Meet New Las Vegas Resident Sunset Thomas

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.