Columnist John Katsilometes: Just another day on the job

Sunday, Aug. 8, 1999 | 9:40 a.m.

John Katsilometes' column appears Tuesdays and Sundays. Reach him at 259-2327 or kats@vegas.com

Entry into the Urban Scrawl daily journal for Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999.

Dear Diary,

In any city in the world, today would have been considered strange. But not here. Let me tell you about it.

I headed out to a news conference this afternoon announcing Danny Gans' move from the Rio to the Mirage. On hand were about a hundred people, many of whom were various entourage fillers who always show up at entertainment-related functions only to munch on free food such as brazed shrimp on a Ritz and crab-and-Spam quiche.

I checked in, got frisked (optional) and overheard a conversation involving one pretty woman and three very pretty men. It was Elaine Win (Wynn, whatever), her husband Steve (who, my keen sense of smell tells me, favors Hermes Eau d' Orange Verte), and famed animal trainers Roy and Siegfried (they hate it when you turn their names around bass-ackwards).

They all were there to welcome Gans to the Mirage entertainment "family," which I guess means that Gans, his wife and three kids will be required to attend Mirage family functions such as Thanksgiving with "Mystere" and the annual "O" Easter egg hunt and pool party at Sunset Park.

Congrats, Dan.

Steve seized the microphone and spoke first. Actually, he spoke last and pretty much filled the middle, too. He went on and on, talking about how he essentially invented the concept of providing entertainment at hotel casinos and claiming that entertainment -- not gaming -- was responsible for Las Vegas' unimpeded economic growth. I'm sure that means Wynn is planning to pull all table games and video poker machines out of Bellagio and replace them with a huge dance floor where people will boogie to the timeless tunes of my man George Bugatti.

Up next, looking very much like he was there because Steve Wynn wanted him there, was Siegfried (the blond one). He welcomed Gans aboard and then advised Gans -- reportedly making about $10 million a year in an eight-year guaranteed contract -- "Now it's time to renegotiate" and didn't seem to be kidding. Then Gans took the microphone and uncorked a wicked impersonation of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Roy and Siegfried ("I'm going to disappear but I'LL BE BACK"). Good stuff, well worth the $70-$80 Gans will probably be charging for top-priced tickets to his Mirage show beginning April 1.

After the Gans conference I went to the Clark County Commission meeting, an ordinary day that featured the following: Robert De Niro requesting a liquor license for his new restaurant at the Hard Rock Hotel, BET founder Robert L. Johnson receiving permission to open the first restaurant owned by a black person in a major Las Vegas resort (Paris), and a sad scene where Delmonico owner Emeril Lagasse explained the infamous Robin Leach Floozygate fiasco in which the talentless TV host's female guests allegedly smeared dessert over their naked bodies.

("I just ordered the trollop a la mode and I DON'T KNOW WHY!")

Lagasse got a slap (on the wrist) and De Niro secured his license from the blushing Commission. Later, De Niro phoned Las Vegas 1 television reporter Anne Yeager and invited her to dinner (whether she accepted or not, I'm not saying).

That's about it, Diary. Pretty eventful, no? But all in a day's work.