Columnist Kate Maddox: Ailing Lewis forced to back out

Kate Maddox

Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2001 | 8:37 a.m.

Kate Maddox's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 259-2309 or kmaddox@lasvegassun.com.

Comedian Jerry Lewis is trying to start the New Year off pain-free, even if it means cancelling his January shows at the Orleans. Lewis, who last week underwent back surgery, has had to bow out of his Jan. 24-27 dates in order to recuperate.

Lewis' manager, Claudia Stabile, says the comedian finally decided to have the operation after he threw his back out during a November show and had increasingly severe pain over the holidays. "He's been putting (the surgery) off for years and years," said Stabile. "But the good news is he called me (Sunday) and said that he's been walking without pain and is feeling great."

After years of performing physical comedy and pratfalls, the 74-year-old Lewis recently agreed with worried friends and family that he should attempt to correct his back trouble and get healthy. A notorious workaholic, Lewis reportedly hates having to cancel the January dates, but according to Stabile he's convinced he'll be "good as new ... make that better than new," when he returns to the Orleans Showroom for four nights starting March 22.

Lewis, a Las Vegas resident, signed a 20-year deal with the hotel back in August.

Not being able to see Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas is like not being able to score cold shrimp at the buffet. It just doesn't happen. Uh-uh, never.

But this weekend the boys missed five shows. Two on Friday, two Saturday and one Sunday. Friday's disappointed crowd (moi included, go figure) was handed the super-lame "technical difficulties" excuse and shuffled into a refund line.

So obviously, the major point of Monday's business was to get on the horn and see what happened to those loveable tiger tamers. (I, of course, had visions of a nasty catfight -- and not between the cats. What can I say? You know what I do for a living.)

As it turns out, Siegfried's got the flu. That's all. I guess he's had it for awhile, tried to work through it and relapsed in a bad way late last week.

Former UNLV basketball coach Bill Bayno has a new girlfriend. Bayno, who was fired in December, has been seen around town with Akashia, the one-name stunner who manages V Bar at the Venetian. Before breaking into the Vegas scene, Akashia ran haute New York nightspot, Lotus, which is owned by the V Bar crew. The couple apparently began dating before Bayno's recent troubles and were introduced by mutual friend and matchmaker Elaine Wynn.

Sahara sportsbook manager Andy DeLuca got lots of national exposure last week when he set odds for the second-season "Survivor" cast. After countless interviews and TV appearances, DeLuca was approached by the folks at Fox, who were interested in having the oddsman calculate the numbers for their newest the-Apocolypse-is-just-around-the-corner reality program, "Temptation Island."

The odds have been tallied and DeLuca was to meet with network honchos today. If they like what they see, they might run DeLuca's numbers each week at the start of the program.

And speaking of "Survivor" ... former Las Vegas girl and almost millionaire Kelly Wigglesworth checked in to chat about her current happenings. The hard-as-nails river guide said she recently broke up with her longtime boyfriend and she's just returned from Belize, where she was working on an adventure series for the E! Entertainment network.

As for the $100,000 she won on "Survivor," Wigglesworth claims she still hasn't touched it and that it's safely nestled away in investments.