I caught up on the phone with radio personality and comedian Artie Lange over the weekend. I've written so much about Lange, people in Vegas now get in touch with me hoping to get messages to him. This makes me call him and we talk and I write more. If it keeps going like this I am a little concerned that I am going to become Boswell (Ninth Laird of Auchinleck) for a dude who doesn't even know who Samuel Johnson is. I don't want that job. My expertise is not what it should be when it comes to Artie Lange. I still haven't seen Lange's standup comedy or his movies or heard the Stern show since he joined it. But if what Lange told me pans out, that will change.

Lange said he is currently negotiating to appear early next year at a new venue at the Palms to perform standup. Lange says the ink isn't dry on this deal and even the exact dates aren't yet clear. But, according to Lange, "My intention is to do this. I think it will all come together. I want to get out to Vegas again."

As we spoke, Lange was in good spirits as anyone who just sold out Carnegie Hall (according to Lange, in under three hours) would be. But what is most interesting is that Lange told me the standup deal at the Palms, if it happens, would be produced by Jeff Beacher. Beacher, of course, was the headliner at Palms rival Hard Rock Hotel. But the sale of the Hard Rock to a corporate owner (Morgans Hotel Group), as noted earlier on the Buffet, meant that Beacher's Madhouse needs a new home.

Not that Beacher hasn't been busy. Beacher will be opening a new bar (Beacher's Rockhouse) on Aug. 29 at Imperial Palace. But Beacher has yet to announce where (if anywhere) he plans to put the Madhouse. The Palms is a logical fit. Also, according to Lange, the Palms is finishing construction on a new theatre with about 3,000 seats and that would be a perfect fit for Beacher's Madhouse. We will see. Meanwhile I can't help but note that while Dr. Johnson lived a long, productive life, poor Boswell wound up ravaged by alcoholism and venereal disease.