Vegas Popular

Wow! The emails are in avalanche mode. I'm blown away by the reaction to our world exclusive interview with Michael Jackson yesterday. The phone has rung nonstop ever since and everybody wants to know about Michael.

But buried in the communiques were several questions about how you can book a rock star to make a personal appearance at your local hangout. In fact, after I wrote about music queens Bette Midler and Christina Aguilera appearing at my friend Joe Hardy's 84th birthday party, I've been asked if stars are "for sale."

The answer is a resounding YES, if you've got the super-sized megabucks! Ironically, the all-time record price, paid for his own 60th birthday, belongs to Texas mogul David Bonderman who shelled out $10 million to have comedy giant Robin Williams join the Rolling Stones and John Mellencamp in a private show at The Joint in the Hard Rock here. He must have loved Vegas, because last month the co-founder of the Texas Pacific Group private investment bank successfully bid nearly $20 billion to buy the Harrah's gaming empire.

I don't know what Joe's birthday bash cost, but it was the ultimate 'rich and famous' party, and at the wedding of Russian businessman Andrei Melnichenko, allegedly paid Aguilera $1.5 million for her to sing at his supper. There was an even bigger galaxy of stars at Elizabeth Brook's bat mitzvah atop the Rockefeller Center's Rainbow Room with 50 Cent, Aerosmith, Stevie Nicks, Ciara and Tom Petty, which rang up another $10 million bill.

British pop star George Michael allegedly charged $3 million an hour to sing in Moscow for a Russian mining magnate and fellow Brit Sir Elton John is known to get $1 million+ for a brief, 90-minute private gig! Sammy Hagar put on his full hour show of lights and pyrotechnics for just 70g uests of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban at the empty arena in Dallas because of the "large sum of money and Cuban's plane to fly them back and forth." Jimmy Buffet earned $250,000 to sing at a $2 million birthday party in Sardinia and Joe Cocker performed at a mountaintop wedding in Aspen, Even the Eagles, Bob Dylan, the Foo Fighters and the Black Eyed Peas did the "rent-a-star" game, entertaining employees at the 30th anniversary of Genetech in San Francisco. I'm reliably told that, with more and more tycoons shelling out millions to impress friends, the business of renting stars is booming and in many cases its way more than they'll earn for a concert tour date.

ANOTHER ACE FOR AGASSI

They've both served up winners on tennis courts around the world and now it looks as if hometown heroes Andre Agassi and his wife, Stefi Graf, have another big winner on their hands. This is far more than a racquet! They've joined forces to create a love-set-match line of quality, distinctive furnishings, and the story goes all the way back to 1992, when Andre won his first major tournament at Wimbledon. Returning home he bought an expensive Kreiss sofa to celebrate! Ever since, they've both been big Kreiss fans. The Kreiss family asked them to partner and create their very own line and the result is a unique collection that captures their energy, spirit and definitions of grace and style.


The sports couple launched their collection with a private reception opening the Kreiss showrooms on the day after the brand new World Market Center premiered downtown. Michael Kreiss commented: "It's a wonderful union of contrast, texture and comfort. Each piece of theirs incorporates exotic finishes, clean design and distinctive combinations of materials. Taken as a whole it exhibits freshness, youth and classic stylings that are synonymous with these two icons." There's a block-shaped coffee table with pull-out trays as a surprise, that Andre created, and the dark woven leather frame combined with off-white chenille cushions is an elegant and relaxed 2007 spin on that original sofa he bought all those years ago. After all the hoopla, the sporting couple took off just by themselves for their own private celebration dinner at the new Vintner Grill restaurant in their neighborhood.

HIGH DOLLAR HEADACHES

Boy-band mogul, Lou Pearlman, who masterminded the Chippendales male-revue (seen above) at the Rio, is battling more than $130 million in lawsuits related to his empire of restaurants, record labels, airline leasing and balloon-blimp advertising displays. I first met Pearlman when he was launching the pop groups *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. The Chippendales subsidiary runs the male-dancer shows, highly popular with bachelorette parties around the globe. Last weekend his hometown newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel, even reported that the staggering $130 million figure doesn't even include the $33 million that judges have recently ordered him to pay on other previous lawsuits The latest suit, filed just days ago by Bank of America, alleges he has defaulted on business and personal loans worth more than $17 million. A week earlier the same bank filed a mortgage-foreclosure suit seeking more than $25 million for possession of his Church Street Station entertainment complex in downtown Orlando.

MARILYN: FOREVER BLONDE

Gorgeous Sunny Thompson, who starred in several topless shows at the Rio in recent years, turns up in her own new one woman play based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. It will world premiere at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood on February 22. The musical is a meticulously researched evening of the screen goddess' inner most feelings culled from her actual words in hundreds of interviews and personal conversations. The Marilyn Monroe Story In Her Own Words and Music features 18 songs from the blonde bombshell's legendary movie career including Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs To Daddy," Irving Berlin's "You'd Be Surprised," Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen's "That Old Black Magic" and Jule Styne's "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend." Sunny tells me her play takes place at what might have been the star's final photo shoot. "Between poses for the camera, Marilyn reminisces over a lifetime of mercurial success and the desperation of lost loves, misunderstandings and the curse of living in the shadow of a "bigger than life" image from which she could not escape," said Sunny. In these first-seen Luxe Life photos you have to agree the resemblance between Sunny and Marilyn is remarkably uncanny, and slightly unnerving! Sunny has already filmed the play and is currently being edited for release later this year. In April, Sunny will take it for a two month run (April 28-June 24) at the Dayton Art Institutes 500-seat theater in Ohio, alongside the Marilyn Monroe art exhibit "Life as a Legend."


DEBUT RECORDING
Longtime local singer and former Miss Nevada, Sandy Kastel is putting the finishing touches on her debut album to be released at the end of this month, saluting the legends of song who made Vegas great: Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Wayne Newton, Peggy Lee and Celine Dion. In fact, it was her songs 'Maybe This Time' and 'My man' that won the talent awards of the Miss America Pageant back in Atlantic City several years ago. Sandy, who helped prepare this year's Miss Nevada, Caydi Cole for her judge's interviews, is one of the boosters of the Miss America Organization's new scholarship fundraising effort, and was at both the Danny Gans entertainment gala for the Childrens Miracle Network and the televised pageant itself. Sandy's dad was a saxophonist playing for the Vegas shows of Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine and Juliet Prowse. She starred in the long-running show "Pinups At The Movies" and coming full circle she performed in her own show at the Blue Note Club, which was at the Aladdin, which is becoming the Planet Hollywood resort, where the Miss America Pageant was held.

CHOCOLATE KING
Top chocolatier and chef Francois Payard has signed with Caesars Palace to open a branch of his famed New York City patisserie alongside the newly-opened Rao's restaurant this summer. He plans to recreate his whimsical, bubbly upscale classic Paris Left Bank, Manhattan East Side pastry shop with three different areas for his unique cuisines; a specialty goods station with his famous chocolates and candies, a counter service panini bar from breakfast to late-night and then a traditional restaurant dining room. Caesars Palace president Gary Selesner says: "Francois Payard is widely recognized among the world's great culinary talents and is arguably the best-known pastry chef in the world."

STRIP SCRIBBLES

'Scream' and 'Scooby Doo' actor Matthew Lillard (above) is so into executive chef Brian Massie's food at Stack in the Mirage, that he even went into the kitchen to work on the 'hot line' preparing his own "Hot Rock's" dish before winding the night up next door at the JET Nightclub. ... My Too Hot Tamale chef friends at Border Grill in Mandalay Bay were told that it was Jessica Simpson dining here with her mom, Tina, on a quick break from her Florida travels with new boyfriend, singer John Mayer. Jessica zipped right back after giving her mother the intimate inside info the new lovejob and you can expect to see the cuddled-up couple at next Sunday's Grammy Awards. ... My favorite Hawaiian chef, Roy Yamaguchi (right), who has two of his 34 worldwide restaurants right here in Vegas, was picked as the final judge for Bravo's 'Top Chef,' shot in Honolulu. Ilan Hall of Great Neck, NY grabbed the 1st prize of $100,000 to launch his own restaurant. Roy ordered all the TV's in his 25 American mainland restaurants tuned into the show! Chef Tom Colicchio, who has a restaurant at MGM Grand, was one of the other judges for the run of the hit show.

TONIGHT'S TIP
It's the largest sake tasting in Nevada history when Shibuya at MGM Grand presents more than 100 of the Japanese grades. John Gauntner will explain the culture, history and brewing of the popular beverage. My suggestion is go to the incredible restaurant first for an extraordinary and amazing dinner and then stick around for the 10:30PM first sip and somehow pray you last until the 1:30AM final tasting!

TOMORROW'S TEASE
The tantalizing temptresses who make up the gorgeous X Girls are back, with a brand new erotic burlesque show at the Flamingo and Luxe Life has the first photos of the stripped-down beauties. Plus, we'll check in with hero-hunk David Hasselhoff as he prepares for the final 24-hours before "curtain up" on the VIP Vegas red carpet gala premiere of 'The Producers' at the Paris.

Add Luxe Life to your main page via RSS feed by clicking on an appropriate button below or add the URL manually to your favorite RSS reader.

ADD URL Manually: http://www.vegaspopular.com/category/luxe-life/rss.xml