
Under the watchful eye of Secret Service agents, former President Bill Clinton spent a fun 24-hours in Las Vegas yesterday and, as he moved around town with more fan frenzy and appeal than a major Hollywood movie star, he proved he still has that presidential charisma.
First stop was the golf course at Southern Highlands, where the Secret Service sweated it out in their business suits while the politicos complained about their game and their shots!
It was a secret and surprise visit by the former resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, who was in town as a guest of Brian and Danny Greenspun, owners of Greenspun Media Group, which publishes a myriad of Vegas publications including Las Vegas Magazine where LUXE LIFE is a weekly feature.

President Clinton came to town to support his friend, Democratic Party honcho Terry McAuliffe, who is running his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign. Terry held a meet-and-greet autograph session for his new book about his political life in the Nation's Capital. I'd been invited to the cocktail reception and discovered the former Chief Executive happily signed copies and posed for photos with admirers at celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck's Spago in Caesars Palace Forum Shops. He even got to meet Vegas Pussycat Doll Laura Dianne (pictured below), who is a red carpet sports correspondent for Spike TV. 
Then it was a final dinner at RAO's, the newest of the Caesars Palace restaurants. The original New York Rao's is known as the toughest table reservation in the world, where even President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore had been turned down. Eventually one of the long-standing customers wound up forfeiting his own table to let Mr. Clinton eat there!! Ever since, Mr. Clinton has always been able to get a table and has become close friends with the Pellegrini family that owns the unique Italian restaurant. 
I was having dinner at RAO's with 'Tonight Show' regular John Melendez (pictured above). He and I have been good pals since his days on Howard Stern's radio show and when we both wound up in the Australian jungle fighting killer snakes and poisonous insects on the ABC's reality series, 'I'm A Celebrity -- Get Me Out of Here.' I've always wanted to say in a restaurant: "I'll have what he's having,"and so we told our waiter to bring us the identical meal that the 42nd President of the United States was enjoying! 
Appropriately, we were all dining in the RAO's "feasting room," because, indeed, it was a feast fit for a king: baked clams, fried calamari, antipastos, meatballs, pastas, veal chops, prime steaks and my favorite, the Pellegrini family's lemon chicken. Owner Frank Pellegrini brought his chef wife, Carla, (pictured above) out of the kitchen to meet the President who complimented them both on the fabulous food. 
The restaurant turned into an exciting buzz with President Clinton in the room and crowds started trying to get into the eatery from all over Caesars Palace, until Secret Service and security had to calm down the frenzy. (Pictured above: President Clinton with politico James Carville; pictured below: President Clinton with Tom Kaplan)
Then, with Clinton's and Secret Service permission, I took my friend John over to meet his hero for an official photo, but John's wife, Suzanne, was "too nervous" to meet him. Suzanne is producing the new 'Birdies Bachelorette Party,' which will open at the end of the month inside the new Polly Esther's nightclub facility at the Stratosphere Hotel. She's currently here casting for the show which still runs as a major hit in both New York and other American cities. 

It was 11PM when the Clinton party called it a night and the Secret Service, to avoid a restaurant mob scene, escorted him out of the restaurant through the Venus poolside bocce court. 
Unnoticed in all of the Clinton excitement at Caesars last night was another unique dinner of giants! Superstar chef Thomas Keller of Bouchon, PerSe and French Laundry fame, finally made it to the new gourmet Restaurant Guy Savoy. The French chef was in Paris but faxed over the detailed 16-course tasting menu and emailed specific preparation instructions personally for his son Franck Savoy to ensure the Vegas kitchen created it as if he was manning the stoves himself. And Keller's comment afterwards: "A masterpiece exactly as if Guy had been here."
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1. You think I'm impressed? I'm NOT impressed. Show me a politician or ex president who doesn't expect preferential treatment by snobish restraunts and other establishments and I might be impressed. If you ask me, all politicians are grossly over paid and over pampered, as are all celebrities.
Jeanie at 4:14PM on Mar 8th 2007