Two big Vegas players are included on the money end of the Jackson saga. Colony Capital, a partial owner of the Las Vegas Hilton (where Elvis performed), bailed Neverland out of foreclosure. And AEG, which books and produces Cher and Bette Midler at Caesars and Santana at the Hard Rock, was the promoter behind the London concerts. Both companies seem to be caught having to choose between losing millions and/or engaging in desperate acts to squeeze money from what has been left behind (rehearsal footage and an empty mansion). No doubt anything they do to recoup their money many will see as in questionable taste.

Remember Jackson declared in a statement released after Neverland was searched that he would never consider the place home again. Did he ever even return there? And releasing any of the rehearsal footage of a perfectionist is not at all an appropriate coda. And even as a tribute show, there is no Michael Jackson concert in London without Michael Jackson. That is the thing about unique talents: They are irreplaceable.

Certainly, given the Vegas angles, this city is as obsessed with Jackson as any other place right now. But there is other news in the Entertainment Capital of the World. For starters the city is gearing up (click for complete list of activities) for July 4 weekend in a rough economy. And when, like me, you live across the street from a casino you get letters like this in the mail:

"Dear Neighbor:
On Saturday July 4, 2009 a special event will take place at Green Valley Ranch. This event will feature a fireworks display, and due to your close proximity to Green Valley Ranch, we would like to make you aware of the event. The fireworks will begin at 9:30 p.m. and last approximately 10 minutes..."

The Las Vegas Sun and Review-Journal have stories on what seems the incredible incompetence that in part led to abandoning building many floors at one of the towers at CityCenter (pictured) on the Strip. The local word among politicians and casino insiders is that the success of this mega-resort of all mega-resorts is the best hope to revive Las Vegas. The idea is that interest in the new destination resort will fill the city with so many tourists that all boats lift on the rising tide. Surely a tide metaphor is a dangerous place to be in a desert landscape?

Every day we have thousands of rooms on the Strip going unused in this economy, and while how many rooms CityCenter adds to that total depends who you ask on what day the answer is certainly thousands more rooms. Therefore isn't this more likely to be a problem than a solution? We will see. CityCenter at least is set to start opening before the end of the year, unlike two other multibillion-dollar projects in Vegas with one defaulting on loans (Cosmopolitan) and the other going into bankruptcy (Fontainebleau).

Lance Burton, the longtime headliner at Monte Carlo, put to bed rumors of his retirement by announcing a new contract that will keep him at Monte Carlo for as long as six more years. Burton does the best traditional magic show in Vegas. If you have kids who have never seen a magic show, then Burton is the big-production show that you should make their first experience. I am thrilled he is staying in the neighborhood.

Speaking of things kids will love, I finally made it to "The Lion King" at Mandalay Bay.  It has not received the Vegas treatment like "Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular." This is a replication of the Broadway show including intermission. Therefore I feel no particular need to review it with detail. But I found "Lion King" fun and joyful, and I suspect based on a thick crowd on a Monday, a traditionally slow night on the Strip, the show will enjoy a long run in Vegas. Whatever Broadway-Vegas problems other shows at other casinos have faced, Mandalay Bay has proven immune, previously enjoying a long run for "Mamma Mia" also at full production length.

This blog has been honored with two recent mentions in the news. One of my favorite blogs is David McKee's Stiffs & Georges. His focus is on the big picture of casino operations, and I was pleased the Buffet was named by him one of the essential Vegas blogs. Check out his entire list, and be sure to read his blog if you care at all about who is winning your money at the top of the food chain and what they are doing with it (these days, stay one step ahead of debt, mostly). Also, Review-Journal's Norm Clarke quoted this blog this morning while covering Criss Angel's shameless season-opener plan for his cable series.

Photo: Sarah Gerke

Do you recognize this woman? Well, the sash is probably a giveaway. This is the winner of the Miss USA contest, Kristen Dalton.She was the winner and therefore was neither asked nor answered a question by Perez Hilton at the contest. Here she is yesterday at the Nevada Cancer Institute with Dr. Karen Milligan, left, drawing attention to a crucial resource in the community.

And, this morning at 11, Miss USA is kicking off National Ice Cream Month. And, talk about using your celebrity to bring attention to a cause few knew about, I truly had no idea that there was a National Ice Cream Month until this morning. And, now I am an informed citizen, thanks to Miss USA. According to the press release:

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month. He believed Americans loved enjoying this fun and nutritious food.

Do you think she checked with doctors at NCI on if they thought the nutritional value of this food merited a month of celebrating ice cream? If you want meet Miss USA, the celebration of ice cream event takes place at Serendipity 3's patio at Caesars Palace.

What an odd job being Miss USA must seriously be.

Photo: Nevada Cancer Institute

Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington remembers the day I met him for the first time, on the Strip in 2000. His band's debut had come out a few days before and had shot up the charts. A national music magazine wanted his band somehow in the next issue, and it found the group at a radio convention in Las Vegas. A photographer arranged a shoot of the band pretending to gamble at the Aladdin (now Planet Hollywood).

Linkin Park was so not famous then; the casino's floor manager carded the band members even for pretending to gamble. As for me (who got a call that morning to run down and do a quick interview with the unknown band), I mistakenly called them Lincoln Logs the entire conversation.

"That was a pretty funny time," Bennington recalls. "There were a whole lot of new experiences happening at that time. It is funny. I remember everything you were saying. And I remember that time when we could not buy an interview with most people. And now we are at a time where it seems we can spend all of our time doing interviews and nothing else. It's been a very interesting ride." 

As we were speaking by phone Monday, one of his four children was hollering in the background. Bennington will be in Vegas on July 4 offering what he says is the debut performance of his new band, Dead by Sunrise, at Planet Hollywood's Steve Wyrick Theatre in the Miracle Mile Mall. They will be doing an acoustic performance to intentionally thwart the efforts of bootleggers he says, until the final electric versions are ready for release.

But his real reason to be here is not so much musical as to promote the opening of Club Tattoo in the mall; he is a co-owner in the tiny chain. As for the difference in playing in a hit-making band and owning a tattoo parlor, Bennington, notes that there isn't much. "In the beginning, being in a band was a lot less about business. It was about having fun, and trying to get enough money to pay for the rent for your rehearsal space. Nowadays, with Linkin Park being what it is, there is a lot of business going on. It is not much different than operating and owning a business like Club Tattoo. The one thing I don't have to do is the daily grind of operating and managing the shop. That is what my partners do. I am the lucky guy who gets to promote the shop and use my celebrity to raise awareness of Club Tattoo."

In addition to the concert Saturday night, during the day at Club Tattoo, Bennington and his band will be signing autographs from 2 to 4 p.m.

Photo:  Club Tattoo

By coincidence, there is an auction beginning today at Planet Hollywood including items that once belonged to Michael Jackson. According to the Las Vegas Sun:

"The 21 Jackson- and Jackson 5-related auction items, which include vintage photos of Jackson from the '70s, early concert posters and Jackson-worn costumes, are expected to be sold Friday between 2-5 p.m."

This will be the second Michael Jackson-related auction in Vegas in recent years. The last one in May 2007 (pictured) was at the Hard Rock and provoked, as with most things Jackson, a lawsuit,

The Sun also has the image I remember best of Jackson in Vegas. It was taken on  Nov. 20, 2003. It was a time of typical Jackson craziness. Jackson needed to be on his way back to California to face accusations of child molestation. Instead, Jackson spent two hours or so being driven seemingly randomly through Vegas streets in a black SUV. Following him were the media helicopters, police and fans in cars. Eventually Jackson arrived at Green Valley Ranch resort and casino, directly across the street from my home where I am  typing this now. The photo shows a pale spectral Jackson in the back seat of the SUV with a serene expression. Moments earlier he had been blowing kisses like all the world was a fan. In the photo, Jackson looks like he could be leaving a stadium concert undeterred by the chaos and stress of the car's other occupants, not to mention the nuttiness outside at the edges of the frame. But it was not a concert; it was a freak show. By morning Jackson was on his way back to California. (And there would be more scandal and court time spent over a surreptitious recording made during that plane trip.)

But while it seemed obvious that Jackson was no longer in any condition to be an entertainer, 2003 -- to me,  at least -- was not the end of Jackson's Vegas time; it was a beginning.

Tonight is media night for "Peepshow"'s new star Holly Madison. She started in the show this week. While "Peepshow" received solid reviews and strong buzz, stars Mel B and Kelly Monaco were on three-month contracts. To resolve this Mel B's replacement is a professional from Broadway, and Holly Madison was brought into replace Kelly Monaco. Unlike Monaco, Madison does appear topless. This has been the direction of the show anyway as it adjusts to the Vegas market.

By coincidence for another story, I  recently interviewed Scott Zeiger, whose company produces "Peepshow"  (as well as "Jersey Boys," "Phantom: Las Vegas Spectacular" and Wayne Brady's Venetian show) . Zeiger was excited about Madison and her celebrity-driving sales when I asked him about that. He argued that while Madison may lack the profile of Mel B, in many ways the nature of Madison's celebrity is a perfect match for the Las Vegas market in general as well as a match to "Peepshow," a frivolous romp fantastically choreographed and carefully conceived by Jerry Mitchell, in particular. But he also said his vision of the show includes a rotating star every three months to keep the show fresh. Based on my interview with her Wednesday, Madison is hoping to change his mind on that. I think she probably has a reasonable shot at doing so. I've seen a lot of shows in Vegas plan rotating stars to keep up media interest and to bring in new people, but almost without fail they eventually settle into one star. Why? Because the tourists from around the world are the ones in the audience, and so with the audiences already rotating (as new tourists arrive and the old ones leave), eventually shows discover the work required to rotate a star is pointless.

I was told that Madison would not discuss Criss Angel. They share a publicist, and the publicist chose to stay in the room for the interview. This is not unusual in Vegas. The publicist for "Peepshow" made the same choice, and both remained discreetly in the background during the interview.

I am going to post separately my discussion with Madison about working at Playboy. When we met she was dressed casually like she was ready to go to the gym and was relaxed during the interview:

Richard Abowitz: How have the first couple of performances been?

Holly Madison: Really fun. The first night I was nervous. But it was so much fun. The cast and crew are amazing,  I just feel very lucky to be part of this talented cast. They have been so nice and so welcoming.

Abowitz: Do you have a lot of experience in front of a live audience?

Madison: "Dancing with the Stars" has a live audience. But I was never really thinking about that. I was thinking about the 22 million people at home. So it was scarier. So this live audience I have a lot more fun with. We have a scene with audience interaction.  Absolutely, this ["Peepshow"] is a new thing. But  I've seen the show several times, and I have been given a lot of rehearsal time.

Abowitz: You play the shy Bo Peep. Is she anything like you?

Madison:  I think that character is me. Even in the beginning when she draws the heart on the shower, I used to do that all the time. Everything about the character is exactly like me.

Abowitz: Are you doing the identical part that Kelly Monaco performed or has the character been altered for you?

Madison: I am allowed to improvise a little bit and throw my own personality into it. But right now I do the same dance number Kelly did and the same parts. But what I would like to do is work myself into it more. There are other dance numbers I would like to be a part of. So maybe after this week, I'll start bombarding the creative team with my wishes.

Abowitz: What part of the show were you most worried about opening night?

Madison: The dance number at the end, because the costume is so skimpy and I did not want to slip and fall in my high heels. But I have gone through a few in front of an audience and I have done OK and so I am happy.

Abowitz: You said you were like your character in "Peepshow." She is very shy and you on television seem very outgoing?

Madison. This is how I am in my personal life. I am shy,

Abowitz: How different is a reality show from a personal life?

Madison: I think it is very different. It captures a part of who you are. But in my case especially you have to step yourself up a lot more.

Abowitz: What do you mean by "step yourself up"?

Madison: Exaggerate your personality, because you have to be a little more funny and little more crazy than you would be in real life. Because nobody wants to watch a show about someone sitting alone in a corner working on a computer.

Abowitz: Do you think it has given people a mistaken impression of who you are?

Madison: Yes and no. If you watched the show you have a good idea about my work at the magazine and my hobbies and the things I like to do. That can give you a window into what I am like. But people come at it with their own opinions too, and people see other things. Anything I do on "Girls Next Door" is meant to be fun, funny and entertaining.

Abowitz: So you think of it as more entertainment than documentary?

Madison: Absolutely in the case of that show.  I think what people love about "Girls Next Door" is that it is a bit of an escape like a sitcom and kind of like a guilty pleasure. It is just fun.

Abowitz: You have said you want to be known as Miss Las Vegas. Does that mean you have other plans for Vegas after your three months in the "Peepshow"?

Madison: I would love to stay in the show if they will have me. I have moved here. I am looking for a house. The deals are good. I am hoping to buy by the end of the year, and I am just looking for the right house. There is something different about Las Vegas. It is a small town in a big city, and I am in love with it.

Photo: John Ganun

Criss Angel is trekking to Edwards Air Force Base for a stunt that's just plain tacky.  If this is intended as a tribute to the troops, it falls short. He'll walk over improvised explosive devices for his TV show.  But unlike soldiers who face real danger from explosives, Angel knows where the devices are, and he has a trick to keep from being hurt.  Robin Leach spoke to Angel about this trick:

"I’m going to try and avoid literally being blown up by an IED," an icily calm Angel said of the improvised explosive devices. "This is a life-or-death situation. It’s more dangerous than anything I’ve ever performed." Criss will perform the stunt his mother doesn't want him to attempt at Edwards Air Force Base.

Of course, this narrative is familiar now for season openers of Angel's "Mindfreak" cable series: Last year, it was an exploding building that was the most dangerous stunt Angel had ever attempted. 

Leach says: "Criss will use his psychic powers to tread gingerly over not one or two levels of incendiary devices but seven levels of lethal, explosive mines." Hey, if he really can detect IEDs with his psychic powers, he'd be more useful in combat zones.  We'd take one for the team and give up "Believe" at Luxor if it were for the good of the country.

As a side note, Angel is being sued by a young illusionist who says he contributed illusions to both Angel's television show and  DVD releases. According to the Las Vegas Sun, Jacob Spinney claims in his lawsuit that Angel's company did not make the proper royalty payments and further deducted a "performance fee"  from what Spinney was paid,  presumably for Angel using Spinney's work. When I sought a response to the lawsuit, Angel and his camp declined to comment.

In a profile by John Katsilometes in Las Vegas Weekly, Holly Madison, who opened in "Peepshow" on Monday, reflects for the first time on her breakup with Angel. Here is an excerpt of her conversation with Katsilometes, beginning with Madison addressing the reason the camera-friendly relationship ended:

"I think it happened because some people don’t want to be happy, and they always look for problems, even if there aren’t any. Some people don’t want to be happy, so they pick away at something until they find problems."

I ask Madison who takes responsibility for the decision to end the relationship. She fires back quickly, "I should have. But it wasn’t me. I would have done anything to make it work. He’s the one with the problem, not me."

Madison goes on in the profile to qualify her praise of "Believe" as being a biased product of love. There goes that advertisement blurb. I am supposed to interview Madison on Wednesday but have been told in advance she will refuse to answer any questions about Angel. I guess the Who was right: It's the singer not the song.

Meanwhile, all these distractions for Criss Angel may help keep real problem from being noticed: Cirque is offering no time line for implementing "fixation" needed on "Believe" and won't supply any details about possible  improvements.  Of course, diversions are part of any illusion. Angel knows this best. Or, as Madison claims he told her in the Weekly profile:

He says, ‘I was getting bad reviews, but on the day of my premiere when we were walking down the red carpet together, that’s all people wanted to talk about.’ So, he admits that.

Photo: Sarah Gerke

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Angel's "Believe" at Luxor as part of the lawsuit instead of Angel's DVD releases. That error has been corrected.

I have confirmed the startling news that the Penthouse Club is changing its name to Crazy Horse III. In fact, the signs are already being altered (pictured). The new club even has its own Facebook page with the motto  "The Godfather of Gentleman's Clubs." This is amazing  because Crazy Horse Too was caught up in a federal investigation for racketeering that ultimately sent the club's owner and most of its top management to prison as part of a universal settlement of  the case. Among the allegations against Crazy Horse Too was that a tourist was beaten so badly over a bar tab that he is now paralyzed. Part of the money from selling the club was to have gone to the tourist, but somehow that never happened and the building now sits empty.

I am assured the Crazy Horse III has nothing in common with the owners of Crazy Horse Too. (Crazy Horse, the original, being the Parisian topless show at MGM Grand.) So, why use a name to create a squeal for a place with so many bad associations?

Well, here is one seeming connection, though apparently not at the ownership level.

The Crazy Horse clubs appear connected through the services of the controversial Vincent “Vinny” Faraci. Though Faraci retired as a shift manager at Crazy Horse Too in 2005, he left enough baggage behind that he went to prison as part of the Crazy Horse Too racketeering probe for failing to report to the IRS "tips" taken from strippers. (As a side note, because dancers were required to tip out shift managers, this was not a tip in the sense that it was optional or given for good service.)  Faraci also offers some name recognition for mob aficionados because his father is an alleged member of the Bonanno crime family, and, according to Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith, writing in 2004, law enforcement sources considered Faraci, already at the time a convicted felon, to be mob-connected as well. 

Last year, the publicly traded Rick's Cabaret backed off from hiring Faraci after local media and politicians began to wonder why they would want him. Why would any strip club, a cash-heavy business, want a man with such a checkered past? 

Though I have not been able to reach Faraci, I have confirmed with two sources, including one who does public relations for the club and was totally unaware of Faraci's rather colorful past, that Faraci is now working at Crazy Horse III. According to the PR rep, none of the employees at the club have official titles and so she was not clear what work Faraci was doing, exactly, but offered to get back to me. I am waiting on that.

In the meantime I spoke to a dancer who went back to the Crazy Horse Too days with Faraci and happened to be working at Penthouse Club when she recognized him. She told me he orders managers around and that he has been spending a lot of time at the club and finally, when pressed for his exact duties, she said, "It is as if he is watching the place for someone." Anyway, by picking the name Crazy Horse III, local authorities and media have certainly been alerted to be watching as well. Interesting.

Photo credit: Sarah Gerke

Who would guess that Paris Hilton knew a thing about being classy? She seems to think she does. And poor Hilton seems to be under the delusion that Las Vegas strives to be classy as well. Everyone who comes to Las Vegas for the classy experience, please raise your hand!

Then again, it is also possible that Paris Hilton is a brilliant satirist, this fully on display by offering this sentence to reporters while promoting the Dubai version of Hilton's television show:

“I respect the culture in Dubai — it’s much classier than Las Vegas."

Ah, to run through all the classy things Paris Hilton has done in Las Vegas over the years would wear my fingers out. There was the night I watched her walk into a wall at a nightclub. Oh, there is also the infamous night at another nightclub where she used a pot to .... Oh, there I go.

Anyway, part of Hilton's satirical genius in this quote, perhaps inadvertent, comes from the fact that these days Dubai actually owns a large chunk of Vegas, having bought stakes in Cirque, a nightclub and restaurant company (Light Group). Its biggest commitment of all is partnering with MGM-Mirage for the massive CityCenter development of hotels, condominiums, stores and casinos on the Strip.

If you are interested in some of the classy things Dubai does when not buying chunks of Vegas and wowing Paris Hilton, check out Amnesty International's site. One of Hilton's claims to fame, for example, would be eligible for capital punishment from the classy rulers (What? You thought this place had elected leaders?) of Dubai.

But this is really the key: Vegas has never striven to be classy. That is why the companies here don't think twice about doing business with places like Dubai or places overseen by the government of China. Las Vegas can create the illusion of class in a restaurant or within a hotel room for sure; class can definitely be rented or purchased here. But that is only an illusion. Las Vegas isn't at all about class; this city is about conspicuous and unnecessary consumption. That classless and class-free dedication to embarrassing and shameless excess is exactly why Paris Hilton has always been popular in Las Vegas. She totally lacks class, and Vegas embraces her for that. Doesn't she know? Hasn't anyone told her?

Photo: Paris Hilton in Vegas in September 2007. Credit: Sarah Gerke

Most people know the family-entertainment concept in Vegas failed long before I moved here a decade ago. Those who do not know that learn quickly. I don't know how I missed the news release on this one. But I did. So, I will just quote Mike Weatherford's column today:

"The single-named Scarlett does an about-face from a family-friendly afternoon act to a 10 p.m. show with topless dancers at the Riviera starting July 1. She trades her 'Princess of Magic' handle for the new billing of 'Scarlett and her Seductive Ladies of Magic.'"

Photo credit: Sarah Gerke

"Teller Speaks" must be the most overused headline for a Vegas entertainer. It seems some law of journalism that if you interview Teller that phrase must appear in bold type.

Teller is the half of Penn & Teller who does not speak on stage. For 35 years (the Rio wrap, pictured, is to celebrate their show-business anniversary),  Penn & Teller have worked that into their act in a variety of ways. On Teller's Wikipedia entry, you can see a list made of attempts to play off Teller's presumed silence by having him speak. On a late-night television show, goaded to speak, Teller put his hand over his mouth and supposedly swore, resulting in his voice being covered over by a bleep -- to give one example. The headline for that section of Teller's entry on Wikipedia: "Teller Speaks."

Penn & Teller have been so successful at working the illusion of Teller's silence into their act, many don't realize that Teller not only talks in his private life, but he also talks to people in his public life when off stage and screen. If you don't believe me, go see their show at the Rio, or if you don't want to spend money, just wait for the show to let out. Penn and Teller both stand in the lobby after each show and talk to anyone who comes up to them. Or, please, if you feel so inspired, read this story I wrote recently on Teller. The editor was nice enough not to title it "Teller Speaks."

Anyway, Penn's verbosity is well documented. He has more than 700,000 people following him on Twitter.  Penn's most recent tweet: "Changed all my settings so I'm writing from Iran. I don't know if it'll really confuse any bad guys, but maybe if we all do it."

Still, if you think about it, Teller is the natural for a medium that allows him to speak publicly without using his voice. Twitter seems invented for this purpose. Yet, until recently, I could not find Teller on any of the social-networking sites. That has changed, I have found and confirmed that there is the authentic Teller on Twitter. (The person using the identification "Teller" on Twitter seems to be a guy in Estonia.)

Teller so far has only done nine updates, and I am proud to be among his first five followers, beating even his partner Penn there.

Photo: Sarah Gerke