.
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