Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Notes! Celine’s economic impact ‘coincidental,’ Gottfried quacks up, Shenandoah welcomes a wallaby

3/15/11: Celine Dion's Post-Show News Conference

Erik Kabik/Retna/ErikKabik.com

Celine Dion’s post-show news conference at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on March 15, 2011.

I’ve got the notes on a string, sittin’ on a rainbow …

• Celine Dion’s news conference after her opening show at the Colosseum at Caesars on Tuesday was unique in that it was a bilingual exercise, with Dion taking questions from English- and French-speaking media. Actually, it was tri-lingual if you count the Hispanic media types, who nonetheless asked question in English about Hispanic issues such as violence perpetrated by drug cartels in Mexico.

3/15/11: Celine Dion's Post-Show News Conference

Celine Dion's post-show news conference at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on March 15, 2011. Launch slideshow »
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Singer Celine Dion listens to a question from a reporter after her opening-night performance at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on March 15, 2011.

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Gilbert Gottfried.

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Casa de Shenandoah's newest resident, a baby wallaby.

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Emmanuelle Chriqui and Kevin Connolly at the Vegas magazine Spring Fashion Issue party at Mandarin Bar at Mandarin Oriental on March 12, 2011.

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Jonathan Clark, an impressionist seeking a Las Vegas home.

That had little to do with why Dion is back in Vegas, but does speak to her global appeal (she is on the record as being steadfastly anti-violence).

Dion was to take a single question from each media rep. No multi-part queries were allowed, and no follow-ups were entertained.

That knocked out my planned question, which was to be, “Celine, can I ask a follow-up question?”

I did ask Dion how it felt to have her return to the city viewed as a sort of financial indicator to track the city’s economic recovery. The economic downturn about started when Dion ended her previous run at Caesars in December 2007.

We were reminded quickly that Dion views herself an entertainer, not an indicator.

“My God, I feel like I’m going to start talking politics,” she said with a slight laugh. “You know, I don’t want to put myself under that much pressure. I mean, if I am a positive thing for the hotel, my job is done. As a performer, they have given me the opportunity to bring the best of myself with my team, and I am very appreciative of that. I think the economic crisis -- everybody suffers from it, Las Vegas for sure, but it is felt around the world, as well.”

Dion said she would not read too much into her show as a measure of recession and recovery.

“It was kind of a coincidence that the timing of when we ended the show (in late 2007), then everything crashed, and it was bad for everybody,” she said. “I think it will come back. If they want to associate our coming back with that happening, they can. I personally don’t think that it has anything to do with it. It’s a coincidence, but as I said, if they think it’s a positive thing to have me here, then it makes my job even easier. It makes me happy, really happy.”

And as long as she keeps belting out that show-opening version of “Open Arms,” we’re happy, too.

• Gilbert Gottfried’s tweets have cost him his quack.

It was reported this week that Gottfried, who last month ended a four-week run in the “Icons of Comedy” series at Las Vegas Hilton’s Shimmer Cabaret, has been fired as the voice of the duck in the Aflac commercials. Gottfried had been sending out jokes about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

That’s just … ducky.

It wouldn’t be the first time Gottfried crossed the boundaries of good taste. In 2001, during a Friar’s Club roast of Hugh Hefner just three weeks after the 9/11 attacks, he joked, ‘I have to leave early tonight, I have to fly out to L.A. I couldn’t get a direct flight, I have to make a stop at the Empire State Building.” He swiftly told the joke famous among comics, “The Aristocrats,” and saved his appearance. (In what is proving to be something of a time capsule episode of "Kats With the Dish" featuring the since-split Alicia Jacobs and Vince Neil and Gottfried as guests, the comic recounts that memorable appearance.

Gottfried was not so fortunate after his tweets offended Aflac executives. The chief problem? The company does 70 percent of its business in Japan. A quarter of that country’s population is insured by the fowl-affiliated company.

At the moment, Gottfried is not booked to return to the Shimmer Cabaret (he was not on the schedule even before the sacking by Aflac). He does have a book planned for release.

• During Saturday night’s party for the spring issue of sister pub Vegas magazine, cover model Emmanuelle Chriqui spoke of how sad she was that "Entourage" is ending. But Kevin Connolly interceded that there might be life left in the franchise, in the form of a movie. Connolly would know, as he’s also an “Entourage” cast member.

I have heard that this was one of the best Vegas magazine parties in a long time. I heard this because I could not attend, and the quality of the party and my lack of participation have to be coincidental events.

• Congratulations and, I think, cigars are in order for the Wayne Newton family (which includes my dear friend and radio co-host Tricia “Megan” McCrone) on the new addition to their family: a baby wallaby, born Wednesday afternoon. Take a look at little Johnny Kats, the name I am using until a formal name is chosen …

• Quick notes from Big League Weekend at Cashman Field last Saturday, where the Reds beat the Cubs 9-8 in a split-squad affair on a beautiful Vegas afternoon: The Cubs’ Starlin Castro hit two home runs. Castro was born in 1990, the year the Reds swept the A’s in the World Series. Yes, 1990. Not feelin’ any younger after this ballgame. Neither is Mayor Oscar Goodman, who must feel a bit melancholy about hitting a Major League spring training game at Cashman after falling short of bringing a true big-league facility to Las Vegas.

Goodman said he was so nervous about throwing the first pitch that he didn’t sleep Friday night. He could have used the rest: In a repeat of last year’s attempt, he bounced the first pitch in front of home plate.

• One of the more accomplished impressionists in Las Vegas is not actually performing in Las Vegas. Jonathan Clark, a popular showman in his native England and on the cruise ship circuit, has been attempting to find a room in Vegas. In which to perform, I mean.

But Clark, who has headlined in Blackpool (referred by some Brits, but not Clark, as the Las Vegas of England), and on the Royal Caribbean cruise line, is curtailed because he is applying for a work visa to perform in the United States. He was permitted one show, an invitation-only performance at the Mirage in January, which drew 1,000 curious guests.

But he’s lacking the proper documentation to make a full-time run at Vegas.

“My management is working on that right now,” Clark said in a recent phone interview. “The snag is that you have to apply, and (Immigration Department officials) make sure you show a number of certain things before you can have the visa. I’m still getting my case together.” When asked for other non-entertaining criteria he needs to meet, Clark said, “Well, I’m not a criminal. That helps.”

Clark has been working with Danny Gans’ longtime music director, Tim Manfredi, on his stage act. He says he needs to prove he is a viable entertainment commodity before he’s approved to work in the States. His act features impressions of Sting, Elvis (Presley and Costello), Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, John Mayer, Johnny Cash and Ozzy Osbourne.

“It’s a huge ambition of mine to work in Las Vegas,” he says. “I know a lot of people say that, but I really, really love it. I’d like to think it’s achievable.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats With the Dish at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.

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