Columnist Kate Maddox: Rio says good Knight to band

Kate Maddox

Friday, June 30, 2000 | 8:57 a.m.

Kate Maddox's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at kmaddox@lasvegassun.com.

Funk band Boogie Knights is parting company with the Rio. The band, which has been a regular Wednesday night staple at Club Rio for four years -- that's a lifetime on the club scene -- will perform its last gig there Wednesday.

Fans need not panic, however. The band will shortly announce its next nightclub venture with C2K at the Venetian. With a new management team and big expansion plans, Boogie Knights is hoping to land a three-nights-a-week spot with the club and will initially play Thursday nights beginning mid-July.

In case you're wondering about Boogie Knights' standard Thursday night gig at Drink & Eat Too, that'll be kaput soon, too. In the meantime catch the '70s disco sensation this weekend when it hosts the "Fourth of July Weekend Bash" at the Star of the Desert Arena in Primm. On Monday, following a free fireworks show, Boogie Knights will share the bill with 4 NOW, that boy band we've all been hearing so much about.

The Rio isn't hurting for a new Wednesday night crowd-grabber now that Boogie Knights is going to boogie elsewhere. Club Rio plans to kick off Fantazmic Universe, a "futuristic, sci-fi spectacular," on July 19. A spokeswoman for the hotel says that keeping things new and different with the club is a priority and that the new Wednesday theme night plans are original and state of the art.

Funk will be a thing of the past as Club Rio brings in spaced-out go-go girls, a weekly futuristic costume contest (with the winner receiving $2,000), and a 3-D laser experience. Although there won't be a live band to spice things up, a la the Knights, DJs will spin techo/house/space music. Obviously it's been a while since I hit the club scene with Luke Skywalker and friends, but you get the point. It's the future, it's space, it's the final frontier, get out there and party.

That might not be the original wedding dress on the cover of the August issue of Playboy, but it is the original wedding ring. Darva Conger -- who, although badly bruised, appears to have survived the opening rounds of a severe press pummeling on her media tour -- sports the 3-carat rock loud and proud. (And is it me, or does it seem she's now sporting the ever-fashionable fatter lips/slimmer nose ensemble as well?)

The ring, which was designed by Las Vegas jeweler Michael E. Minden, will soon get its own 15 minutes of fame thanks to the former multimillionaire bride's second coming as Hef's latest bunny.

Conger, who said she nicknamed the solitaire sparkler "Ringzilla," intends to auction off the ring along with the Isuzu Trooper she won from Fox on an Internet auction, with profits going to charity, natch -- money is something she doesn't need these days. Rumor has it that Web auction houses are clamoring for the chance to pawn the ring and the rig -- now unfortunate icons of pop culture gone devastatingly awry. I hear buybidwin.com might come up as the lucky site. Conger and Co. were in talks with the website earlier this week.

Either way, with some press coming, Minden has announced plans for cubic zirconia replicas of the famed ring. For just $499 you too can get in on the fun.

Oscar De La Hoya partied the night away this week with his pretty actress wife and friends at Studio 54 at the MGM. The boxer, who recently suffered his second professional loss to "Sugar" Shane Mosley, danced alongside Tina Turner (aka "La Cage's" own Turner, Larry Edwards).