Tuesday, March 7, 2000 | 8:59 a.m.
Kate Maddox's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, only in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach her at [email protected].
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali will be in Las Vegas this week to announce details of a new movie about his extraordinary life and career.
Ali is scheduled to make the announcement on Wednesday at the ShoWest convention. Will Smith is set to star as the boxer in the bio-pic, which will be helmed by Oscar-nominated director Michael Mann. Mann's last picture was the critically acclaimed "The Insider."
Smith, whose last big-budget film "Wild Wild West" flopped at the box office, fought hard for this new role and is said to be brushing up on his Ali history. Shooting on the film is scheduled to begin this summer.
The president and CEO of Diamond Resorts International, which counts the Polo Towers and the Jockey Club among its properties, was a last-minute guest at a recent White House state dinner.
Stephen Cloobeck, who has been actively involved with the Democratic party for several years and who recently contemplated a run for the Senate, was in Washington, D.C. the week before last and bumped into President Clinton while at the Four Seasons Hotel. And "bumping into" the commander-in-chief is no small feat, what with the Secret Service and all. But Clinton, who has been friendly with Cloobeck since the early days of his first presidential bid, spotted his pal and went over to greet him with a hearty hello.
After some small talk and a reprieve from the Secret Service guys, Cloobeck was about to go on his way when Clinton asked what his plans were for the following evening, mentioning something about a party at the White House.
Turns out the president was inviting him to one of the rare, white-tie state dinners held in honor of visiting royalty -- in this case, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain. Cloobeck got details from the White House's social secretary and the next day flew in his wife, Chantal, from Vegas. The two spent the evening chez Clinton dining with the likes of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, Diane Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, artist Dale Chihuly, Barbara Walters, designer Oscar de la Renta and dozens of other celebrities, royalty and politicians.
And speaking of Whoopi Goldberg, the movie/TV star was caught goofing around on tape on last week's "Bloopers" show on ABC. It seems that Goldberg, who was doing promotional spots for "Hollywood Squares," which she produces and stars in, would burst out laughing each time she tried to say the name of one of Vegas' newscasters. The spots were being done for the shows' local affiliates.
Goldberg couldn't keep a straight face whenever she attempted to utter the name Rikki Cheese. The commercial spot was only a few seconds long and relatively simple, but it took the hysterical actress more than five takes to complete. Cheese, who was formerly the co-anchor of the evening news on KVBC Channel 3, was let go in December.
Hoping to ride out the success of "Livin' La Vida Loca" to its very last breath, Latin pop star Ricky Martin will be coming back to Las Vegas one more time. Martin passed through town in November for two sold-out shows at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and that's where he'll be again for one night only on July 22.
It sounds like Darva Conger wasn't such a big fan of the ring created especially for her by local jeweler Michael E. Minden. In this week's People magazine, the "Multimillionaire" bride, who has filed the paperwork for an annulment, says: "I was wearing that ring, looking at it and going, 'You've got to be kidding.' It was this huge ring that I would never wear. I call it Ringzilla." For the record, the hand-crafted three-carat diamond ring was chosen by Rick Rockwell, purchased by the Fox network and presented to Conger.
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