How do we know where all those celebrities wind up going in Las Vegas? Publicists, actually, send out to media lots of e-mails like this one on the restaurant Stack at the Mirage. Publicists know the best way to get coverage in Las Vegas is to make it easy for us media to look on our toes while in reality allowing us to stay sitting on our ....

I only noticed this story because it includes a photo of Jessica Simpson taken in Las Vegas a couple months ago. But once I started reading it this quote from an interview with her publicist, Rob Shutter, sure stood out. Shutter tells the Associated Press:

"Simpson and her family have anonymously contributed funds to a smattering of Mexican orphanages for several years now."

Let's add one more word to the list that for Jessica Simpson requires a dictionary. Jessica, honey, anonymous is defined as a form of giving in which your publicist does not make an announcement.

(photo by HARAZ N. GHANBARI/AP)

The rumors have started again about the future of the planned $3 billion high rise condo/hotel being backed by among others actor George Clooney. Clooney reportedly invested $10 million of his own money in Las Ramblas. But according to the Review-Journal, the sales office for Las Ramblas is no longer taking reservations, and the paper goes on to note:

"Two sources in the high-rise condo industry said the 25 acre site...is under contract to be purchased by Edge Resorts Group, a partner in the W. Hotel being developed next to Las Ramblas."

But a spokesperson for Las Ramblas (woken up by the Buffet this morning, sorry) says that the sales office, in fact, is still selling condos and denies the R-J report. Since, the cheapest unit is around $500,000 I will not be bothering to go to the sales office on Convention Center Drive to find out the answer myself.

Recently, after I went there to see punk band GBH play an all ages show at an arcade, I wrote about the economic disaster downtown called Neonopolis. The expensive mall that was in part paid for by the tax payers was not meant for punk shows but to lure affluent tourists and young urban professionals downtown. The place seems cursed, and has caused nothing but bad will for almost everyone connected to it. The building of Neonopolis alone caused enough eminent domain issues to fill a month's worth of programing at Fox News. In fact, though Neonopolis opened in 2002 (two years late) the last of the eminent domain case settlements didn't happen until 2004 when the city cut a $4.5 million check to a family for the land that now holds The Fremont Street Experience's empty parking garage nearby. Many retail tenants fled long ago, the food court was a disaster; there have been management issues and even a controversy alleging discrimination in refusing to allow space to be leased to a gay club (yes, there was a settlement paid in that case, too). So, what to do with this big, expensive and empty monument to a happening future for downtown that never happened? The obvious answer, a casino, is out of the question. The downtown casino owners were among the main backers in pushing the project in the first place, and obviously their goal was to increase traffic to their tables and not to have Neonopolis as competition. So, one of Neonopolis' original limitations was that no gambling was allowed there at all. Of course, in the face of total failure that rule has already been bent a little for some slots. Last week there was another plan announced to replace some movie theatres with a studio for a television poker game show. But now it looks like a white knight has arrived to purchase the mall. According to the Review-Journal:

"Sources said local businessman Rohit Joshi sees promise in others' failure, and his group is willing to risk an undisclosed sum for the chance to turn things around. That vision does not depart from the project's current urban retail and entertainment concept."

Robin Leach on his blog has taken the time to compile every public sneeze of Mrs. And Mr. Britney's visit to Las Vegas last week. The interest in this Homeric epic of a catalogue of eating in expensive restaurants, partying at even more expensive nightclubs, and shopping at pricey stores has surprised even the world's foremost chronicler of the rich and famous:

I guess for most people it was still Saturday night but for me it was already Sunday morning at Pure where the birthday party for Fergie of the Black Eye Peas had yet to start at 1 AM. Apparently there was a flight issue delaying her arrival from Reno. I wanted to head home. The heroic Sarah Gerke volunteered to stay. The Buffet's regular photographer, Gerke, turns out to be a huge Black Eyed Peas fan so she offered to not only take the picture but to also give a rundown on what the scene was like inside Pure:

"There were quite a few people calling it a night and leaving Pure while I waited for Fergie to arrive. I saw comedian, Sinbad as he exited before any of us had caught a glimpse of the birthday girl. At about 1:30 I had a warning from a drunk woman leaving Pure who said, 'Trust me, no one's in there.' Based on the huge line she couldn't have been more wrong, but I knew Fergie wasn't in there, and that's really all that mattered. At exactly 1:49 am Fergie walked the red carpet with a few of her friends, but they weren't her fellow members of the Black Eyed Peas. She looked gorgeous as she posed for the press and waved to her fans that had gathered in the casino. Five minutes later all were inside, quickly whisked off to a private VIP area.

The crowd downstairs was wall to wall people trying to get close to Fergie and taking pictures with their cell phones. The only time I saw her inside was from the landing on the way upstairs; there you have a window view of the whole downstairs area of the club, including a view into the Pussycat Doll's lounge. It would be a great place to people watch, but security doesn't like people hanging out there so they make sure to keep the club goers moving. Since it was so crowded and stuffy downstairs I went up to the rooftop level where there was techno music, fresh air, a Strip view, and no sign that it was anything other than a typical club on a Saturday night. I knew not to expect to enjoy cake and ice cream for Fergie's birthday, but I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to see more Peas."

(photo by Sarah Gerke)

I was in Reno (my only trip ever to Northern Nevada) to profile the state's Attorney General when I first heard the name Sunset Thomas. Sunset had gone from modeling for NASCAR to Penthouse Pet to adult film star to brothel prostitute and, of course, Howard Stern regular. She was working at the Bunny Ranch and was also the girlfriend of the owner Dennis Hof. I had met Hof in LA at the Grammy Awards a few months earlier and he said if I was ever in the neighborhood....

I had spent the day with Nevada's top lawyer and so it was dusk by the time I pulled up to the Bunny Ranch. My excuse: I was considering pitching a story on the place and was hoping to get a tour and some background for my pitch letter to the editor. Hof turned out to be unbelievably sleazy. Here was my favorite moment:

Hof: "You get me in Rolling Stone I am going to pay you."

Me: "The magazine actually would take care of paying me."
Hof: "Good. I'll match whatever they give you."

Anyway, midway through our conversation he got a call from Sunset and to hear him go from pimp trash into baby talk with her made for a bizarre interlude.

Late last week, Kent Wallace, Hof's publicist, called to tell me that he and Sunset were now living in Las Vegas and asked me to meet them for drinks. Both had long ago parted with Hof. We met on Friday night at the Rainbow accross from the Hard Rock.

Sunset owns a seven bedroom house here. She is planning to stay in Vegas while she finishes her autobiography and works on various television projects. She is single though still wears a huge diamond ring and drives a sharp white Mercedes, both gifts from her last boyfriend, recently deceased. After  the jump is a short highlight of our conversation about her Vegas life.

I was having dinner last night with the marketing director of the "Fashionistas," Victoria Ribeiro (who I know from her time at "Splash" and before that working for promoter David Saxe), when she got a call  from a freelance publicist about the taping in a Las Vegas house for a spin-off of the "Surreal Life" shooting locally. The show, as I have reported earlier on the Buffet features Ron Jeremy, Vanilla Ice, Emmanuel Lewis, Brigitte Nielsen, Chyna Doll, Sandra "Pepa" Denton, C.C. DeVille and Traci Bingham. The narrator is Robin Leach. After Victoria was off the phone, however, I learned that two of the celebrities have already been eliminated. 

A regular theme on the Buffet is the great lengths this city will go to in order to get publicity, most obvious when it comes to catering to celebrities. Of course, the mix of television and celebrity is irresistible. But I usually see the results only and never the process. The freelance publicist had promised to deliver the celebrities along with the all important cameras trailing them to the Fashionistas that night for a show beginning in a few hours. So, before ordering Victoria worked the phone and thumbs - alerting box office people, cast members, support staff as well as coordinating with the publicist who brought her the project (and, who now was getting paid to promote it). It was a twenty minute flurry of activity that probably pulled almost a dozen people into the whirlwind. Then another call came. The television show had decided to give the cast the night off. And, it was over. All for nothing. 

Once before I saw something similar when LeAnn Rimes said she might want to go to Studio 54 at the MGM after a concert. She was not yet 21 back then, and to accommodate her the MGM turned its entire VIP section at Studio 54 into an all ages area (probably giving up a small fortune in alcohol sales). Rimes never showed. I ran into her later that night and the desire to go had just been a passing whim.

Apparently, this is common. Talking to people around town it seems the ratio is roughly four or five fire drills like this take place for each event that actually goes off with the celebrities showing up.

The Review-Journal is reporting that the grand jury indictments of former fitness champs Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan in the murder of their assistant Melissa James will be unsealed this morning. Glenn Puit writes:

"The indictment is expected to be unsealed today because it is the last day to unseal indictments before the pair's scheduled  preliminary hearing next week in Las Vegas Justice Court."